Ron Wyden: “Mr. President, the wheat farmers of the Pacific Northwest are 6 days away from a disaster. On July 15, Pakistan is going…”

“Mr. President, the wheat farmers of the Pacific Northwest are 6 days away from a disaster. On July 15, Pakistan is going to initiate a process to purchase 350,000 metric tons of white wheat for August 1 to 20 shipment. Without access to the Government credit guarantees that we are talking about here, U.S. producers are not going to sell a kernel of wheat to Pakistan. The USDA estimates that Pakistan is going to import just under a million metric tons this year. Now, our prices are at a low. This year's crop is going to be one of the best ever. But the fact is, farmers across this country are staring an economic train wreck in the eye. We have a storage and transportation bottleneck with the imminent wheat harvest. We have a fair amount of the old crop still in the bins. We are facing the prospect of storing a great deal of wheat on the ground this year.”