[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 40 (Wednesday, April 1, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2928-S2929]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE REPORT

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I want to speak for a couple of minutes 
about a conference report that is now before the Senate which is of the 
utmost urgency that we proceed to and pass yet today. I am hopeful we 
can do it. That is S. 1150. It is the agricultural research bill which 
we passed here last year by unanimous consent. What happened is, the 
House passed it also last year but the House, for one reason or 
another, refused to go to conference, and then the session ended last 
year.
  About 3 weeks ago, the House finally consented to go to conference. 
We went to conference. We worked out our agreements on a very important 
bill. And that bill now is before the Senate.
  In the ag research bill, there are at least three very important 
parts: The ag research; crop insurance, to work out the problems in 
crop insurance so we can have a disaster crop insurance program for the 
next 5 years; and there is also a food stamp provision for refugees and 
the asylees that were inadvertently left out of the welfare-to-work 
reform bill that we passed in August of 1996.
  We need to pass this bill today. It is of the utmost urgency. We have 
over 717,000 catastrophic crop insurance policies in America today, 
farmers all over this country, from California to Maryland, from North 
Dakota to Texas. All rely upon this crop insurance program.
  If we don't pass this bill very soon, those policies will start to 
lapse and those farmers who have to plant in the summertime for winter 
crops will not be able to get their crop insurance. That means if they 
were to have a natural disaster that would wipe them out completely, 
they would be in here to Congress again begging us to bail them out. 
That is why it is so important we pass this today.
  Now, why today? Because we have a very strange parliamentary 
situation. If we don't pass it today and this budget passes tomorrow, 
which it will, then we lose all the money that we have for crop 
insurance to help out our farmers. I might also add, we lose the money 
that is in there to meet a need for refugees and asylees who are legal 
immigrants in this country. Some of them, like the Hmong who fought 
alongside our American troops in Laos during the Vietnam war, were 
inadvertently cut out of the welfare reform bill. This is in the bill 
before us, S. 1150.
  As I said, S. 1150 had bipartisan support in conference, Republicans 
and Democrats, House and Senate. We worked out all the differences. 
There are no objections in our committees to this. That is why it is so 
vitally important that we pass it today.
  I guess I ask here on the floor, the majority leader, and to the 
staff who are here, if they could possibly bring up S. 1150 today, 
sometime by the end of the day. I don't know if the managers of the 
bill would mind if we set it aside for 15 minutes--I don't think it 
would take longer than that; after all, it passed by unanimous consent 
last year--and pass it today. I don't think it would take much time. As 
I said, I am sure Senator Lugar, being the chairman, and I, the ranking 
minority member, don't need more than 15 minutes on this bill. It is 
vitally important, because if we don't pass it, we will lose the crop 
insurance for our farmers, especially those who need to plant summer 
crops.
  I yield to Senator Conrad from North Dakota.
  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I want to add my voice to the strong voice 
of the Senator from Iowa, Senator Harkin. We are now facing an 
emergency with respect to the research bill. The research title is a 
bit of a misnomer because much more is involved here than agricultural 
research, although that is critically important. That is critically 
important because we have been hit all across the country with a set of 
diseases because we are in a wet cycle. That wet cycle has been 
devastating in my State. We lost 30 percent of the crop last year, over 
$1 billion of economic loss because of scab and vomitoxin, and those 
losses continue.
  Now we are in a situation where we desperately need research into 
those diseases, but it goes much beyond that. It goes to the heart of 
the crop insurance system in America. As the Senator from Iowa has 
indicated, there are 700,000 policyholders in America. They are about 
to get a notice that there is no crop insurance available for them. 
That is the danger that we risk if we fail to act, and act today.
  The crop insurance shortfall may result in farmers across the Nation 
receiving cancellation notices. This is a dire emergency.

[[Page S2929]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time is expired.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. I am delighted to yield 1 minute to our colleague 
from North Dakota.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DORGAN. I will be brief.
  The Senator from Iowa raise a concern of some urgency for the United 
States Senate. What he is describing is a bipartisan agreement on 
legislation that is critical to our part of the country. It deals not 
only with research, but also with crop insurance. It deals with 
critically needed investment for research in crop diseases such as 
fusarium head blight or scab which produces vomitoxin in wheat and 
barley.

  We have an awful problem out in our part of the country with these 
crop diseases and crop losses. We need a viable crop insurance program. 
We were delighted when the Senator from Iowa and the Senator from 
Indiana and others reached this bipartisan agreement and moved it 
through the conference with the House of Representatives. I know how 
hard that was. That was a tough thing to do because the sides were 
quite far apart. When they reached this agreement, we were delighted 
with that. It is an important agreement.
  Now, as usual, in the case of politics, timing is everything. It is 
very important for this bipartisan conference agreement to be 
considered by the Senate and moved along. Time is of the essence here.
  I commend the Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. HARKIN. I thank both Senators from North Dakota for their strong 
voices and strong support for the crop insurance program.
  To sum it up, our farmers, our refugees, our asylees, should not be 
penalized because of the delay on the part of the House last year--not 
going to conference--and they should not be penalized because of this 
odd parliamentary situation we have.
  I hope the majority leader and his staff who are listening to this 
will hopefully bring up this bill today, and let's get it passed. I 
don't think it will take more than 10 or 15 minutes to get the job done 
and we can say to our farmers that their crop insurance policies are, 
indeed, going to be renewed for next year.
  I thank both of the managers of the bill for yielding us this time to 
talk about this very important subject.

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