David Scott

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that Mr. Perlmutter may have 4 minutes as our final speaker.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I had so many Members that I couldn't get them all in. But I appreciate it, and I hope that I have shared with the American people tonight this case and the threat it holds for our very valuable unions. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, this is indeed a very, very important issue. I come at this from one who has worked with my good friend, Mr. Duffy, on this issue. More than that, I voted with Mr. Duffy for this bill in committee. However, there are some troubling things about this bill that could do one very damaging thing. It could put many of these proxy firms out of business. I want to take a moment to explain what the danger is in the bill that made me change my mind. I chatted with Mr. Duffy about it. He understands it. This is not to shed any negative light on his objective, but it is what he is doing to get to that objective that disturbs me and, I think, should disturb the people of this Congress and this country, and that is this: It could be summed up in, basically, 2 words: unilateral authority. That is what this bill provides to the Securities and Exchange Commission: unilateral authority to set the requirements, first of all, for what it means to be a proxy firm. When you put unilateral authority into the hands of a regulatory agency, we know the damage that can be done. And I agree that there may be some things that need to be done, but these words, ``unilateral authority,'' would mean that the Securities and Exchange Commission could establish any number of hurdles for these proxy advisory firms to jump over in order to just stay in business. Unilateral authority to do such things as setting financial requirements, one would say that nothing may be wrong with that; but other hurdles that the Securities and Exchange Commission could put up likely will be arbitrary, illogical, such as them setting requirements for how many employees a proxy firm should have. Mr. Speaker, this is a step too far, especially during a time in our country when Federal regulators have used their powers to attack the American people at any and every level.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, second, let me give you an example of how you can put too much regulatory authority into an agency. When HHS, this year, used their powers to attack women's health, that happened; or when the Department of Justice used their powers to reverse community policing reform at the Department of Justice. All I am saying in this particular argument, Mr. Speaker, is that Mr. Duffy is well-intended, but this goes too far, and I urge my colleagues to reject and vote ``no'' on this bill.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, as the Democratic lead on this bill, it is very important for me to point out that I worked very closely with Chairman Barney Frank and the Obama administration, both of which admitted at the time that it was a mistake, a blunt instrument, to be able to just put an arbitrary figure of $50 billion and say they are a threat to our financial stability. No. Our banking system deserves better than that. The American people deserve better than that. It is not the amount of money that you have got in your assets that caused the problem; it was what they were doing that caused the exposure. So we want to substitute the $50 billion to make sure that we have a five-point test that the Feds will give that will be able to determine if they are a threat to our security and then tailor a program of advanced supervision that would prevent them from causing us this problem. It is a great bill. It is time we corrected it, and I ask all of my colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, to do the right thing for the American people, and let's have a resounding ``yes'' vote for this SIFI bill.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning to pay honor to an extraordinary, great American. Mr. Tim McVay, vice president and general manager of WSB Television, is retiring after 39 years as a top executive with Cox Media Group television stations across this Nation, from Dayton, Ohio, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; to San Francisco, California; and to Atlanta, Georgia, earning Tim McVay the highest awards in television, including the Edward R. Murrow Award, the Peabody Award, the Emmy Award, the Alfred I. duPont Award, and induction into the prestigious Silver Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Tim McVay is a great American, deeply rooted in his love of country and his love of family: his loving wife, Cindy, and his sons, Sean and Ryan. His son, Sean, Mr. Speaker, is head coach of the Los Angeles Rams. He is the youngest head coach in the history of the NFL. His father, the legendary John McVay, was the head of football operations for the San Francisco 49ers and won five Super Bowls. What a great all-American story. But there is more, Mr. Speaker, that I must tell you about Tim McVay. Tim McVay's life has been like that shining light on the hill, reaching out, helping other people, loving his neighbor as himself, that most sacred of commandments, whether it is helping the hundreds of television journalists, young people in their careers who are now leading in the television industry, or helping me and hundreds of our companies and employers, corporations in Georgia with our annual jobs fair where we have gotten over 12,000 jobs for Georgians; or our health fair that we have every year where we give breast cancer exams and prostate exams to those individuals who, for reasons of income, don't have insurance, saving lives; and our veterans, the work that Tim McVay has helped us with our veterans. Mr. Speaker, let me tell you, it was Tim McVay, under his leadership at WSB Television in Atlanta, Georgia, and his WSB reporter Aaron Diamant who exposed to this Nation the tragically high suicide rates of our veterans and then got behind me and my Republican fellow Member of Congress, Larry Bucshon of Indiana, and helped us pass legislation to get more psychiatrists into the VA. God bless Tim McVay, and God bless the United States of America, land of the free and the home of the brave.