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Floor Speech

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Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I come from a State not exactly like yours, but we share the fact that we provide the energy, the fiber, and the food for this country and much of the world.

There is a crisis that is with us, and that crisis is growing, and the consequences are dire.

I was in my State of Kansas, as many of my colleagues were at home during the month of August. I traveled the State from corner to corner, putting 5,600 miles on my truck. I talked to lots of people, and I listened to even more.

In addition to those conversations, last week, farm groups, commodity groups, and farm organizations made a call on Washington, DC, to highlight what I am highlighting today. Included in those visits were those who sell farm equipment in Kansas and across the country.

Yesterday morning, before coming to Washington, DC, I spoke to an agricultural outlook conference in Kansas City. Today, I just walked across the street from visiting with bankers from the Kansas Bankers Association who are in the Nation's Capital as well today.

The message I bring to my colleagues is that agriculture is in serious condition. Input costs have risen dramatically. The things that farmers buy in order to put a crop in the ground and to harvest that crop have escalated amazingly in a way that is so damaging, while the price they receive for what they grow has diminished. So the cost of seed, fertilizer, diesel fuel, natural gas, interest costs--all of which are significant components of the farmers in Kansas and the country--they are at a point in which there is no profitability in most circumstances for agriculture today.

I would add that my couple of visits in Kansas with farm equipment manufacturers--we manufacture lots of farm equipment--and in places like Salina and Abilene, the circumstances of those businesses are in dire shape because farmers no longer can afford to buy the equipment they manufacture.

The issue here is the farm bill. We neared expiration of the 2018 farm bill. It was clear we needed to write a new farm bill and get it completed. It hasn't happened. It is past due. That is not unusual, but in this circumstance this year, it is significant.

Decisions not to get a farm bill done have come home to roost, and the families of farmers and those farmers and ranchers and the communities in which they live, work, and provide the economic viability of the community and at the same time produce the food, fuel, and fiber that America and the world need--those days of the capability of doing that are waning because of input costs, and you add to that the drought that has been suffered by many parts of my State. Farm income has declined 43 percent over the past 5 years, and net farm income is expected to be 27 percent lower this year than it was in 2022.

Our agricultural trade deficit--something we always were proud about, as we exported more than we imported in agriculture--is a $42.5 billion deficit. We import more than we export. It puts our farmers even more at risk, and it threatens the stability and security of our national economy.

So my plea to my colleagues is this: There aren't many weeks left between now and when Congress recesses for the month of October. We return in November and December, and we ought to use this opportunity to pass at least an extension of the current farm bill and at the same time, make certain that assistance is provided to the farmers to get them through the circumstance they are in. By the time we get a farm bill passed and by the time we get that assistance--that safety net that comes in title I of the farm bill--actually to farmers, it will be too late to address the challenges Kansas and American farmers face today.

The goal in my remarks today is to bring the awareness of this issue to my colleagues and indicate that the direction we need to go is two- prong: pass an extension of the farm bill, which provides certainty and the ability for lenders and borrowers, bankers and farmers to come together and make long-term decisions. It is time for farmers to renew their credit line, and without the passage or extension of the current farm bill, the ability for a banker to make that decision to benefit the farmer begins to disappear.

So we need a farm bill in place even if it is the current one, but the current one is insufficient to meet the needs of the disaster that is occurring in the incomes of farmers across the country.

Last week--I think it was Thursday afternoon--Senator Stabenow and I visited here on the Senate floor--I point in that direction over there--and we had a conversation. Senator Stabenow indicated that she recognizes the challenge that farmers--the dire circumstances they are in today.

Subsequent to that, I have met with and had conversations with Senator Boozman from Arkansas, my colleague who is the ranking Republican on the Agriculture Committee, and with John Hoeven, the ranking member of our Ag Approps Subcommittee. I want all of us to work together to accomplish what I just described: long-term extension and a shorter term disaster assistance plan. Those conversations have begun, and I am hopeful that before year's end, we will be able to do our work.

Sometimes I get complimented--not very often, but sometimes I get complimented, and when I do, it is often for my efforts. While I am willing to do all the efforts that are necessary, in this case, efforts are woefully inadequate, and results are critically important.

Mr. President, I look forward to my colleagues and I moving forward on farm bill legislation and disaster assistance short-term needs being met. I offer myself to work with Republicans and Democrats, rural and urban, to see that we get those goals accomplished.

In closing, the current farm bill is not adequate to provide the relief or safety net of our Nation's farmers, nor is it reflective of the current state of the farm economy. With financial pressures building across the agriculture industry due to increased production costs and weakened market prices, the overall financial situation of the farm economy is bleak. The status quo is unacceptable. We must pass a long-term farm bill this year, and we must also consider immediate relief for farmers with a supplement.

I look forward to working with my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee and the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, of which I am a member and have been its chairman, as we continue the appropriations process and find a solution so that it can be included in our work before year's end.

Our farmers deserve and need better, and in the absence of successful farmers, the places that many of us call home--the future is bleak.

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