Baron Hill

Mr. HILL of Indiana

Mr. HILL of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, we have committed our armed forces to the conflict in Kosovo and now we must pay for it. This unanticipated expense is a classic example of what constitutes emergency spending. I have voted to support our troops and the NATO operation in Yugoslavia. We need to provide emergency funding for our troops in the field. But the emergency appropriations bill that we will be asked to support, today, spends more than twice the 6 billion dollars requested by our military commanders for Kosovo. It will add billions of dollars in spending for non-emergency items that should be considered during our normal budget process. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I clearly understand that the military has pressing needs, including improved pay and benefits for the troops, military infrastructure, equipment and spare parts. I support a pay raise for the military, pay scale reform, and retirement benefits reform. Our troops have earned a raise and it is the right thing to do. But I don't believe that an emergency supplemental should be loaded up with spending that is more appropriately considered during the regular budget process. I don't think that today's bill shows a commitment to honest budgeting and spending controls.

Mr. HILL of Indiana

Mr. HILL of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HILL of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arkansas for yielding. Mr. Speaker, when I am home traveling in my district and talking to farmers in southern Indiana about this farm crisis that we are in, they always tell me that they do not want any handouts. What they do tell me is they want access to credit. I think it is just common sense to provide farmers access to enough credit so they can plant their crops, market their products, and pay their bills. It does not make any sense to me that this has not been a higher priority for this Congress. Every day families across the country are losing their farms. I am especially concerned that this crisis is taking a hard toll on our next generation of farmers. I think it is important that the American people understand how great the need is in rural America for this emergency money. The situation in my home State of Indiana is not encouraging. For one thing, many of our loan programs in Indiana are exhausted, or close to it anyway. Our direct operating loan money is, for the most part, exhausted. We are completely all out of guaranteed farm ownership loans. We are short nearly $800,000 for beginning and non-beginning direct farm ownership loans. On March 23, the House of Representatives passed a supplemental appropriations bill that included much needed emergency credit for farmers across this country. I was one of the few Members of my own party to vote for the bill. Two days later, the Senate passed the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill and asked for a conference committee to come together to work out the differences of the House and Senate bills. It was only on April 22, almost a month later, that the House leadership agreed to send the emergency bill to conference committee and appoint conferees. In the meantime, farmers in Indiana and all across this country have been waiting for this emergency money. Many farmers have not been able to begin spring planting, while others have been forced to sell the family farm. While the farmers have been waiting, Secretary of Agriculture Glickman has been transferring money from different USDA accounts in an attempt to give the States more access to credit for farmers. Without the supplemental appropriations to restore to these accounts we have been borrowing from, we are facing layoffs and furloughs at FSA offices. We have had even to borrow money from FSA salary accounts. As a last resort, more and more farmers are being forced to appeal to their local FSA offices for financial assistance, and demand for farm loans has increased by 62 percent over the last year. So today I urge the leadership to act on the supplemental bill that this body passed over a month ago. I am truly concerned about Hoosier farmers. It is difficult for me to see this many farmers in need of access to credit. Indiana farmers need our help. Every weekend I go back to Indiana to visit with my constituents, and many times my constituents are farmers. I have a lot of them in my district. And each time that I go back, I ask these farmers whether or not, in their view, they believe that a young man or woman in this country can on their own become a farmer, and each and every time all the farmers say no. Now, there have been many speakers before me talking about the farm crisis, but this is a farm tragedy, to think that a young man or woman in this country could not fulfill their dream of becoming a farmer. I know of no other business, no other industry where this is true. So today is the day we must start to begin to help the family farmer.

Mr. HILL of Indiana

Mr. HILL of Indiana. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Minnesota for yielding me this time. Back in the 1980s, back home in Indiana, I saw Congress make a mistake, and that mistake was embracing the idea of supply side economics and offering a huge tax cut in this country. Some would say that it fueled the economy but at a great expense. Back in the 1980s, the budget deficit or budget debt was $1 billion. It grew to over $4 trillion. Now as a Member of this Congress, I see the Congress about ready to make another mistake and offer huge tax cuts to the people of Indiana or to the people of this country. I think this is a serious mistake in light of the fact that we have a tremendous debt to pay off. Our priority ought to be paying off the debt first. That is what we should do as well as saving Social Security. If we do this, we will be doing the responsible thing for the people of this country, the responsible thing for our kids and our grandchildren.

Mr. HILL of Indiana

Mr. HILL of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the Women's Basketball Team from New Albany High School. The Lady Bulldogs won the Indiana High School Athletic Association class 4A basketball championship last Saturday, completing a perfect season. Congratulations go out to the entire team: Catrina Wilson, Jessica Dablow, Maria Rickards, Abigail Scharlow, Jessica Huggins, Kennitra Johnson, Erin Wall, Amanda Sizemore, Lacy Farris, Noreen Cousins, Andrea Holbrook, Regina Marshall, Brittany Williams, and Jihan Huggins. I also wish to congratulate: the team's coach Angie Hinton, her assistant coaches Denise Parrish, Paul Hamilton, Joe Hinton and Katie Myers, team trainer Russ Cook, student manager Melissa Fisher, the athletic director at New Albany Don Unruh, and school principal Steve Sipes. The Lady Bulldogs are the pride of southern Indiana. I join their families, friends, classmates and community in celebrating their great accomplishment.

Mr. HILL of Indiana

Mr. HILL of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, $17 billion is just a drop in the bucket here in Washington, but back in Indiana it is serious money. Seventeen billion dollars is enough to operate all eight Indiana university campuses for 10 years. Seventeen billion dollars almost equals the entire 2-year budget of the State of Indiana. The government projects that this year we will spend $17 billion less on interest payments than we did last year. When we reduce the government's debt, we are given billions of dollars back to the private sector to invest, create jobs and strengthen our economy. By reducing the debt, we are also improving our ability to honor the promises we have made to our seniors through the Social Security and Medicare programs. Other arguments aside, reducing the debt we pass on to our children is just the right thing to do. Not only do we owe it to our American seniors to reduce the debt, but we owe it to future generations as well.

Mr. HILL of Indiana

Mr. HILL of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I cannot begin to tell my colleagues how proud I am to be here in the seat that Lee Hamilton held for 34 years. As a new member of the House Armed Services Committee, I know that we owe a lot to those who currently serve our country and also to those who served in the past. This year, one of the Nation's oldest and most distinguished service organizations, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, celebrates its 100-year anniversary. This week, I will introduce a resolution calling on the Postal Service to issue a stamp to congratulate veterans of foreign wars for a century of work on behalf of our fighting men and women. It is the least we can do to honor those who have given us so much. I also want to thank all the veterans back in Indiana and those who continue to contact me. I want to contact people like Elsie Foster of the Ladies' Auxiliary in New Albany whose four brothers served during World War II and whose husband served in the World War II and Korean War. Mrs. Foster, I want you to know that it was your request that convinced me to demand the stamp.

Mr. HILL of Indiana

Mr. HILL of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, during rollcall vote No. 24 on H.R. 438, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yes.''