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to deal with two things quickly in my 2 minutes. I want to deal with the CFPB's directorship, but let me start with clarifying a few things. First of all, manufactured housing is the cornerstone of affordable housing in this country. Nobody argues that. Manufactured housing is in every State in this Union. In my State of Georgia, it accounts for 12 percent of all the affordable housing units. In some States, it is even higher than that. I just simply want to clarify why I support the bill. It is because of two things: One, it is because of the devastating Federal regulations that are on it for these hundreds of thousands and millions of customers. What it is doing is making the American people unable to purchase manufactured housing. I think we have to look at that. It is also eroding the home values of existing owners of manufactured housing. Our bill simply moves to correct it by doing three things: we just simply do some technical clarifications to the definition of ``mortgage originator,'' ``loan originator,'' and ``high-cost mortgage.'' Let me just say this. I was an original sponsor of Dodd-Frank. What we put in there, we made sure that mortgage protection and Dodd-Frank is protected in here, including anybody steering anybody into any kind of loans with predatory implications. So all that is in there. This is a great debate. There are two sides to it. But when you look at it, it is the millions of Americans who are suffering from the inability to get the mobile homes, the inability to keep them, and all we are doing is simply making these minor adjustments.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. I do want to clarify about the CFPB Director, and I want the American people to listen to me. In section 1011 of Dodd-Frank, paragraph 5, it states this: the Deputy Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Board shall be appointed by the Director and serve as acting Director in the absence or unavailability of the Director. We wrote this. This is the law. We must abide by it.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Neal. I appreciate this time. Madam Speaker, my heart is heavy tonight, and it is heavy because we are faced with the absolute, most dangerous, destructive, and deceitful tax reform bill in the history of this Congress. Now, let me tell you why. On the other side, you have heard Member after Member on the other side get up and tell you: This is going to get a tax cut, we are going to give the wealthy a tax cut, we are going to give the corporations a tax cut. But none of them have told you, or the American people, how they are going to pay for it. And the great tragedy is, the most deceitful thing about what my colleagues on the other side are doing to the American people is they are doing these tax cuts for the wealthy, the tax cuts for the corporations, on the backs of the poor, the middle class. Let me tell you why. They won't tell you that they are paying for this tax cut because on--$1.5 trillion that they will cut from Medicaid, from Medicare. Madam Speaker, Medicaid is for the children. There are literally millions of children on there. You heard one of my colleagues go down. We are losing 20 veterans to suicide every single day. No mention of that. Yet they will cut the veterans program designed to help them to pay for this tax cut. Not to mention the student loan interest rate. Young people across this country, you need to rise up. Seniors, we need to rise up.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. We need to rise up and stand and fight for this country. Let our minds go back to 1770, in Boston, at the harbor, when they threw the tea over that founded the foundation of our great democracy. I ask the American people to stand up and help us Democrats defeat this dangerous bill.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Waters for yielding. First, it is very important for us to understand that flooding, Mr. Speaker, is no longer just a coastal lawmaker's problem. Flooding is now running rampant in every part of our country. So I think that every Member on the floor today and every Member of Congress needs to ask themselves a question, and that is: Are you really willing to put your name on this bill? Are you really willing to vote for this bill that will drastically raise premiums on your constituents without putting the necessary guardrails in place so those who can't afford the high costs can still buy flood insurance? Now, one example I am talking about is this, Mr. Speaker--and I want to make this clear. I hope that there are listeners on C-SPAN who will tune in. Call your neighbors, call somebody. So you listen to this: This bill, H.R. 2874, will