PASSENGER RAIL INVESTMENT AND IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2007 -- (Senate - October 24, 2007)
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Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I appreciate seeing the Senator from Pennsylvania in the chair. We were both in the Agriculture Committee today. I thank him for his leadership for dairy farmers and for nutrition and feeding kids and all that he did that way.
The 2007 farm bill is a chance for Congress to make historic strides in agriculture, alternative energy, and to literally help improve the lives of millions of families across the country--families struggling from Harrisburg to Erie, from Ashtabula to Gallipolis, from Lima to Toledo.
In a State such as Ohio, with a long and rich agricultural history, this means a bright future for our agriculture industry, for our family farmers, and for our families.
I applaud the leadership of Senator Harkin. I am proud, as Ohio's first Senator to sit on the Agriculture Committee in four decades, to be part of this process.
This bill could mean that low-income families will have more access to better nutrition by increasing Food Stamp Programs and access to affordable healthy foods. That means more fruits and vegetables into the schools in Hamilton, Middletown, and Akron, and more fruits and vegetables available, grown by local farmers, to go into farmers markets in Columbus and Zanesville and all over our State.
Earlier this year, as the occupant of the chair and I and others gathered in the committee, we heard from Rhonda Stewart of Hamilton, OH. Rhonda is perhaps in her early thirties and has, I believe, a 9-year-old son. She is a single mother, struggling and working full-time and making about $8, $9, or $10 an hour, with no health insurance. She was president of the local PTA and her son is involved in the Cub Scouts and she is a food stamp beneficiary. She struggled every month. At the beginning of the month, she told the committee back in February, she would serve her son pork chops that first week, which is his favorite meal. By the middle of the month, they went to McDonald's or another fast-food place maybe twice. But by the end of the month, as times got tough and she struggled financially, she would almost invariably sit at the dinner table, at the kitchen table with her son, he would be eating and she would not. He would say: What's wrong, Mom? Aren't you hungry? She would say: No, I don't feel well. She simply ran out of money at the end of the month.
In the farm bill, we are helping people like her and her family who work hard and play by the rules and do everything in the workplace and in their homes that we ask them to do as citizen of their communities and our country. This bill could mean new investment and a new direction for farmers in Ohio.
The 2007 farm bill reflects the values of farmers across Ohio: forward-thinking, responsible, and working to protect our natural resources and our rural communities.
This bill will help family farmers in my State and in Pennsylvania and across the country by strengthening the farm safety net, one that will provide better protection for farmers against disasters, such as either low yield or low prices. Either one can be obviously devastating to farmers.
The Average Crop Revenue Program, which Senator Durbin and I introduced a bill to create as part of the farm bill--amended by Chairman Harkin into the farm bill--offers a much needed choice to farmers. It represents significant reform for farmers and huge savings--literally $3.5 billion--for taxpayers.
Farmers can stay in the current or old program that does little to protect against drops in revenue or, for the first time ever, farmers will be able to switch to a forward-looking policy that better protects against volatile crop prices, natural disasters, and rising production costs. If farmers are doing well and prices and yields are good, farmers would not get tax dollars. If times are bad--the yield is low or there are floods or tornadoes that cause major crop yield drops or if the price is low--then the farmer will get help. That is the way that agriculture should be. That is the way most farmers I find in northwest Ohio and all over my State want to do it too. I traveled throughout Ohio this Spring--to Chillicothe, where we did roundtables with fruit and vegetable farmers, and in Montgomery County, not too far from Troy, and Piqua, near Dayton. We talked to farmers there, and near Wooster, OH. We talked to dairy farmers. In Lake County we talked to specialty farmers, especially those who do landscaping and greenhouses. In northwest Ohio we talked to farmers who grow corn and soybeans.
I met with a corn farmer in Henry County who will be supplying corn to one of the first ethanol plants in Ohio. I met with a hog farmer in Montgomery County who uses wind turbines to provide on-farm energy.
This farm bill makes a commitment to move beyond antiquated energy sources and wean ourselves from Middle Eastern oil and prepare American agriculture to lead the world in renewable energy production.
With the right resources and the right incentives, farmers can help decrease our dependence on foreign oil and produce clean, sustainable, renewable energy.
In a State such as Ohio, with a talented labor force and a proud lead-the-nation manufacturing history, that doesn't just mean stronger farms and more prosperous farmers; it means a stronger economy.
Rural communities across the Nation will benefit from additional Federal assistance in the farm bill and small towns not far from where I grew up in Lexington, OH, places like Butler and Belleville, will benefit from funding for infrastructure and hospitals, while expanding access to broadband for all of my State, especially southeast Ohio, which doesn't have the access it needs.
This bill will also provide more than $4 billion in additional funding for conservation programs to help farmers protect our water quality, expand wildlife habitat, and preserve endangered farmland.
While I am pleased with the bill overall, it can be improved. The public is perfectly willing to help family farmers when they need it, but taxpayers will not support massive payments to farms that have substantial net incomes.
We should not be sending tax dollars to Florida real estate developers, to city farmers who live in New York, to NBA players, or to media personalities. Those are not the people who should benefit from the farm bill.
I regret that we have not funded the McGovern-Dole international feeding program. I hope as this legislation progresses, we will do so.
The agricultural industry in Ohio has experienced unprecedented change in recent years, but the values of Ohio farmers--hard work, stewardship of the
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land, caring for their families--remains steadfast.
We, too, must be steadfast in our support for farmers, but we must also change how we go about providing that support.
I applaud the proposal put before us in the Agriculture Committee today. I hope we can even improve upon it in the weeks ahead.
I yield the floor.
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