[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 159 (Wednesday, November 12, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12507-S12508]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. HARKIN:

[[Page S12507]]

  S. 1522. A bill to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to provide 
assistance to rural cooperatives; to the Committee on Agriculture, 
Nutrition, and Forestry.


                       The Rural Cooperative Act

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I am pleased to introduce the Rural 
Cooperative Act, a measure proposed by the administration. Under 
current law, the Rural Business--Cooperative Services within the Rural 
Development Administration provides a wide variety of services for farm 
cooperatives. They conduct economic analysis, provide advice on how to 
form and best operate cooperatives and a wide variety of other services 
for farm cooperatives, including how to deal with the complex laws 
under which cooperatives operate.
  Farm cooperatives are very important in rural America. They allow 
farmers to come together to purchase goods, to sell their products, and 
to process their agricultural commodities under farmer ownership. Some 
cooperatives only perform one of those functions. Some do two or three 
of them. In all cases, they allow farmers to come together and more 
effectively bargain for a fair price.
  Funding for cooperative services within the Department of Agriculture 
has been under considerable constraint in recent years and it is now 
difficult for the Department to provide the full range of services 
allowed by law to farm cooperatives. I do not want to see those 
services reduced. But, I do agree with the administration, that 
cooperative services should also be available to those in rural areas, 
in addition to farmers who want to form cooperatives. Therefore, I am 
introducing the administration-proposed bill to broaden the 
responsibilities of the Department in this area. I do so, requesting 
that the administration increase its request for funding to carry out 
these additional responsibilities and will be urging that the 
Appropriations Committee appropriately increase funding in this area.
  The bill provides that rural residents who are considering forming a 
cooperative for one of a number of purposes or who have formed a 
cooperative may receive a variety of kinds of assistance from USDA.
  The types of cooperatives that would benefit would include those 
purchasing consumer goods, business products or services, health care, 
utilities, communications, child and day care, housing, credit, 
insurance, or other goods or services. It would also include 
cooperatives that market goods made by members or goods made by the 
cooperative.
  The Department could provide advice for such cooperatives including 
conducting economic surveys and analysis of proposed cooperative 
activities. It would also conduct surveys of cooperatives and issue 
reports about them as well as promote rural cooperative principles and 
practices.
  The bill authorizes such sums as might be necessary to carry out the 
purposes of the act.
  I urge that the Congress consider and pass this bill in the coming 
year.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. MURKOWSKI (for himself and Mr. Stevens):
  S. 1523. A bill to allow for the investment of joint Federal and 
State funds from the civil settlement of damages from the Exxon Valdez 
oilspill; to the Committee on the Judiciary.


         INVESTMENT OF ``EXXON VALDEZ'' TRUST FUNDS LEGISLATION

  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise to introduce legislation that 
will allow more sensible investment of the funds jointly received by 
the Federal Government and the State of Alaska from the civil 
settlement of damages arising from the Exxon Valdez oilspill.
  The settlement provided for Exxon to pay the Federal and State 
governments a total of $900 million over a 10-year period ending in 
2001. Approximately $280 million remains to be paid under this 
agreement. Under the consent decree, the money is to be used for the 
recovery of damaged resources, and is to be managed as a joint Federal-
State trust fund, administered by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee 
Council, which includes representatives of three Federal and three 
State agencies. Under the consent decree, moneys not immediately 
expended are to be placed with the U.S. District Court, Fifth Circuit 
Court Registry Investment System.
  Recently, the trustees requested that Congress adopt measures to 
allow them to invest this money outside the Court Registry Investment 
System, in which earnings are limited to approximately 5 percent, and 
are further reduced by fees of 10 percent of the earnings. In the 
opinion of the trustees, even extremely conservative investment outside 
the court registry could yield an additional $20 to $30 million by 
2002, which could greatly enhance continuing restoration projects.
  This bill responds to the trustees' request. It will allow investment 
outside the court registry system. Let me emphasize, however, that this 
authority is entirely discretionary. The trustees may use it to 
reinvest settlement moneys or not, as they deem appropriate. Further, 
Mr. President, as an added protection, the district court must approve 
any reinvestment.
  The bill also directs that the earnings on the new investment be used 
for marine research and monitoring, and for community and fishing 
industry economic restoration. This provision is needed to ensure 
attention to these important areas.
  Here again, let me make sure I am absolutely clear. The bill I am 
offering does not prevent the purchase of land or easements. It simply 
directs that the earnings--and only the earnings--on new investment go 
to other, equally valid purposes.
  The trustee council has already spent a large part of the money 
received from Exxon on land acquisition and easements that limit the 
use of land it has not purchased outright. To date, the total is about 
424,000 acres, and the trustees' intention is to purchase or restrict 
as much as 750,000 acres.
  The Federal Government already owns 248 million acres of Alaska--more 
than the eastern seaboard from Maine to Florida, which is home to one-
third of the entire population of the United States. Inside the spill 
area, there already are 20 different parcels of protected State and 
Federal lands, including the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, Katmai 
National Park and Preserve, and the Chugach National Forest and Copper 
River Delta Critical Habitat Area.
  Many of the trustees' additional land acquisitions have been for the 
purpose of habitat protection, and are valuable to the trustees' 
restoration mission, but some have included the purchase of land that 
has already been logged or land on which public access is restricted 
despite being purchased by public funds. These purchases are not so 
easy to justify.
  The trustees have already published plans to spend almost all of the 
$900 million. By the time Exxon makes its last payment, the only money 
not already spent will be the 12 percent the council is tucking away in 
a restoration reserve.
  After inflation-proofing, interest on this account could provide 
about $2.1 million annually for long-term research and economic 
reconstruction projects--or could vanish in more land acquisitions.
  Finally, Mr. President, my bill also provides for the new investment 
authority to sunset in 2002 unless the trustees bring to Congress their 
thoughts on how an independent board might be created to administer the 
funds remaining after 2002. Personally, I'd like to see them recommend 
an independent, scientifically-oriented group to guide a long-term 
research program--a board that would call for proposals, arrange for 
scientific peer review, publish findings, and so forth, without the 
appearance of conflict that exists when the trustees are funding 
projects in which their own agencies are involved.
  This is a responsible approach to a difficult issue. It gives the 
trustees the additional investment authority they want without 
prohibiting them from spending principal or the earnings from 
investments that remain in the court registry system however they 
choose, including more land acquisition. It does, however, encourage 
them to look at some areas that are equally important to the task of 
once again making whole both the resources and the people affected by 
the oil spill.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for the text of the bill to be 
printed in the Record. I hope that we can take it up early next year, 
and urge my colleagues' support.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

