WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies – was the first Member of Congress to visit the U.S. Army Cyber Command Headquarters at Fort Belvoir. During his meetings on Friday, Army Cyber Command briefed him on our nation’s efforts combat cyber-attacks and maintain readiness.

“It was a pleasure meeting with the Commander of Army Cyber Command and the cyber warrior soldiers he leads, including two Kansans, whose critical operations and cyber missions are serving soldiers overseas,” Sen. Moran said. “Army systems and programs at Fort Belvoir protect our nation from adversaries seeking to disrupt our way of life with asymmetric warfare. I appreciate all the hard work of the young, motivated soldiers I met on Friday and found the visit extremely valuable.”

“We were honored to host Sen. Moran and his team at Army Cyber Command Headquarters on Friday where he met the young men and women that work around the clock to defend our country and our Army against adversaries in cyberspace,” said Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone, commander, U.S. Army Cyber Command. “Our mission is complex, but our priorities here at Army Cyber are clear: operate and aggressively defend Army networks, deliver cyberspace effects against our adversaries, and develop the tools our Army will need to maintain readiness for the future fight. We were grateful for the opportunity to demonstrate these priorities to such an esteemed visitor, and send thanks to Sen. Moran and his colleagues in Congress for their support to the state-of-the-art Army Cyber Command Operations Center complex currently under construction at Ft. Gordon, Ga., a regional hub of innovation and the eventual center of gravity for the U.S. Army in Cyberspace.”

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Mr. President, I come to the floor today to speak about legislation I just recently introduced, although it’s a follow-on to legislation that I pursued over a number of years. We’ve now introduced in this Congress The Cuba Trade Act. This is legislation which would lift the trade embargo to allow farmers and ranchers, small businesses and other private sector industries to freely conduct business – to sell products, agriculture products in particular, to the nation of Cuba, to its people. 

Last month, I spoke about the terrific difficulties our farmers in Kansas and across the country are facing due to low commodity prices. The farm economy has fallen by nearly 50% since 2013 and that decline is expected to continue in 2017 making this perhaps if not the – certainly one of the worst – economic times, economic downturns in farm country since the Great Depression. 

In 2016, the harvest in our state and across much of the country were record-breaking yields. Historic in their magnitude, in fact. What that means is there are still piles of wheat, corn and other grains all across Kansas just sitting on the ground next to the grain bins that are already filled to capacity. To sell this excess supply, our farmers need more markets to sell food and fiber that they produce. 

Approximately 95% of the world’s customers live outside the United States borders. Markets in the United States, they’ll continue to grow and they’ll evolve and will continue to meet the domestic consumer demand providing the best, highest quality, safest food supply in the world. But, in order to boost prices for American farmers, we need more markets. We need them now. We need them in the future. And we need to be able to indicate to our farmers that hope is in the works in global markets. We’ve talked about the importance of trade, of exports in the United States, and particularly to the citizens of Kansas. But that is particularly true for an agricultural state like ours where, again, 95% of the consumers live some place outside the United States. 

Cuba is only 90 miles off our border. They offer a potential for increased exports, of all sorts of products, but especially Kansas wheat. And in fact, while we’re introducing this legislation now, we started down this path to increase our ability to sell agricultural commodities, food and medicine to Cuba back when I was a member of the House of Representatives. 

I offered an amendment then to an appropriations bill that lifted the embargo, the ability to sell, that would allow the ability to sell those food, agricultural commodities and medicine to Cuba for cash upfront. And that bill was passed. It was controversial then. This issue of whether – what our relationship ought to be with Cuba has always been contentious. But I remember the vote was about, I think, 301-116. A majority of Republicans and majority of Democrats said: ‘it’s time to do something different with our relationship with Cuba.’

This was a significant step in opening up the opportunity to market the products of American farmers and ranchers to that country. No longer was food, medicine and agriculture commodities prohibited from being sold. And it worked for a little while, but unfortunately, in 2005 the Treasury Department changed the regulations and it complicated the circumstance really related to the embargo. 

Cuba imports of the vast majority of its food. In fact, wheat is Cuba’s second-largest import, second only to oil. And a point I would stress is that this is a unilateral sanction. Keep in mind that when we don’t sell agricultural commodities to Cuba, somebody else does. While our unilateral trade barriers block our own farmers and ranchers from filling the market, willing sellers such as Canada and France, China and others benefit at the American farmers’ expense. When we can’t sell wheat that comes from a Kansas wheat field to Cuba, they’re purchasing that wheat from France, from Canada, from other European countries. When the president’s rice crop can’t be sold in Cuba, it’s not that they’re not buying rice; they're buying it from Vietnam, China or elsewhere. It costs about six to seven dollars a ton to ship grain from the United States to Cuba. It costs about 20 to 25 dollars to ship that same grain from the European Union. This competitive advantage we lose because of the regulations that are in place that drive up the cost of Cuba consumers dealing with United States.

To understand what we’re missing out on in Cuba, consider our current relationship – trade relationship – with the Dominican Republic. The D.R. is also a nearby Caribbean nation with a comparable population as Cuba’s. Income levels and diet are similar. Between 2013 and 2015, the Dominican Republic imported an average of $1.3 billion in farm products. During the same time span, Cuba imported just $262 million. Over $1 billion in difference. That’s right: $1 billion of exports by U.S. farmers that are missing that opportunity because of the restrictions. This example illustrates the substantial potential that exists for increased sale of agricultural commodities to Cuba. 

