Mike Enzi: “we are having a crisis in the West. Actually, we are having a crisis anywhere that there are people who raise livestock.…”

“we are having a crisis in the West. Actually, we are having a crisis anywhere that there are people who raise livestock. The crisis comes about as a result of neither fair trade nor free trade--in fact, the elimination of both. This bill is designed to make a correction in that. It is a clarification. I do not think the clarification would be necessary if enforcement were done, but this bill will clearly set out that a part of the problem can be solved. Part of the crisis that particularly the small farmers and ranchers who raise livestock have is the drought we are having in the West. We are in the fourth year of a drought right now. That is resulting in a lot of for sale and auction signs going up on ranches. This is partly because they are not getting the proper price for their product. It is a controlled market; it is not a free market. To bring it to a level that more people would understand, imagine trying to sell a house where the U.S. tradition might have changed so that everybody worked through a realtor, or at least 80 percent of the people worked through a realtor, and the realtor did not really show the house to other people. The realtor bought the house and then put it on the market themselves. The realtor had the capability to set the market price because of the other houses they owned. That is what is happening with captive supply.”