Agriculture Disaster Relief
AGRICULTURE DISASTER RELIEF -- (Senate - September 29, 2006)
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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I am glad to join my colleague from North Dakota today and support him and the other 20 Senators who are on this bill in moving disaster assistance through the Senate.
As the Senator from North Dakota has noted--you saw the drought chart he put up earlier--the Dakotas were the epicenter when it comes to drought this year. We had the bull's-eye, the area where the most severe drought hit.
I visited in South Dakota in June. At that point, we had no wheat crop. In all of central South Dakota, both winter wheat and spring wheat were all wiped out.
I went back in July to central South Dakota and looked at other parts of the State. By then, we could tell we were not going to have a corn crop. I went to western South Dakota in August with my colleague Senator Johnson. We traveled to areas west of the Missouri River and again to the central part of the State. We looked at corn that rivaled what the Senator from North Dakota showed that was about this tall--or about this tall--when it ought to have been in full bloom.
The livestock producers in western South Dakota had no hay crop. As a consequence, many of them had to liquidate their herds. What that means is that effect is felt not only directly by them and those families, but by the entire rural area, the entire farm economy in my State and States such as North Dakota.
It would be one thing if it were a 1-year deal. But this is successive years of drought, 6 years in a row, 1999, 2000, on through 2005. We have had these types of weather conditions in our States. The month of July was the hottest July on record in my State. In the months of May and June we normally would get precipitation. We had less precipitation than the average during the years of the Great Depression--the biggest disaster to ever hit farm country.
We respond as a country, as a Congress, when other areas of the country are impacted.
We do it when we have hurricanes. Many stepped up and supported the assistance for areas in the gulf. This is the same sort of disaster. It has the same sort of effect. It may not have the immediate aftermath you see when a hurricane strikes. It is a slow-motion disaster, but the effect on the economy in places in the Midwest is just as disastrous and devastating.
Mr. President, we need action. We need the Senate to do what it has done in the past; that is, step forward and provide relief for these hard-hit farmers and ranchers in the Midwest. It was noted by my colleague from North Dakota that the Senate has, on a couple occasions, passed drought disaster relief. We need to get it passed. I am happy to join in that effort.
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