Mary Landrieu

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 1157, which was received from the House.

Ms. LANDRIEU. I ask unanimous consent the bill be read three times and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate a message from the House with respect to S. 2162. The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message from the House of Representatives: Resolved, That the bill from the Senate (S. 2162) entitled ``An Act to improve the treatment and services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and substance disorders, and for other purposes'', do pass with an amendment.

Ms. LANDRIEU. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate concur in the amendment of the House to the Senate bill and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; further, that any statements be printed at the appropriate place in the Record.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 1532, which was received from the House.

Ms. LANDRIEU. I ask unanimous consent the bill be read three times and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statement related to the bill be printed in the Record.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I understand there is a bill at the desk. I ask for its first reading.

Ms. LANDRIEU. I now ask for a second reading. In order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my own request.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 660 and the Senate then proceed to its immediate consideration.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to en bloc consideration of the following Senate resolutions which were submitted earlier today: S. Res. 690, S. Res. 691, S. Res. 692, S. Res. 693, and S. Res. 694. I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to; the preambles, where applicable, be agreed to; and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the HELP Committee be discharged from further consideration of H. Con. Res. 195, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Ms. LANDRIEU. I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to; the preamble be agreed to; the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; and any statements relating to this measure be printed in the Record.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in recess until 11 a.m. on Monday, September 29; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate proceed to a period of morning business until 12 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees; that at 12 noon, the Senate resume consideration of the House message to accompany H.R. 2095, the Federal Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2007, with the Republican leader controlling the time from 12 p.m. until 12:15 p.m., and the majority leader controlling the time from 12:15 p.m. until 12:30 p.m.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, under a previous order, at 12:30 p.m., the Senate will proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 2095.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand in recess under the previous order.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I wish to clarify, with respect to S. Res. 660, the amendment, which was agreed to, was to the resolution; the resolution, as amended, was agreed to, and the preamble was agreed to.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, I understand there are many plans that have been made this weekend, and I appreciate the cooperation of the Democratic leader and the Republican leader. I appreciate the good work that some of my Republican and Democratic colleagues have done this last week, particularly Chairman Harkin. However, on ag we are about ready to close out a session without a substantial and adequate advance or plan to help the agricultural community, and the rules that have been written in the last farm bill are not adequate. I have asked the leader for 1 hour to speak today. I do not think that is too much to try to advance the effort. I thank Senator Hutchison for signing on. I have asked for just a vote at the next available time--not today, not on this bill. Would the leader please respond if an hour would be available?

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mississippi.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I have business to bring before the Senate, and I understand this will not count against my time. May I ask the Presiding Officer?