[[Page S12508]]

                                S. 1523

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
     Notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon the joint 
     motion of the United States and the State of Alaska and the 
     issuance of an appropriate order by the United States 
     District Court for the District of Alaska, the joint trust 
     funds or any portion thereof, including any interest accrued 
     thereon, previously received or to be received by the United 
     States and the State of Alaska pursuant to the Agreement and 
     consent decree issued in United States v. Exxon Corporation, 
     et al. (No. A91-082 CIV) and State of Alaska v. Exxon 
     Corporation, et al. (No. A91-083 CIV) (hereafter referred to 
     as the ``Consent Decree''), may be deposited in appropriate 
     accounts outside the Court Registry, including the Natural 
     Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Fund (hereafter 
     referred to as the ``Fund'') established in title I of the 
     Department of the Interior and Related Agencies 
     Appropriations Act, 1992 (Pub. L. 102-154, 43 U.S.C. 1474b) 
     and such accounts outside the United States Treasury 
     consisting of income-producing obligations and other 
     instruments or securities of a type or class that have been 
     determined unanimously by the federal and state natural 
     resource trustees for the Exxon Valdez oil spill to have a 
     high degree of reliability and security: Provided, That any 
     joint trust funds in the Fund and any such outside accounts 
     that have been approved unanimously by the trustees for 
     expenditure by or through a state or federal agency shall be 
     transferred promptly from the Fund and such outside accounts 
     to the State or United States upon the joint request of the 
     governments: Provided further, that the transfer of joint 
     trust funds outside the Court Registry shall not affect the 
     supervisory jurisdiction of such District Court under the 
     Consent Decree or the Memorandum of Agreement and Consent 
     Decree in United States v. State of Alaska (No. A91-081-CIV) 
     over all expenditures of the joint trust funds: Provided 
     further, That nothing herein shall affect the requirement of 
     section 207 of the Dire Emergency Supplemental Appropriations 
     and Transfers for Relief From the Effects of Natural 
     Disasters, for Other Urgent Needs, and for the Incremental 
     Cost of ``Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm'' Act of 1992 
     (Pub. L. 102-229, 43 U.S.C. 1474b note) that amounts received 
     by the United States and designated by the trustees for the 
     expenditure by or through a federal agency must be deposited 
     into the Fund, Provided further, That any interest accrued 
     under the authority in this section may be used only for 
     grants for marine research and monitoring (including applied 
     fisheries research) and for community and economic 
     restoration projects (including projects proposed by the 
     fishing industry and facilities), Provided further, That the 
     federal trustees are hereby authorized to administer such 
     grants: Provided further, That the authority provided in this 
     section shall expire on September 30, 2002, unless by 
     September 30, 2001 the trustees have submitted to the 
     Congress a proposal to authorize in federal statute a board 
     to administer funds invested, interest received, and grants 
     awarded from such interest.
                                 ______