Wyoming and Oklahoma -- The Real Story on Their Need for Disaster Assistance

In 2006, Wyoming had the worst case of drought in our country. Oklahoma was close behind, as was west Texas. President Bush and the Republican Majority in Congress didn't want to help so for two years in a row, they locked the disaster relief bill up in committee so there couldn't be a vote on the bill. Still, various Republican members from these states still talked a good game.

Georgia Congressman John Barrow (D-GA) got tired of this double-talk, so he started a discharge petition, i.e., a legal document which requires Members of Congress to sign if they want to vote on a specific issue.

My Rural America told the story in Wyoming:

In 2006, My Rural America and our Rural Leadership Coordinator Aaron Owens worked hard to bring the facts about the need for disaster assistance for drought victims to Wyoming citizens' attention.

By failing to sign a discharge petition that would require a vote on agriculture disaster assistance in the House of Representatives, Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., is “hanging Wyoming farmers out to dry,” according to My Rural America, a non-partisan educational organization dedicated to improving the quality of life in rural communities.

“Wyoming’s only representative has stood on the sidelines while her Republican friends have blocked drought relief, despite having told us she would ‘use some political capital’ to help farmers in her own state," said Aaron R. Owens, Rural Leadership Coordinator for My Rural America.

Owens, who lives in Laramie, said that only two Republicans – neither of them Rep. Cubin – have signed the petition that needs 218 signatures to force Congress to move agriculture disaster assistance legislation forward. “It is a classic case of Cubin telling her constituents and the press one thing in Wyoming but acting in another way when she is in Washington,” said Owens.-

Owens noted that 197 Members of Congress have united behind the effort to force a vote last month before the House of Representatives recessed until after the November elections. Despite the urging of more than 30 farm and allied organizations that encouraged all members of Congress to sign the discharge petition, the House Republican leadership prevailed when most GOP members with agricultural constituencies, including Cubin, declined to do so.

Representative Barbara Cubin (R-WY At Large) refused to sign the petition, but she still went from town to town to insist she was committed to getting assistance for drought victims. Essentially, she double-talked, but sadly, Wyoming newspapers refused to carry the story. This year, once again, Cubin voted no on disaster assistance.

Like Cubin, Frank Lucas (R-OK) also said he was for disaster assistance in 2006. He even sponsored his own bill, but when push came to shove, he failed to sign the discharge petition to get the final bill out of committee. Once again, local newspapers only carried stories that said what Lucas said, rather than what he did.

Cubin and Lucas were re-elected in November 2006 but voters -- starved for information, had no option but to believe what they said. At My Rural America, we believe actions are more important than words.