The Cuba Trade Act that I have just introduced seeks to amend our own country’s laws so that American farmers can operate on a level playing field with the rest of the world. While boosting American exports remains a primary goal of lifting the embargo, I also think there’s an opportunity for us to increase the reforms, to improve the lives of the Cuban people as well. 

I've often said here on the Senate floor and on the House floor and back home in Kansas, we often say: ‘We’ll try something once. If it doesn’t work, we might even try it again. Maybe we try it a third or fourth time.’ But after more than 50 years of trying to change the nature of the Cuban government through this kind of action – through this embargo, many Kansans would say: ‘It’s time to try something else.’

The Cuban embargo was well-intentioned at the time it was enacted. Today, however, it only serves to hurt our own national interests by restricting Americans’ freedoms and to conduct business with that country. In my view, it is that time to make a change and we ought to be able to sell wheat, rice, and other agricultural commodities from the United States for cash to Cuba. And this legislation would allow that at no expense to the American taxpayer.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) today spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate about the fires burning across Kansas this week. He shared experiences of the Gardiner family, ranchers in Clark County, Kan., from a Wichita Eagle article authored by Michael Pearce about the impact the fires have had on the family and their livestock.

“Although it’s not a big national news story, Kansas is ablaze,” said Sen. Moran. “There is no doubt the impact of the fires and tornadoes that swept across the plains earlier this week has been devastating. But I am not surprised that Kansans are working together as friends and neighbors to overcome the challenges we face. I’m thankful for the willingness of so many living nearby – and across the country – who have volunteered to help us rebuild fences, bring in much-needed hay, and offer any assistance we need. And I’m thankful to represent Kansans who care for one another and treat each other as family.”

A transcript of Sen. Moran’s remarks can be found below:

(0:01) “Mr. President, there’s a lot to be proud about, from my view, of being a Kansan. We have lots of challenges in our state. We’re undergoing serious ones at the moment. For those of you who’ve noticed on the news, although it’s not particularly a story here in the nation’s capital, but Kansas is ablaze. Fires are devastating acres and acres… nearly 700,000 acres in our state of grassland have been burned. Fires have started. We’ve had winds for the last three days 50 to 60 miles an hour and we’ve had dozens of communities and counties that have been evacuated. Lots of places that have been hard hit. My home county of Rooks has experienced those fires. Hutchinson, a community of 50,000 people, had to evacuate 10,000 people in what we could consider in our state a pretty big place. They’ve been rampant and real and had significant consequences to many, many lives in our state.

(1:26) “On my way over here, I was reading a couple of articles that appeared in Kansas press that… I wanted to bring to my colleagues’ attention. There’s nothing here that necessarily asks for any kind of government help, but it does highlight the kind of people I represent.

(2:23) “There’s lots of great ranch families in our state. One of those is the Gardiners… Their story is told a bit in the Wichita Eagle, in today’s edition. They are known as some of the best ranchers in the country. For more than 50 years they provided the best Angus cattle. They have customers across the country, but it’s a family ranch. This is multi-generational and three brothers now ranch together.

(3:03) “One of the reasons I appreciate the opportunity to advocate on behalf of farmers and ranchers, it’s one of the last few places in which sons and daughters work side by side with moms and dads, in which grandparents are involved in the operation. Our grandkids grow up knowing their grandparents. There’s a way of life here that’s important to the country. Our values, our integrity, our character is often transmitted from one generation to a next… because we’re still able to keep the family together working generation to generation.

(4:14) “Like others, the Gardiners have endured plenty of bumps… over five generations of ranching. The drought and dust of the 1930s was tough, he said, and even drier times in the 1950s… Five years ago we had another drought in our state that was so devastating. He said his family lost 2,000 acres when they couldn't make a payment to the bank. Blizzards in 1992 killed a lot of cattle. 

(4:45) “My point is that nothing is easy about this life, but there’s something so special about it… people are responding to help and I want to thank Kansans and others from across the country who are responding to the disasters occurring across our state throughout this week and into the future.

(6:07) “The reporter says that while he was talking to Mr. Gardiner for this interview, Gardiner answered his cell phone as his pickup slowly rolled down the landscape that now looks so barren… many of the calls were from clients who just called to send their best, to be brought up to date, to ask the Gardiners how could they help, how were the Gardiners holding up. Mr. Gardiner says it’s really something special when you hear a pause on the other end of the line and you know it’s a pause because the person who’s called is crying because they care that much. It’s like that with ranching, Mr. Gardiner says, we’re all a family. It’s a great thing about our state. It’s like that with Kansas. We're all a family. 

(8:19) “Today I come to the Senate floor to express my gratitude for the opportunity to represent Kansans like the Gardiners – farmers and ranchers across our state, but city folks as well – who know the importance of family. Who know that living or dying is an important aspect of life, but… how they live is more important… And to thank those people not just from Kansas but across the country who’ve rallied to the cause to make sure there is a future for these families and for the farming and ranching operations. It’s a great country in which we care so much for each other and it is exemplified in this time of disaster that occurs across my state. I am grateful to see the example and I would encourage my colleagues in Kansas that we behave the way that Kansas farmers and ranchers do, live life for the things that are really meaningful and make sure we take care of each other.”

Click here to watch the tribute on YouTube, or here to download the video file.

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