William Helms: “I oppose both Senator Santorum's amendments, which are renewed assaults on the livelihoods of America's family farmers…”

“I oppose both Senator Santorum's amendments, which are renewed assaults on the livelihoods of America's family farmers who produce peanuts. I should reiterate that there are more than 20,000 North Carolinians involved in various aspects of the peanut industry. We've been down this road time and time again. However, this time, even the fiercest critics of the peanut program should acknowledge the extensive changes made by Congress in the 1996 farm bill. The most important change was the conversion of the peanut program into a no-net cost commodity program. The burden of these changes is being borne by America's peanut farmers who understood the necessity of revamping the program in order for it to survive. The support price was cut by 10 percent, from $678 per ton to $610 and because of many other changes, peanut farmers anticipate that their incomes will decline by more than 20 percent. So clearly, America's peanut farmers have agreed to-- indeed, participated in reforming the program that has served the consumers of America so well. And, by the way, in North Carolina alone, the peanut industry generates more than $100 million in revenue. Moreover, the American taxpayers will save more than $434 million as a result of the reforms in the program.”