Victor Fazio: “I simply rise in strong opposition to this amendment to cut a program which has been very successful in fighting…”

“I simply rise in strong opposition to this amendment to cut a program which has been very successful in fighting subsidies that continue to be provided by our international trading competitors in agriculture. We have literally transformed this bill through debates on this floor over the last several years. This program was at one time authorized at $350 million. It is now down to 90 million. We are concentrating on small business. Of the 564 companies that are participating in this program, putting up equal amounts to match the Federal dollars, we now have 417 of them, small businesses as defined by the SBA. We are doing away with the branded marketing concept. I regret that, frankly, but it had critics here and we did away with it. But the GAO tells us that we need to do more of this, that we are being taken advantage of in the international market. Despite the fact that our ag exports have grown by 50 percent since 1990, we continue to find, in crop after crop, that foreign subsidies push our farmers out of markets. We should not adopt this amendment. I rise in opposition to the amendment and in support of this program. There is probably no more important tool for export promotion than MAP throughout the United States and particularly in California.”