FARM POLICY THAT WORKS -- (Senate - November 14, 2001)
 

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   Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. President, I joined my colleague from Arkansas, Senator HUTCHINSON, to introduce a bill of the utmost importance to our farmers.

   Since the passage of the Freedom to Farm bill in 1996, our farmers have toiled under clouds of uncertainty. Quite simply stated, our Nation needs a farm policy that works for working farmers.

   That is why I and Senator HUTCHINSON, along with Senator HELMS of North Carolina, Senator MILLER of Georgia, and Senators BREAUX and LANDRIEU of Louisiana, are proud to offer a new alternative.

   We offer a farm bill that will ensure a strong safety net for America's farmers and ranchers.

   We offer a farm bill that will increase investment in conservation programs by 80 percent.

   We offer a farm bill that provides more effective support for disadvantaged working families through nutrition programs.

   We offer a farm bill that will increase and improve our Nation's agricultural trade programs, such as the Food Aid program that sends food to the neediest nations.

   We offer a farm bill that will preserve and protect our Nation's forests and environment while investing in rural America.

   For too many years, while the American economy at large was posting astonishing and unprecedented gains, our agricultural producers have not benefited from our prosperity.

   It is not only our farmers who are suffering as a result of failed government policy. The institutions of small-town and rural America local banks and merchants, feed and supply stores, equipment dealers, even corner groceries and family-owned hardware stores are all caught in the web of financial collapse.

   Here is a letter I received from a young farmer in northeast Arkansas just a few months ago. He says that his family's farm is nearing ``a point of no return,'' and that if the crisis continues, he will have to leave the land that his grandfather worked.

   Here is a letter from a bank president in southeast Arkansas, who notes that when he moved to his community in 1969, a new John Deere combine sold for about $15,000. Today, a comparable model sells for $220,000. Fuel for that combine cost 15 cents per gallon in 1969, he writes; today, a gallon of diesel fuel costs $1.05. He goes on to note that while a farmer could expect to receive $3 for a bushel of rice 32 years ago, today he only gets $2.7 for the same bushel. The costs skyrocket, but the returns on these investments continue to fall.

   Here is a letter from a young woman in east Arkansas who works a 600-acre rice and soybean farm with her husband and child. Her husband is so depressed that he needs counseling and 

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medication. She can't let her child participate in after-school sports because of the additional costs entailed. She writes that where she and her family once felt pride in their sense of independence and self-sufficiency, today they feel only shame at having to rely on loans and supplemental income payments to get by.

   These stories are not unusual. In many rural areas, they are becoming the norm. We cannot afford to let our farmers continue suffering like this. They can't wait another year for us to pass a farm bill. Their problems are here today.

   Our bill will address their problems. Our bill will restore to them a better economic future. Our bill will restore to them their hope, so that they can build a better future for their children.

   I am proud to be a coauthor of this bill, and I am proud to say that I will take my stand to fight for its passage.

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