| |
 |
| |
555 Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Ph: 202.224.6342
Fax: 202.224.1100
|
| |
 |
| |
Raleigh Office:
310 New Bern Avenue
Suite 122
Raleigh, NC 27601
Ph: 919.856.4630
Toll Free: 866.420.6083
Fax: 919.856.4053
Salisbury Office:
225 North Main Street
Suite 304
Salisbury, NC 28144
Ph: 704.633.5011
Toll Free: 866.420.6084
Fax: 704.633.2937
Western Office:
401 North Main Street
Suite 200
Hendersonville, NC 28792
Ph: 828.698.3747
Fax: 828.698.1267
Eastern Office:
306 South Evans Street
Greenville, NC 27835
Ph: 252.329.1093
Fax: 252.329.1097
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
| |
Floor Statements
|
| |
|
FLOOR STATEMENT ON TOBACCO BUYOUT
|
| |
 listen to Radio Clip
|
 view Television Clip
|
| |
July 15th, 2004 - Mr. President, significant progress has been made toward achievement of a tobacco quota buyout which our farm families and rural communities in North Carolina and other tobacco producing states so desperately need. Just a few weeks ago, thanks to the commitment and hard work in particular of Richard Burr and Mike McIntyre from the North Carolina Delegation as well as Chairman Thomas and House Leadership, a tobacco buyout passed the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Today, we have the historic opportunity to get a tobacco buyout across the floor of the U.S Senate. I want to thank Senator McConnell for his legislation and his leadership in bringing us to this point.
Why should we go along with a tobacco buyout on the FSC/ETI Bill? Why is a buyout necessary? Because the status quo is simply not an option. If nothing happens this year, according to noted agriculture economist, Blake Brown, tobacco farmers face a 33% cut in quotas for the 2005 crop year.
Let’s take a look at how we got where we are today. By 1996 tobacco farmers had experienced 7 straight years of a stable and significant supply of quota. In 1997, quota increased 12 percent leading many farmers to expand their operations. Barns were bought to cure more tobacco, equipment was bought to replace that which was worn out, land and quota was bought to make their operations more efficient. Significant amounts of money were borrowed to make these investments.
Since 1997, quota has dropped almost 60 percent—farmers still have outstanding loans at the bank to pay for quota that they no longer have. To put this in Laymen’s terms, this type of cut in quota is equivalent to cutting your paycheck more than half while you are still paying the bank for an asset you no longer own.
The current devastation that our farm families and their rural communities face is certainly not of their making. The current tobacco program was never designed to accommodate the significant changes that have engulfed this industry. It is an outdated New Deal program that is discouraging purchases of American tobacco by domestic and foreign buyers because it has made the US uncompetitive on the world market. Foreign buyers who once looked to the US market are now purchasing tobacco from other countries and bypassing the US market altogether for their supply.
The numbers do not lie: The U.S. now accounts for only 7 percent of all flue-cured tobacco production in the world. Let me be clear: All we are doing under current policy is allowing countries like Brazil and China to reap the economic benefits of worldwide tobacco production. We are not reducing overall tobacco production—we’re simply allowing it to be siphoned off by other countries.
And Let me bring a little more perspective to the buyout of quota. People in North Carolina and other tobacco growing states invested in tobacco quota since the 1930’s. The government created this asset—allowing it to be bought and sold. As a result, the value of quota makes up a substantial portion of many farmers’ balance sheets. The value of quota is recognized by county governments; it is taxed just like land and other assets. In fact, tobacco quota is even subject to the inheritance tax.
It is estimated that more than sixty percent of the tobacco farmers today will exit the business entirely if a tobacco buyout is achieved. Most are at retirement age.......just hanging on a little while longer in hopes of being able to pay off their debts. They have hung on and continued to produce in hopes that things would get better – knowing that if they got out now they would have to sell their farm and liquidate other assets to settle up with their lenders. Even with a buyout, many will still be short.
Mr. President, every week my office continues to receive numerous calls from tobacco farm families in desperation. There is a deep feeling of helplessness. And all they can do is get on their knees and pray that those of us who have been given the privilege of serving in Congress will act – and act soon.
A tobacco quota buyout is sorely needed. It will allow those who want to pay off their debts, and who want to retire, the opportunity to do so with dignity. The opportunity to know that all they have worked for has not been in vain. It will allow the widow whose sole source of retirement income is from quota rent and social security, the opportunity to get a fair return in exchange for the taking of her quota.
If nothing happens this year, these farmers will be forced to give up all that they have. After six years of loaning on collateral, there’s nothing left for the banks to do except foreclose especially with another 33 percent cut in quota for the 2005 crop year on the horizon. There will be no holding out for just a while longer. This may sound like rhetoric to some, but it is the precise truth for countless thousands of farm families. I’ve been there to see it and I could not be more dead serious about this. Status quo is simply not an option.
Mr. President, it is absolutely critical that this legislation is achieved this year, and I am grateful for the progress that has been made to get this bill to conference. I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that this much needed legislation becomes reality.
It is either now – or never. These rural citizens – the very ones who have helped make this country great – are barely hanging on for their very survival. And it is not just them. It is the retailers, equipment dealers, chemical and fertilizer dealers and a whole array of small local businesses. These are the very small businesses that create the majority of new jobs in tobacco producing states – and jobs that are much needed. With enactment of a tobacco buyout, rural communities will be able to grow back the jobs that have since left our borders and restore hope to countless families who have labored all of their lives under the sun to feed and clothe
American and the world.
Mr. President, my state has thrived on traditional industries like textiles, furniture, and tobacco. In recent years, thousands upon thousands of jobs have been lost—leaving rural economies devastated and creating pockets of poverty in many of North Carolina’s counties.
And now, as tobacco farmers and rural communities reach for a life-line—we have the opportunity to help them. Rather than conceding tobacco production to countries like China—rather than allowing foreclosures to thousands of farmers—rather than allowing the negative economic ripple effect to be felt throughout rural southeastern America, let’s do the right thing for our farmers and rural communities.
It is way past the time for us to take action, and getting this bill to conference is a very important and critical step.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
|
| |
| Elizabeth Dole |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| |
|
|
