U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007

Floor Speech

* Mr. MORAN of Kansas. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the legislation before the House that fixes a drafting error that has kept ranchers in Kansas from receiving important disaster assistance. My top priority this year has been to see that the agricultural producers in my district who have been devastated by extreme weather are given the support needed to stay on their feet and continue feeding our nation.

* I was glad to see Congress recognize the importance of delivering disaster assistance to our country's hardest hit producers. I was not glad to see an error in the bill effectively prohibit ranchers from receiving this aid. A provision required ranchers to have participated in a particular insurance pilot program. The problem is that this pilot program does not exist.

* Absent the fix we are making here today, some producers in Kansas, at no fault of their own, will not be in business come winter. In Kansas, we have struggled through 5 and 6 years of drought followed by last year's strong winter storms in December that caused 44 of Kansas' 105 counties to be declared natural disasters. And as you have all seen, tornadoes, hail and floods have now affected the rest of the State of Kansas. In total, 65 of the 69 counties I represent have been declared federal disaster areas this year.

* I am grateful we are taking action to allow the intended disaster assistance to reach ranchers across the plains. The bill before us, the Senate version of a bill I introduced here in the House, will simply strike the one sentence in the disaster bill that is causing the problem.

* So, Mr. Speaker, this is an important piece of legislation, and I ask my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats, to support this bill.

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