require policyholders to pay for any assistance they get when their States create affordability programs. Here is an example: Mr. Duffy's bill allows for the creation of a voluntary State-run affordability program. But here is the catch, Mr. Speaker: there isn't one dime of funding provided in this bill to set up and implement this program. Instead, Mr. Duffy's bill says the cost of any discount given to policyholders will have to be offset by fee increases on other policyholders within the same State. Now, Mr. Speaker, this is the Achilles' heel in this flood insurance business. I can guarantee you that this would have a gravely negative impact on all of us who are low to middle income. Mr. Speaker, I made it clear to Mr. Jeb Hensarling, our distinguished chairman; and to Mr. Duffy that we are willing to walk across party lines.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. But we offered this, as the ranking member said, as an excellent opportunity. This summer, we spent week after week on this bill so that we could move this bill forward in a way that would address affordability, which was a major concern of mine, of the ranking member's, and those of us on our side of the aisle. There is no affordability in here. It is very important for us to point out that this plan will put an overburden on the States, and then they have to pass it on in fees to the others. Unfortunately, it is a terrible bill. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend the people of Douglas County and the Douglas County Board of Commissioners for designating October as Douglas County Behavioral Health Month. Millions of Americans have behavioral health challenges. Unfortunately, many go without needed behavioral health treatment. The goal of Behavioral Health Month is to ``Stomp the Stigma'', the negative attitudes and behaviors toward individuals with behavioral health challenges. Stigma can lead to lack of understanding by friends, family, and coworkers. It can also lead to bullying, harassment, or physical violence. As a result, many individuals are reluctant to seek behavioral health care, isolate themselves, or have feelings of shame and insecurity. This October, the Douglas County Board of Commissioners is uniting schools, religious organizations, military and veterans' organizations, and healthcare and legal professionals. Together, Douglas County is working to increase awareness and understanding of challenges, reduce stigma and discrimination, and promote accessible services for individuals with behavioral health challenges. Please join me in commending the people of Douglas County and the Douglas County Board of Commissioners for their efforts to increase awareness about behavioral health challenges and ``Stomp the Stigma''.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, let me start off by letting the America people know fully why we Democrats on this side of the aisle are opposed to this bill. Nobody has worked as hard as Democrats on this bill, Mr. Speaker, but the reason we object to it is that the flood insurance part of this bill was a result of cherry-picking items that they wanted. The American people deserve better than that. Then they attach it to an FAA bill with a 6-month extension. That is no way to treat the issues that we have today. All you have got to do is click on the television and look at what is happening to American citizens in Puerto Rico, Florida, Texas. And you are going to put something where they cherry-picked this together to solve this particular problem? There is no sense of urgency here, Mr. Speaker. Another reason is that, unlike all of our other disaster tax credit relief packages, every time we have had an expansion added to the bill, we expanded these tax credits for low-income people, expanded the tax credits for the new markets area for people to immediately come in and invest. Not in this bill. There is no expansion in this bill. My friends over there talk about bipartisanship. My middle name is bipartisanship. There is nobody on that committee who works harder for bipartisanship than David Scott. But the one piece of bipartisanship--our amendment that I worked feverishly on with the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Duffy), in which we were able to address the issue of the penalties of expense on those poor people who chose to have their monthly installments there and not be punished for it.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. We worked together on that and cut that cost in half. That one bipartisan piece of endeavor in our Financial Services Committee is not even included in this bill. That is why we are opposed to it. Let's treat the American people the way they deserve. There is no better time. You are talking about expanding the help. Our people, American citizens in Puerto Rico, Florida, and Texas, deserve for us to have a complete flood insurance program, not piecemeal.