Ms. LANDRIEU. I thank the Chair.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the bill be printed in the Record.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 3569, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed; the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related thereto be printed in the Record.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I wish to proceed to the hour that I have asked the leader to set aside for the purpose of discussing, in my view, a grave oversight that can be corrected if there is enough political will to do so. So the purpose of this hour is to try to lay out a case so that we can build, over the course of the next few days and weeks, the will necessary to take action that if not taken could literally result in the bankruptcy of thousands of people and individuals in rural communities throughout Louisiana and the Nation who, through no fault of their own, have been caught up in the disasters of the last few weeks and months. The disasters I speak of are not like the manmade disaster that is happening on Wall Street as we speak. It is not the purpose for which a group of Senators, both Republicans and Democrats, have been meeting around the clock for hours. They are disasters of nature's making-- hurricanes, strong winds, and heavy rains that no one could prevent, but we most certainly can stop the economic downturn in the aftermath that will occur. I am here today because it looks to me and several of my colleagues as though this Congress intends to leave without taking any action whatsoever, to give even hope to people, thousands of hard-working taxpayers who are in this situation. I will speak for an hour, but this cartoon says it all. This was in the USA TODAY newspaper yesterday. I don't think it needs any explanation. I represent the lower ninth ward. I am proud to represent the ninth ward and the lower ninth ward. I also represent St. Bernard Parish and Plaquemines Parish and Terrebonne Parish and others that were devastated and basically have been abandoned in large measure by aspects of this Government that did not come to their aid. This cartoon says we have been building a levee for the last several weeks--or trying to build a levee--around Wall Street. Meanwhile, the rest of the country--whatever. Out there in the rest of the country--whatever--which is what I represent--are thousands of farmers. This is what their fields look like. They are completely underwater, not because they left the hose on too long or failed to do the proper irrigation techniques but because we had Hurricane Gustav, Hurricane Ike, and Hurricane Fay, which did not hit just Florida, but that storm, as the Presiding Officer will remember, dropped significant rains throughout large parts of the country right before harvest time. Then, a few weeks later--because the farmers in many districts who watch the weather, of course, every day, made the decision to wait until these rains were done, they would then go into their fields and harvest the thousands of acres that were planted in Louisiana in cotton, soybean, rice, sugarcane, sweet potatoes, and our beautiful pecan trees. They would wait until those rains subsided and then they would go to their fields for the harvest that they were expecting to be quite spectacular despite price inputs at the front of the season: high fuel and fertilizer costs. But then Hurricane Ike came and Hurricane Gustav, and the water just never went away. There was nowhere for it to go. The State I represent, as people will know their geography, is the State that basically drains, through the Mississippi River, the Arkansas, the Missouri River, comes down through the Mississippi River to Louisiana. There was simply nowhere for the water to go. It broke levees everywhere. The levees in New Orleans held because of the work I have been, in large measure, fighting for with others to help build. But levees have broken all over Louisiana, including Federal levees and non-Federal levees. We are a strong State but not always strong enough to hold in the water from the whole Nation. Although we have tried on many occasions to build the kind of levee system we need, we are 20 or 30 years behind. I got here 12 years ago and have worked every day to accelerate that, and I am going to stay here for as long as it takes to get the job done. Nonetheless, we are not there yet. So the water came into these fields. The farmers cannot harvest their crops. They cannot get into the fields to try to save what is left. This is a farmer who has farmed profitably with his family for probably over 50 years. He is from Chaneyville. This is what the rice fields look like if you grow rice in water, but it can't grow in salt water. So the salt water and the tidal surge came in, ruining the rice crop. Then, the cotton crop, which looked so beautiful just a couple of weeks ago--8 weeks ago--the farmers throughout the South were celebrating what a beautiful crop they may have. It has been a very tough year, as the Presiding Officer knows, with high fuel prices and the financial markets being unsettled, which has not just been going on the last few weeks. Farmers have had their eyes on that. Many of them are leveraged, as we know, quite a bit to try to produce safety the food that every single person in this country needs. But the cotton crop as it is now, thousands and thousands of acres, are absolutely unharvestable because of these rains. This Congress, Democrats and Republicans, is about ready to leave, having done nothing--nothing--not even a lifeline, not even a telegraph, not even a message to say: We hear you. Right now everyone is--many people--downstairs in a room talking about how we can build a levee around Wall Street. I understand that something has to be done about the financial situation. I am not sure I am in a position to be able to say exactly what should happen. But I can tell my colleagues that while everybody has been meeting for