President Bush and House leaders abandoning farm disaster victims

By Larry Mitchell It is obvious that the White House and the Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives are abandoning farm and ranch families victimized by natural disasters.
Thursday, October 14, 2004 10:38 PM MDT

Recently the U.S. Senate unanimously passed an emergency assistance program, with bipartisan support from 15 cosponsors, to help farm and ranch families across the nation cope with natural disaster losses. Congressman Charles Stenholm, D-Texas, and 41 additional House members from both parties have introduced the Senate measure in the House. But President Bush ignored the critical program in his recent supplemental appropriations request to Speaker Hastert and now the House Rules Committee will not even allow a vote on the Stenholm disaster bill.

What the House leadership has offered is poor substitute which will redirect conservation program funding toward a much smaller emergency package. This is unacceptable, not just by my standards, but by the standards of the 26 farm groups which signed a letter to Congress on this very issue.

Corn prices have fallen below $1.50 per bushel in parts of the Midwest. Energy prices are at an all-time high this harvest season. And there is no leadership from this administration to advance an adequate disaster bill to assist farm families victimized by natural disasters.

Farmers need to ask if we would be easier to get disaster assistance if it was administered through a no-bid contract with Halliburton than it is to get the leadership required to get real disaster assistance passed by Congress and enacted by President Bush. But what farmers really need to be asking is if they can afford another four years of the current leadership in Washington.

(Mitchell is CEO of the American Corn Growers Association.)

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