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Agricultural Disaster Assistance And Western States Emergency Unfinished Business Appropriations Act, 2007

Floor Speech

Date: May 10, 2007
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Agriculture and Food


AGRICULTURAL DISASTER ASSISTANCE AND WESTERN STATES EMERGENCY UNFINISHED BUSINESS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007 -- (House of Representatives - May 10, 2007)

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Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlelady.

When parts of Texas endure an extreme drought, the burden is felt most heavily by our farm families. A devastating lack of water left many of our counties parched. Sam Berry, a rancher from Lavaca County wrote me to say: ``After back-to-back bad seasons and with all my reserve hay gone, how much worse could it get''?

Well, as bad as that drought was down in Texas, it is nothing like the drought of understanding for the plight of farmers and ranchers here in Washington. They have faced indifference on top of indifference.

Federal disaster assistance dried up. I received similar pleas from farmers and ranchers like David Wagner in Lavaca County and others from Bastrop County and Caldwell County and Fayette and Colorado counties. The last Congress, with $10 billion to burn every month in Iraq, had nothing to offer these ranchers here at home. When our new Congress finally passed emergency help this March, that help was vetoed by the President.

The bill that we pass today is another attempt to provide much-needed assistance to these farmers and ranchers.

I know that ranching looks mighty easy over in the Oval Office when some over there seem to think that clearing out brush in August is vacation work. But for those for whom ranching is not a hobby, who have found that their fields turned fallow; for those like Pat Peterson of Red Rock whom high-priced hay means selling their best livestock, disaster endangers a life and a livelihood.

This spring, Texas has had some relief. But who is to say this wet spring will last, and it is not enough to make up for the last two really bad seasons that our farmers and ranchers have endured. Helping our farmers and ranchers now cannot guarantee them success, but it will go a long way in helping restore what has been lost and protect what remains.

I hope the House tonight will approve this bill and that the President will finally get behind the relief that his fellow Texans need so very much.

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