MIDDLE CLASS HEALTH BENEFITS TAX REPEAL ACT OF 2019--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mrs. HYDE-SMITH. Mr. President, as we continue to navigate this unprecedented position we find ourselves in because of this extremely contagious virus, I want to bring one issue to the attention of all of my colleagues.

Anyone who has been on social media has seen the empty shelves in the grocery stores throughout the country. The last shortage we need right now is with our American farmers. We are going to be able to feed this country but only if we keep the farmers in business. With virtually every restaurant in this country now being on shutdown, we have never found ourselves here. They are not ordering the food they normally order because they are on shutdown. We are here, in the city of Washington, DC, and have every restaurant closed except for a few for takeout, which is one market our farmers have just lost with our being in the position that we are in. We don't need to be. We have to make sure our food production continues.

As the former agriculture commissioner of the wonderful State of Mississippi, I can speak to this firsthand. When this market slows down, it doesn't move the needle a little bit; it moves the needle a lot. The emergency supplemental appropriations portion--division B of the phase 3 coronavirus legislation--provides that critical support for American farmers and ranchers who are truly being impacted by this virus. It is an important provision that the Democrats seem to oppose but that is just a no-brainer for me.

Firstly, it reimburses the USDA's CCC that we have referred to, which is the Commodity Credit Corporation, in order to prevent any delays in program funding that is vital to U.S. agriculture.

The second thing it does is to temporarily raise the CCC's borrowing authority to ensure that the USDA has the resources it needs to assist producers during this COVID-19 emergency. This is just basic economics.

People come to the floor, and they talk about all of these programs that we need to be increasing right now. The Democrats want billions for domestic food programs, but what happens when those who are supplying our food go out of business? This is a $1 trillion-plus package, and as the dear Senator from Nebraska stated, we cannot leave our farmers and ranchers out--the backbone of rural America.

I look at the Democrats' bill, and they are calling for the workers first. There is nobody working any harder right now to feed this country or to feed those medical workers who are being pushed beyond restraints to which they should never have to be pushed but who are willing to step up because they are within the medical community that is willing to take care of these patients. Every small business has employees, and they are going to have to be fed. We have to ensure that we continue to have the safest food supply--and cheapest, I might add-- of anywhere in the entire world.

I appreciate the work of Chairman Hoeven and others of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture for including this in this bill--this provision that is very vital. It has to remain in there.

I just want to stress the importance of making sure the farmers and ranchers can continue to do what they were born to do, including those wonderful farmers and ranchers in the State of Mississippi and throughout this country, and that is to produce our ag products in order to make sure this country will continue to sustain itself.

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