Mark Hatfield: “I, too, want to add my word of congratulations to the leadership of this committee, Senator Lugar and Senator Leahy, for…”

“I, too, want to add my word of congratulations to the leadership of this committee, Senator Lugar and Senator Leahy, for bringing forth an upgrading and updating of this agricultural legislation. Mr. President, the flood of 1996 in my part of the country has had a devastating impact on much of my State. What I have enjoyed for many years, and now in my adopted home, is the lush and green countryside of the coastal area. It is now barren and covered beneath 2 feet of river silt. The once bountiful pasture lands are no more, and the dairy cows struggle, searching the bare landscape to find scant morsels of food. Many businesses, homes, and families have been adversely affected by the flood. Imagine a small part of this flood damage area, a small county in northwestern Oregon, seven raging rivers running through it and the silt-laden waste water flooding into three bays of the Pacific Ocean. There is such a county, and that county, Mr. President, is Tillamook County, a good Indian name, Tillamook County. Tillamook County on the northern Oregon coast is the poorest per capita income county of the 36 counties in my State. The entire population of the town of Tillamook consists of only 4,000 people. Roads which connect Tillamook to the rest of the State have been and will be closed for months.”