weeks about building a levee on Wall Street, the levees have already broken at home. They have already broken at home; not just in Louisiana but in Texas and in Arkansas and in Missouri and in Kansas and throughout the heartland. People who never even heard about a subprime loan, never, ever looked at an application for a subprime loan, never went to a bank to inquire about a subprime loan, and most certainly never knowingly bought one, their levees have already broken. Now, I would not have kept my colleagues here. I am known up here as tenacious but a team player. I fight hard, but I fight fair. I most certainly would not have asked 100 Members, for whom I have the greatest respect and with whom it has been my honor to work with, each of them, to have great difficulty in their plans for the weekend. I understand one-third are up for reelection. There are Senators who came to me to say they have taken the first--tried to take the first vacation with their child in 6 months. Other Senators have said they have had these plans. I understand that. I have two young children at home myself. But I could not leave without at least making a 1-hour pitch--and I am going to be here after the vote for several hours. I asked to speak for 1 hour before this vote because I wanted to be able to lay this case down. But I will be here for the rest of the day speaking about this and through the evening if the Senate stays in. As long as the Senate is in, I am prepared to be here because this is not a 1-hour grandstanding on my part. Please believe me. This is about my complete inability to understand how this Congress could pass four major appropriations bills--Defense, Homeland Security, the stimulus package, and--not the stimulus package--the disaster relief package, and the continuing resolution and fail to recognize that the program we established in good intentions and with goodwill is not even in existence yet to help these farmers. I wish to read from the terrific statement that our commissioner from Louisiana, Mike Strain, who has been leading this effort--not only for us but nationally--I wish to say something so people understand how strongly I feel about this issue. Mike Strain is not a Democrat; he is a Republican. I actually didn't even support him in his election. I supported someone else. But he is the agriculture commissioner now, and it is my job to stand with him and to do what I can to help our rural communities. So I asked him to testify before the committee that I chair this week to try to get something on the record in Congress to help. This is what our commissioner says, who is, by the way, a farmer himself. He is a veterinarian. He is very knowledgeable. He is a tenacious fighter. He came up and has spent days here trying to sound the alarm. He says: Louisiana agriculture faces unprecedented losses from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. This is the largest natural disaster affecting agriculture, aquaculture, forestry, and fisheries in Louisiana history. Now, that statement did get my attention. I have only been here 12 years, but for a commissioner who is knowledgeable, who is trained, who has been in the business, who has been elected by the people of my State, to make such a statement before a committee, I thought it might be worth it to bring that statement to the full floor of the Senate. He goes on: No parish or commodity was spared by these storms. From the cattle rancher and the oyster fisherman in the southernmost tip of Plaquemines Parish, to cotton farmers in the delta of East Carol Parish all were severely impacted. Combined with the timing of these storms, just prior to harvest, and the devastation caused by the wind (110 miles per hour), in Terrebonne Parish, the flooding (24 inches), in Franklin Parish, and the tidal surge (12 feet) in Cameron Parish, our agriculture community is in peril. He has held 11 meetings across the State with farmers and ranchers. I have been to several of them with him. There are several reasons our situation is so grave: One, the inadequacy of the crop insurance program we have in place, but the regulations aren't written yet, and there is no availability for our farmers to access; insufficient disaster provisions of the farm bill, which I just described; farmers who have contracts with elevators and cannot deliver the commodity; bank liens against partially filled commodity contracts; and deterioration of rain and cotton quality, which I have demonstrated with my pictures earlier. I wish to go on to read his statement to explain these in some detail: Higher input cost--Fuel and fertilizer costs have more than doubled since the start of the current crop. I don't know what the prices are in the Presiding Officer's State, but in the last year, gasoline prices and diesel prices have been on the rise. As the Presiding Officer knows, several of us have been in negotiations on bills trying to contain those costs. We have not yet been successful. But the price of gasoline and diesel over the last 12 to 15 months has doubled. Fertilizer prices have gone up 300 percent, and potash, which is a commonly used substance for our agriculture base, the farmers were faced with almost a 600-percent increase with no explanation. So their input costs were higher this year than almost any previous year. That is how the year started. Yet farmers absorbed it. They got their crops in the field and were ready for a good harvest, but that was a problem on the front end. Many farmers did not borrow enough money to cover these exorbitant costs. Some of them were totally unexpected. They used all their available credit. Since the storms occurred just prior to harvest, as I said, many of the farmers have incurred all the costs of the crop except harvesting and now will not be able to repay lenders and suppliers. I wish to say, they will not be able to repay lenders and suppliers. That is what the Wall Street bailout is all about. People unable-- banks, holding