Volume 141, No. 103 covering the 1st Session of the 104th Congress (1995 - 1996) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“HELP FOR THE FARMERS” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Senate section on pages S8850 on June 22, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
HELP FOR THE FARMERS
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, during the most recent recess, I had the privilege of meeting with 36 farmers, who make up an agriculture advisory board from across the State of Tennessee. We actually met in Knoxville, TN. The women and men on that board are real farmers, not just representatives of farmers, but people who personally earn their living on a farm.
One gentleman, exhausted from the dawn-to-dusk pace of a farm in early summer, told my staff quite candidly that he simply would not have time to meet with a Senator unless it turned out to be a rainy day. That kind of humble feedback is in itself an important reason for us in the U.S. Senate, as elected representatives, to go home and talk to real people. Some members of this agriculture board from the western part of my State could not join me at that meeting because that very day they were struggling with the floodwaters that were destroying and threatening to destroy their crops. Nothing--nothing--could have served to make the need for Federal disaster relief more concrete and more real for me than the voice of a good man on the phone near panic over the rising waters.
It was a fascinating day. When I had asked these 30 farmers to tell me what they would like their duly elected Senator to know today about agriculture, they were forthright and firm in their advice and their counsel. On two points they were very clear. Sam Worley of Hampshire, TN, said:
We want a smaller Federal Government that thinks not short term but long term.
He went on and expressed that they wanted to be treated fairly in the spending reductions that they expect and that they know are necessary for the long-term health of this country for that next generation.
These hard-working Tennesseans resent the media portraying them as parasites. They are willing to sacrifice, each and every one, as long as all Americans do, to balance the budget. They shuddered when I shared with them the fact that a child born today acquires an $18,000 share in the Federal debt--a share of the Federal debt that they will be expected to pay the interest on over the course of a lifetime. They made it very clear to me that they are ready to do their part, as long as we do not try to balance the budget on the backs of the farmers.
What else did these men and women have to tell me? They are frustrated with the perverse incentives of our welfare system. Mike Vaught of Lacassas, TN, told me of being unable to find an overseer to live on his farm because he could not provide the cable TV that was available in the public housing just miles away. They are frustrated with the intrusive Federal agencies that often act at cross purposes with each other. The Environmental Protection Agency orders action that the Soil Conservation Service prohibits. Jimmy Shellabarger of Jackson, TN, told me that he is frustrated by the huge fines for minor infractions of complicated rules. David Robinson of Jonesboro said,
We are tired of being held to expensive standards of production when our global competitors are allowed to ignore these same standards.
These farmers also asked for tax relief. This may surprise some of my colleagues across the aisle, but the tax relief that they asked me for, that they spoke about, was a cut in the capital gains tax rate. These are mainly middle-class Tennesseans. Some have experienced or been very close to bankruptcy, riding the roller coaster of commodity prices. But they fully understand what seems to elude so many of my colleagues, that a cut in the capital gains tax rate is critical to middle-income Americans; that it will stimulate the economy to the benefit of everyone in America.
In closing, I want to tell you what James Wooden of South Pittsburg, TN, said. He said, ``I am going to talk to you just like we do under the shade tree.'' I will remember those words of James Wooden when the 700-page farm bill, full of Washington lingo, comes by my way. We all need to go out under the shade tree and listen to the people across this country and let the people, firsthand, tell us what they know.
Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
Mr. DOLE. Will the Senator withhold?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the majority leader.
____________________
Alerts Sign-up