Max Baucus

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, my amendment would reallocate the tax credits in the reconciliation bill toward the middle-income taxpayers and apply the savings to reduce the Medicare spending cuts. It specifically strikes capital gains for corporations and gives some relief for individuals who make capital gains over $100,000 a year. It is geared more toward the million-dollar income taxpayers.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, this amendment strikes the provision opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. To offset the loss of revenue from ANWR drilling and to keep the budget balanced in 2002, the amendment also strikes the sale of the naval petroleum reserves. Opening Arctic Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling will seriously disrupt precious natural resources, will do nothing to enhance our energy independence, and it will not generate the amount of revenue that the proponents claim.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. BAUCUS. It is the ANWR amendment, Mr. President.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I call up my amendment.

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I yield now to our distinguished leader in agriculture, a strong spokesman in our country for agriculture. I yield 2\1/2\ minutes and to the Senator from Iowa.

Mr. BAUCUS. And then the other second-tier amendments?

Mr. BAUCUS. May I inquire of the majority leader when the vote on the Bumpers deficit reduction amendment and Baucus rural restoration amendments will occur. I was a little bit confused as I listened to the leader read the list and then say the Kassebaum amendment would come up after the Kennedy amendment. There was an ambiguous point as to when the vote on the Bumpers amendment and vote on the Baucus amendment would occur.

Mr. BAUCUS. I yield the remaining time.

Mr. BAUCUS. I yield to the Senator from North Dakota.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, how much time remains?

Mr. BAUCUS. I yield 3 minutes to the Senator from Vermont.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I yield 2 minutes to the Senator from North Dakota.

Mr. BAUCUS. I yield 2 minutes to the Senator from Minnesota.

Mr. BAUCUS. I yield 1 minute to the Senator.

Mr. BAUCUS. I yield 2 minutes to the Senator from Alabama.

Mr. BAUCUS. I yield 30 seconds to the Senator from Illinois.

Mr. BAUCUS. I yield 4 minutes to the Senator from Illinois.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, the whole country knows about the Medicare cuts in this budget, and the threats they present to rural hospitals and to health care for seniors. A lot of people know that a few days ago, the House Speaker Newt Gingrich called this bill the round one in a long-term plan to kill Medicare. Many people know how deeply it will cut student loans and assistance for elementary and secondary education. the 1995 farm bill But very few people know that this year, the budget is also the farm bill. It will reauthorize all the commodity programs and the Conservation Reserve Program. It will eliminate several more. Altogether, for the next 7 years, it sets our national agriculture policy. It is supposed to keep rural economies stable. And it should guarantee consumers a safe and dependable food supply at a reasonable price. But on the Senate floor today, we have something entirely different. I am sorry to say it, but laying everything about Medicare, tax increases on people making less than $30,000 a year, education and the rest aside, this is a terrible farm bill. written in secret First, it is partisan. It is a hard-line, ideological approach to agricultural policy, not an effort to bring people together and take the best from everyone. Second, it is secretive. It was written behind closed doors. And very, very few Americans even know it is up on the floor today. At an absolute maximum, the agricultural part of this budget will get a grand total of 50 minutes for debate. It is a scandal, but it is not a surprise. Because if this were my bill, I would not want to say much about it either. But in any case, I want to welcome all my colleagues to the debate on the 1995 farm bill. I imagine the other side will be awfully quiet. But we're here to make up for it. We are going to use these 45 minutes to tell the truth about the big, gobbling, turkey out here on the Senate floor. And then we'll give the other folks a second chance. Our motion to recommit will restore the traditional, bipartisan approach to agricultural policy. We can work together, restore some fairness and moderation. And if we adopt this motion, our friends on the other side of the aisle can have something to be proud of when they go home and talk to their farmers. seven lean years to come If you have read Genesis, chapter 41, you know the story of Joseph's dream. He compared the 7 years to come with: seven kine . . . poor and very ill favoured and lean- fleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness. These seven ill-favored cattle ate up the good cattle, just as seven ears of corn, ``withered, thin and blasted with the east wind'' ate up seven good ears of corn. So Joseph could tell that the future would bring 7 years of trouble--7 lean years, in which ``all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt.'' Well, we may not be as wise as Joseph. And the days of inspired prophecy may be gone. But on the other hand, we have a lot more than a dream to go on. We have hard facts and numbers. And these facts and numbers tell us that our farmers have 7 pretty lean years ahead. This bill makes dramatic cuts in farm supports, which have already been cut 60 percent in the past decade. If this turkey survives Thanksgiving of 1995, the year 2002 will see us fund just half of today's Conservation Reserve Program. Bad for farmers, bad for hunters, bad for recreation. The Emergency Livestock Feed Assistance Program will end. Our deficiency payments--the safety net our producers need in tough times-- will be capped. In the very worst years, when our producers need help most, it won't be there. Then look at nutrition. School lunch, daycare meals, and meals for senior citizens are all cut. And these are not surgical strikes--these are repeated blows with a meat axe. These cuts affect more than farmers. They affect all of rural America. Schools, grocers, bankers, fuel dealers, equipment and automobile dealerships, and even our local and county governments will all feel the pinch. And we are doing all this at a time when our competitors in Europe are not giving up a thing. They already give their farmers over 10 times the export subsidies we provide. This budget cuts the Export Enhancement Program by 20 percent, and market promotion by 30 percent. We will end up exporting less, and that means lower incomes for farmers. keeping young people off the land Finally, maybe the most painful item of all. That is the apparent exclusion of beginning farmers from all these services. This spring I went to a lot of high school graduations in rural Montana. Places like Geyser, Hobson, Stanford, Opheim, Harlem and Dodson. We have some great kids in these communities. They are looking forward to a career in agriculture like their parents. They want to work and provide for their families on their own land. This bill shuts them out and puts them at a competitive disadvantage. Combine that with the trouble young farmers have in obtaining credit, and the message they get from this budget is clear. There is no place for you in production agriculture. There is no place for the small family farm in America. our amendment: a second chance Well, we can do better. And with our amendment, we will do better. Our amendment is very simple. It says, go back to the drawing board. Take it back to the Finance Committee. Restore some sense and moderation to agricultural policy, nutrition and our rural economic approach as a whole. The amendment doesn't dictate how we should do it, but it gives us a chance to take a second look and get it right. Let us remember the story of Joseph. He saw the 7 lean years coming. He told Paraoh about his dream. And Paraoh listened to Joseph. He changed his agriculture policy, promoted production, and stockpiled corn. And therefore Egypt got through the 7 lean years. We can do the same. if the folks on the other side will listen, we can take advantage of this second chance. We can vote for the motion to recommit, and come back with a moderate, nonpartisan farm policy that is good for everyone. I hope it will get the Senate's support. Thank you, Mr. President, and I yield the floor.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time allotted be reduced to 15 minutes, equally divided.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I send a motion to the desk.