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Sinema for that very nice introduction. Ladies and gentlemen of the Nation who are listening or watching us on C-SPAN, I want to impress that we have exactly, right now, 40,000 soldiers--veterans--who are committing suicide each year. This is a national crisis, but it is more than that. It is a national tragedy, but it is more than that. It is an American national shame. These soldiers go where they are commanded to go. They go into a hail of bullets. They go and they fight and they die. They leave an arm, they leave a leg, they leave so much of themselves on the battlefield, and so many leave their minds there because of the devastation. And when we bring them back home, the level of treatment that many of them are getting, and even not getting, is, again, a national tragedy and a national shame. It is my home that the plea that America will hear this day from these Members of Congress will awaken us to what I believe is, and should be, the number one issue facing this Nation: take care of our veterans. Twenty a day, 40,000 every year, is terrible. Now, myself, what am I doing? Each year, I put on a jobs fair. But I don't put on that jobs fair by myself. Partnering with me is the VA, where we have, in Atlanta, Georgia, at that convention and trades center, a jobs fair each year with the VA, and we are averaging about 450 jobs each year. But we don't stop there. We have a health fair because it is the PTSD--post-traumatic stress syndrome--that is this archenemy that we are not examining. The reason for that is that there is a severe shortage of psychiatrists in the VA and there is a severe shortage of primary care physicians in the VA. So right here in this legislature, my good Republican friend, Larry Bucshon from Indiana, and I--and he is a doctor--have worked together. We put together legislation 2 years ago, in 2015, for the special appropriations for veterans that we would pay the tuition, pay the loan forgiveness, for those physicians who are psychiatrists and who will go and work in the VA. But we didn't stop there. Knowing how the vagarious income levels are structured and the pay scales are structured according to where you live in the United States--and we have VA hospitals, VA centers all over this country, and the salary levels vary--we made sure that an added incentive would be to those graduating psychiatrists who will go and help our veterans and go help us fulfill this shortage, that we would make sure that their incoming salary would be at least 2 percent higher than that average. My only heartbreak in all of this is that we were only able to get 12. And I can tell you how much that broke my heart by this Congress. But it is a start. This bill will be replenished. And if you in the public can help us, if we want to do something right now about cutting down on the number of suicides that our veterans are having, help us get more psychiatrists into the VA system, help me and Larry Bucshon and many Democrats and Republicans who voted for the initial piece of legislation--we only got 12 the first time, but we should get 300, 400, 500. We should be willing to make that appropriation. We can talk, we can sympathize, we can do all of that, but we need to get better treatment, psychiatric treatment, for our veterans. That will not happen, ladies and gentlemen, if we don't get more psychiatrists into the VA system. So give Larry Bucshon from Indiana, my Republican friend, a call. My office, give me a call. But better than that, call your Congressman and say: Let's get this bill expanded so we can get more psychiatrists. The Congress will move if the American people say move. Now, finally, I must say this. There is no one that embodies the final words of Jesus Christ before he was crucified. Those final words that he spoke to his disciples 24 hours before he was crucified were: ``Love one another as I have loved you.'' And there is no greater love than that one who will lay down his life for his friend. That, ladies and gentlemen, is our veteran.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I love this country. The heart and soul of our country is our financial system. This bill is a dangerous bill to our economy. Let me tell you why. First of all, it takes away all of our consumer protections. I want to give you an example. Before we had Dodd-Frank, a bank that is insured by the taxpayers could go in and use their customer's money. They could take their customer's money out to invest in risky bets, and then when the bets go south, it is the taxpayers that have to pick up the freight. Secondly, let us use this example. Because of the impact and the complexities of our financial system, so much of the cause and effect of the downturn were the big banks. What Dodd-Frank did was provide a test to be able to go in and simulate and confer with the bank to prevent it from going overboard. Wake up, America. I have talked with our Senators and they have assured me that this bill is dead on arrival in the Senate.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to make one point: It is most shameful to take $882 billion out of Medicaid to help the poor--

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia.--and give it to the wealthy. That is the wrong thing to do.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. I thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, I rise in great support of the Ross-Engel bill against this most deceitful and shameful U.N. resolution. That is what we are here for. This act was shameful and it was deceitful. When the U.N. voted for this 2334 resolution, it was like cutting Israel's legs out from under it and then condemning Israel for being a cripple. Shameful and deceitful because they wanted to put all of the blame on Israel when it is the Palestinians who refuse to even meet to discuss or to even talk about a two-nation state. It is the Palestinians who say Israel doesn't even have a right to exist. How in the hell are you going to meet with somebody to talk about a combined future when they will not give you decent recognition?

