Thomas Mott Osborne: “My colleagues, this is what the drought map looked like the early part of the summer. Unfortunately, that is about what…”

“My colleagues, this is what the drought map looked like the early part of the summer. Unfortunately, that is about what the drought map has looked like for 5 years. There have been minor changes here and there, but many climatologists have said this is a 500-year drought. It is not one that is every 30 or 40, but a 500-year drought. In many cases, it has been worse than what we encountered in the 1930s. So what we find now is that almost all of the reservoirs in this part of the country are down to 15, 20, 25 percent full, and many will be empty next year. So irrigators as well as dry land people are paying the price. Mr. Speaker, this has been a monumental problem and a 1-year drought is bad, but when you have 5 years, the amount of crop insurance you can buy goes down each year. So as a result, crop insurance does not do it. People have lost equity each year now for 5 years, and ranchers have not had pastures. Therefore, they have had to sell their breeding herds, and as a result, many of them are in pretty desperate shape. So it seems that nobody likes drought relief. Many people say that it is not a natural disaster. But it is as much a natural disaster as any other. You cannot stop it. You cannot predict it. It is like a hurricane, a flood or whatever.”