companies, financiers unable to meet their debts, and this Congress could not scramble fast enough to try to build them a levee. But to the farmers who can't pay their notes: You are on your own. He goes on to explain the inadequacy of the crop insurance program: The farm bill was signed late. Had producers known they would have had a disaster program included that was based on their crop insurance coverage levels, they may have made different coverage decisions. But in order to be eligible for the SURE program-- Which is the new program-- USDA requires farmers to purchase catastrophic insurance or to participate in the noninsured assistance program. Due to thin margins and high costs of buyout coverage levels, crop insurance protection participation is relatively low in Louisiana and other southern States. It is not that we don't want insurance. It is not that we don't believe in insurance. But the insurance programs that have been crafted by this Congress do not meet the needs of southern farmers. Every region of the country is very different, and the crop insurance programs that exist today have never been adequate for southern farmers. Although a farmer may have only harvested a portion of his crop, he may have already surpassed the yield threshold. A cotton farmer reported to me that he met with his insurance agent and based on preliminary calculations, even though he has more than 1,000 acres of cotton and is facing a 50 percent crop loss, he will only receive only $3,300 in insurance proceeds. Mr. President, $3,300 is not going to keep the farming community in this farmer's hometown moving forward in a strong position. The disaster provisions of the farm bill--I wish to read from his testimony and why it is inadequate: Many of our crops will not qualify for assistance under the current disaster provisions. All of the rules and regulations of the new 2008 Farm Bill had not been written. I repeat that for the record. The opponents of what I am trying to do--and they are unidentifiable by name, but obviously there is some opposition or we would have been able to get this amendment moving-- say: Senator, you are making a mountain out of a molehill because your farmers can get help through the 2008 disaster farm bill. We passed a farm bill. There is a disaster provision to try to help your farmers. So I want to read this into the Record: All of the rules and regulations-- Of that bill that is supposed to be a help for us-- . . . have not yet been written; and payments may not be available until October or November of 2009. Our farmers cannot wait until November of 2009 for assistance. They need it now. The only people who can give them assistance is us. So I am filing a bill today on behalf of myself, Senator Hutchison, Senator Lincoln, Senator Pryor, and Senator Wicker. On behalf of these Senators, I am introducing this bill today, and I urge other colleagues to look at this bill to see if they will join us in our efforts to put before this Congress at the earliest possible time a bill that will at least provide a glimmer of hope for these farmers and rural communities throughout America. I send the bill to the desk. Again, the reason this bill has to be introduced and the reason this speech had to be given today, and the reason this Congress must act before we leave--we are going to, it looks like, take a break for a day or two, come back for a couple of days next week, and it looks like there is going to be some bailout package for Wall Street. It might be a $700 billion package, it might be a $300 billion package, it could be a $400 billion package. By the time they finish negotiating, maybe it is only a $200 billion package. Right now, I am leaning against voting for that package, no matter how it is structured, without certain provisions in it. This bill asks for $1 billion--$1 billion of--which at least will help all the rest of the farming communities in this part of the country while we are working on bailing out the financial community. Mr. President, $1 billion. And maybe that is not sufficient. I introduce the bill at this level because our needs in Louisiana are $700 million. I know we might not be able to get every penny that our commissioner has testified we desperately need and most certainly can justify. I am most certainly willing for this $1 billion to be shared by the other States that can put forth their documents and put forth their requirements. Maybe this $1 billion is not sufficient. But I could not in good conscience leave here without putting something down with my colleagues. And this is a bipartisan effort. I am so grateful this morning that I was able to secure, by the motions that were provided this morning on the calendar, the support of Senator Hutchison of Texas. She cannot even get into some places in Texas to do the assessment because the water and damage is so high. But she has cosponsored this bill with me. I am very proud as well to have Senator Lincoln and Senator Pryor as cosponsors. I am going to yield to both of them in a moment. I see Senator Conrad is in the Chamber. I wish to give each of them 5 minutes to speak because they are quite knowledgeable about this situation--I must say more knowledgeable than I am about farm programs. Senator Lincoln is on the committee. Senator Conrad was the chief sponsor and designer of the farm disaster program. He helped to write it. Having his testimony and him speaking today about why the program that he wrote, with all good intentions, is not necessarily going to help us and why we need special assistance will give a lot of support to my arguments. I yield to my good friend from Arkansas for whatever she might require. I thank her for being a cosponsor of the bill.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Arkansas for her remarks. As you can see, she is one of the experts in farming policy of this country. We are very grateful. I now yield 5 minutes to the Senator from North Dakota.