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. I thank the gentleman because this part is very important. Mr. Speaker, this Nation is blessed. We have been blessed with divine intervention all through our history to be that shining light on the hill, to let all of our great work show for the world. We have an opportunity here tonight for this Congress to stand up and show that light for Israel. Stand up for Israel and show our great works to this world. That is what I say, so let it be written and let it be done.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the renowned, award-winning Atlanta Voice newspaper. Founded in 1966 by J. Lowell Ware and Ed Clayton, the Atlanta Voice has provided an enduring channel for news in Atlanta's African-American community. The Atlanta Voice's Founder and Publisher J. Lowell Ware was a native Georgian who developed an interest in journalism in high school when he took a part-time job at the Birmingham Alabama Mirror. He later earned a B.A. in printing and journalism from Alabama A&M University and completed a tour with the U.S. Army before returning back to Atlanta to launch a weekly newspaper with journalist Ed Clayton. Ware and Clayton started the Atlanta Voice to provide fair and credible coverage of the Civil Rights Movement, which was heating up in the South with increasing student sit-ins and activities of the Southern Christian Leadership Council. Under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, members of the press should enjoy protected rights to publish information and opinions without interference or reprisal from the American government. The Atlanta Voice was founded at a time, however, when these rights were not universally shared. The newspaper's African-American publishers faced threats to their lives and property simply for exercising their First Amendment rights to provide accurate coverage of the Movement. Ware recounted years later, ``We got a lot of threats, but we didn't stop publishing.'' Living by their motto, ``A People Without a Voice Cannot Be Heard,'' the Atlanta Voice has endured and recorded 50 historic years of social, political and economic changes in the African-American community in Atlanta. And the Atlanta Voice continues to serve, with courage and integrity, as a beacon of journalistic hope for the entire African- American community, regardless of age, income or socioeconomic status. Mr. Speaker, please join me in honoring the Atlanta Voice on this momentous anniversary. I rise today to celebrate a newspaper that has been an informative news source for so many Georgians, and I ask my colleagues to join me in commemorating the newspaper's 50th anniversary and continued service to the Greater Atlanta community.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, the United States Congress today gives great and special recognition to an extraordinary Georgian and a great American, Ms. Jocelyn Dorsey, for her pioneering and trailblazing career with WSB Television, the flagship station in Atlanta, Georgia, of Cox Enterprises, and also for her induction into the prestigious Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. I am pleased to join with my colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, as we share with the Nation Ms. Dorsey's remarkable contributions and her high nobility of purpose. Jocelyn Dorsey was the very first African American to anchor a television newscast in the Atlanta market, ushering in the New South. She broke down racial barriers in television--in anchoring, in reporting, in management, in producing. Jocelyn Dorsey is a one-of-a- kind because she was able to put together an award-winning public affairs television program called ``People to People.'' Truly, through this program, Jocelyn Dorsey has done and is doing God's work, which is in helping those who need help the most: children who need shelter, children with disabilities, and disabled veterans. As well, her work in breast cancer and prostate cancer and for Sisters By Choice is absolutely legendary. Every year, Jocelyn Dorsey is a major partner in Georgia's largest job fairs and health fairs, bringing badly needed jobs to thousands of Georgians and to our military veterans. What an extraordinary person Ms. Jocelyn Dorsey is. She has been with this station, WSB, for 43 years. That is very significant because WSB Television has been in existence for 67 years--43 years out of the station's 67 years of existence. As famous WSB sportscaster Chuck Dowdle said, Jocelyn Dorsey is the backbone of WSB Television. Mr. Speaker, she loves her motorcycle, and she rode that motorcycle all the way from Alaska to Key West, Florida, and raised $250,000 for the Special Olympics. You talk about God's work. That is it that she is doing--7,680 miles. It took her 21 days. I am telling you, Mr. Speaker, that God gives us His loving kindness and His grace by His divine calling to certain persons. Such a person is Jocelyn Dorsey, and we in the United States Congress today take great pride in having her story, which is a great American story, enshrined into the Congressional Record and into the congressional Library of Congress for all times, for generations to come--forever. God bless Jocelyn Dorsey with WSB Television, and God bless the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and God bless the United States of America.