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, the budget bill before us is a raid on rural America. It cuts the farm program and begins to eviscerate, obliterate the farm program by cutting $13.4 billion over 7 years, 25 percent cut. The budget bill cuts health care, disproportionately affecting rural America because our hospitals have so many seniors. Medicaid is cut, hurting rural America. There is already a tendency for people to leave the farm and go to the city to seek some job to survive. We here should be sensitive to rural America, not insensitive, by raiding rural America. This bill before us raids rural America, accelerates the transfer of people from rural America to the city, which is something we should not do. So my amendment simply says to the Finance Committee, go back and restore some of these provisions that affect rural America, but still balance the budget. I urge adoption of the amendment.

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I want to ruminate for a few minutes about the Work Opportunities Tax Credit, now called the WOTC, which is the substitute for the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit, which expired at the end of last year. Mr. President, the TJTC had some problems, but let me tell you, it got the job done. It encouraged employers to put kids and young adults to work. Youth who probably would not have gotten their first job but for TJTC. I have a letter, Mr. President, from a good friend of mine in Montana. W.E. Hainline operates 4 B'S Restaurants across Montana and several other Western states. They serve good food and employ a lot of young adults. Bill has had a lot of experience in the TJTC area. In fact, the 4 B'S is nationally recognized as a leader when it comes to hiring disadvantaged and handicapped youth, many of whom had their first job with 4 B's. Bill can tell you about these kids and how they went on to other jobs and to success in many fields. In fact, that is what TJTC was about, and what we want to achieve with WOTC--we want to move kids off of the streets, off of welfare and we want to keep them out of the criminal justice system. Bill is concerned, as am I Mr. President, that the WOTC is currently contained in the Reconciliation Bill before us, will not do the job. Bill notes in his letter that WOTC: As written, virtually eliminates most companies from participating in [WOTC] by ignoring the youth group (18 to 24 year olds) not located in an empowerment Zone. Mr. President, I joined with Senator Moseley-Braun last week in an amendment that would have expanded WOTC to create two new categories of youths which employers could hire under WOTC: individuals 18 through 24 receiving or living with families on food stamps; individuals 18 through 24 who are non-custodial parents of a child residing in a family receiving AFDC or successor programs; and individuals 18 through 24 who are receiving Supplemental Security Income. Senator Moseley-Braun and I are working with Joint Tax to find the money to include these youths in WOTC. Mr. President, as always, Bill Hainline hits the nail on the head. I request that his letter to me be printed in the Record. Bill has the credentials. He has used the TJTC program. He knows what it takes to make it work. I would encourage my colleagues to read their letter and to heed what he has to say. Replacing TJTC with WOTC will accomplish little if employers, like Bill, do not utilize the WOTC program. If that happens, kids are the big losers.