As printed in the Brenham Banner Press

(Washington D.C.)- Texas’ and America’s farmers are suffering. As the Member of Congress representing the 10th Congressional District of Texas, I have traveled throughout our area and have seen first-hand how the drought has affected our agricultural communities. On this National Agriculture Day, when we all should be taking time to thank and pay tribute to America’s farmers, ranchers and their families who produce the food for our tables, we are finding those same people in dire need of our help and support.

Texas has been hit especially hard this year by a continuing drought, threatening high winds and increasingly destructive range fires. Simply, these conditions have lead to extremely adverse conditions in the agriculture industry. According to many experts in the agriculture community, you would have to go back nearly fifty years to find a time when a drought in Texas caused problems like those our farmers and their families are dealing with today. These severe conditions have caused the Texas agriculture community’s livelihoods to literally dry up, and America must know that we in Congress are working to minimize the impact.

I, along with other members of the Texas Congressional Delegation, have sent a letter to the House Appropriations Committee requesting their steadfast commitment to helping Texas combat these problems. We believe that an emergency supplemental funding bill for the affected regions will help to ease the impact felt by Texas’ farming families.

While traveling throughout the Texas 10th Congressional District, I am hearing from farmers and their families about this problem and taking those words to Washington where we are turning those ideas into possible proposals aimed at easing the drought’s effects. In addition to working for supplemental disaster assistance, we are considering preventing capital gains taxes from being applied on the forced sale of livestock due to drought or range fires. We are also working to continue the Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) emergency haying and grazing program that allows hay to be sold and moved across state lines to drought impacted areas without deducting any money from those ranchers and farmers already receiving federal help to feed their livestock.

Coupled with the drought, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently proposed the closing or consolidation of 70 FSA centers in Texas, which would have added insult to injury to Texas’ agriculture community. Even though Texas has the highest number of FSA centers in the country, we are also one of the biggest states with arguably the largest farming community. As such, our farmers must already commute long distances to receive the FSA services, and following these closures their commute would certainly have increased.

Accordingly, many of us in Congress are working to pass H.R. 3974, which seeks to prevent the closures of FSA centers until the completion of the 2006 Farm Bill. This legislation seeks to ensure that the issue of FSA consolidation and closure is properly debated by the House of Representative so that farmers have a fair say in the matter. Simply put, Congress should not make any decisions until farmers have made it clear to Congress their thoughts on the consolidation or closing of FSA centers.

Many in Congress are also working to help livestock and poultry operators facing potential liability under the Superfund Law and the Community-Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). Unfortunately, laws like this were meant for the clean up of toxic waste dumps and spills, and were never intended to be applied to the agriculture industry or animal feeding operations.

To help fix this problem, Congress is working to pass H.R. 4341, which defines manure as a non-hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant under the Superfund law. This bipartisan piece of legislation will clarify Congress’ original intent of the Superfund legislation, and will help to protect Texas farmers and cattle raisers from unconscionable prosecution by the federal government.

Our farmers and ranchers have never faced as many problems as they do today with drought, range fires, high gas prices and an ever tightening budget on agriculture subsidies. However, Texas and America’s agriculture community must know they have not been forgotten. It is up to all of us on this National Agriculture Day to remember America’s agriculture community, and to make sure we continue to do what we can to support those farmers and ranchers who, everyday, support us.