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Scott, whom I affectionately refer to as my cousin from Georgia, and my good, dear friend in addition to that. This is a remarkable 100-year observance of a truly remarkable organization that provided a great need at a great time. Imagine where we were 100 years ago. In 1916, the world teetering on World War I, boll weevil, a lot of things happening. Just a matter of, perhaps, 50 years, the South recovering from the Civil War. Great devastation. Enter into this picture of great need comes Farm Credit. When we celebrate this 100-year anniversary, we have to celebrate it right. We have to let people know the importance, and why this organization came into existence. And I say, Mr. Speaker, that particularly in the South, we might not have really made it as quickly in terms of our recovery as we did if it were not for Farm Credit. On this 100th anniversary, we have so much to celebrate, so many fine people. Those who started it are gone, but they built it on a solid foundation that had lasted. Agriculture is the single most important industry in the world. It is the food we eat, it is the water we drink, it is the clothes we wear, and it is the financial system that we have created. The very commitment that Chairman Austin Scott and I share was birthed out of that--the Commodities Exchange. The South didn't have everything it needed, but it had the land and it had the crops. It had commodities. Farm Credit provided the liquidity that our farmers needed. So there is so much to cherish in this time that we are celebrating. There is something else, too, Mr. Speaker, as we look at this. As Chairman Scott said, 72 percent of their loans are going to beginning, new farmers. Now, why do I say that is so important? Because the number one issue that we are faced with today is the age of the average farmer. To me, and to many of us in agriculture, this is not only a farming issue, it is a national issue, that the average age of a farmer today is 60 years of age. What other industry has that? What other sector has that? That is why we have to move aggressively. That is why I appreciate Farm Credit so much--because they jumped out front. Seventy-two percent of their lending capacity goes to getting young, beginning farmers in. The other thing is they are partnering with our committee and going a step further. There is so much we can do. But, Mr. Speaker, it was the land grant colleges in the South that was the pivot. The 1860s and the 1890s is what pulled this country and pulled the South together. Every 5 years, we put a farm bill together. In that farm bill, we allocate badly needed dollars to these 1890 land grant institutions as well as to the 1860s. I mention that because we have to get young, beginning farmers-- African Americans, White, all of America's people. So what we are doing is to open up a new spending category in the farm bill for these 1890s that we will be able to give loan forgiveness and scholarships to young people who will go into farming. That is how we solve this problem. And Farm Credit has to template. They are there with that other arm. Mr. Speaker, it costs $8,000 just for one acre of land. You can hardly get a tractor for less than $50,000. It is needed--when these young people graduate and they have that loan forgiveness there, they have that debt in school--in order for them to go and become farmers. They have to pay $8,000 to start with just an acre, and $50,000. But if we would be able to help them and say: We will help your loan forgiveness. I mention that because the people at Farm Credit said: Let me reach out a hand. Let me help Fort Valley State in Georgia to partner with the University of Georgia. Let me help Florida A&M University Land Grant to work with the University of Florida, a land grant. Let me help Alabama A&M University and Tuskegee Institute work with the University of Alabama. That is how we solve this problem. That is why it is important for us to understand the foundation. Farm Credit was developed out of a crisis need, and here they are moving to help with another crisis need to get more young people involved in farming. I say a national crisis because, Mr. Speaker, if we allow this to continue without addressing this highly escalating age of our farmers, we will be in serious trouble. For if we do not continue to be the leading agriculture producer in the world and have to depend on other nations to feed us, that is a national crisis. So on this 100th anniversary, isn't it something that we celebrate Farm Credit when they ushered in and came and helped to restore and invigorate America at a great time, and they are still doing the same thing today? With a century of experience and a focus on the future, I want to say to Farm Credit: God bless Farm Credit. God bless those 100 years. We look forward to many hundred more years. And God bless the United States of America.