[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 58 (Monday, May 11, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4615-S4618]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH, EXTENSION, AND EDUCATION REFORM ACT OF 1998--
CONFERENCE REPORT
Motion to Proceed
Mr. LUGAR. Madam President, I now move to proceed to the conference
report accompanying S. 1150.
Mr. GRAMM. Madam President, I ask that the bill be read.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will read.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to read the conference
report.
Mr. GRAMM. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. It is not in order to suggest the absence of a
quorum. The clerk will continue to read.
The assistant legislative clerk continued with the reading of the
conference report.
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Mr. LUGAR. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading
of the conference report be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. GRAMM. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. It is not in order to suggest the absence of a
quorum. Is there objection?
Mr. GRAMM. Madam President, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. The clerk will continue
reading.
The assistant legislative clerk continued with the reading of the
conference report.
Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that further
reading of the conference report be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. GRAMM. I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. The clerk will continue
reading.
The legislative clerk continued with the reading of the conference
report.
Mr. GRAMM. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that further
reading of the conference report be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is
so ordered.
(The text of the conference reports is printed on pages H2171-H2205
of the April 22, 1998 edition of the Record.)
Unanimous Consent Agreement
Mr. LUGAR. Madam President, I thank the distinguished Senator from
Texas, and I ask unanimous consent now on behalf of the majority
leader, after consultation with the minority, that at 11 a.m. on
Tuesday, tomorrow, the Senate proceed to the consideration of the
conference report to accompany S. 1150, the agricultural research bill.
I further ask unanimous consent that the time until 12:10 p.m. be
divided as follows: Senator Lugar, 30 minutes; Senator Gramm of Texas,
10 minutes; Senator Roberts, 10 minutes; Senator Harkin, 10 minutes;
Senator Cochran, 5 minutes. I further ask unanimous consent that, at
2:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Senator Gramm be recognized in order to move to
recommit the conference report. I further ask unanimous consent that no
amendments be in order to the motion and debate on the motion be
limited to 1 hour equally divided in the usual form. I ask unanimous
consent that following the debate, the Senate proceed to a vote on or
in relation to the motion.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is
so ordered.
Mr. LUGAR. I thank the Chair.
Madam President, I would point out that, in consultation with Senator
Gramm and others, we have agreed that general debate at 11 tomorrow is
appropriate. Senators will be present. They will be able to hear the
debate. And our respective conference lunches will hear more debate on
this issue, and hopefully, following our hour debate, at 2:15 the issue
will be clearer for all of us and perhaps we will be able to proceed
tomorrow to final action on this report.
I thank the Chair. I thank all Senators.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa is recognized.
Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, I just want to concur in the unanimous
consent agreement and commend my chairman, Senator Lugar, for his
leadership on this bill. This is an extremely important bill. We should
have gotten it through a long time ago. There are farmers out in my
area of the country, all up and down the Midwest--I am sure in the
Senator's home State also--who have contracts up this summer on crop
insurance, and if we don't hurry up and get this through, we are going
to be in big trouble; we will not have the money for the crop insurance
program to allow these farmers to renew their contracts for next year.
So it is imperative that we do get it through.
If this bill were to be recommitted--and I will have more to say
about this tomorrow, but I wanted to talk about this a little here--I
think that would be the end of the bill. We tried for a long time in
conference to get to this point. It is a delicate balance of many
interests, but it is a good balance. It is one that balances all of the
interests in all sections of the country. It advances the cause of
agricultural research; it does the job of providing the necessary funds
to keep the crop insurance program going; and it also fills in the gap
on the food stamps for legal immigrants, elderly, disabled, and
children, and also refugees and asylees who are in this country.
Madam President, as I said, the conference report of the Agricultural
Research Extension and Education Reform Act of 1998 represents a strong
statement by the Senate on the importance of research to the future of
American agriculture and fulfills important promises to restore food
stamp benefits to legal immigrants, refugees, and asylees, and to fully
fund the crop insurance program.
Again, I am pleased that both sides of the aisle in both the House
and the Senate have come together to invest in the future of
agriculture in rural communities as well as nutrition programs for
needy individuals who were unfairly cut off from food stamp benefits in
the welfare reform bill that we passed in 1996.
I again commend Chairman Lugar for his diligent and tireless efforts
to, first of all, get the changes made in the research program that we
so vitally need in this country in our ag research program, and his
efforts to get the bill through, and through conference, and to the
point where we are now. Chairman Lugar has done a great job in guiding
and directing and leading us in a bipartisan fashion to get the bill
through.
We have had great cooperation. I am thankful to him for the great
cooperation he has given me as the ranking member, and to his staff for
the many kindnesses that his staff has afforded our staff. I also
commend our colleagues in the House for assisting and aiding us getting
this bill through. I am especially pleased that the agriculture,
nutrition and immigrant communities are united in support of this
conference report.
Reinforcing the strong support for this bill, on April 24, 71
Senators sent a letter to the leadership asking that we bring up this
bill and pass it. Madam President, 71 Senators signed a letter to the
majority leader of the Senate asking we bring up this bill and pass it.
So I hope we can move quickly on this vital piece of legislation.
Let me just mention the three components of the bill. First, the
issue of food stamps. This bill will spend about $816 million over the
next 5 years to restore food stamp eligibility for nearly 250,000
individuals. Again, with this action we have reaffirmed our compassion
and our priority for taking care of the most vulnerable in our society.
The bill takes a major step towards fulfilling a promise that was made
by our President and many of us here in the Congress on both sides of
the aisle to correct inequities made in the 1996 Welfare Reform Act.
What we have done in this bill, Madam President, mirrors the changes
made in last year's balanced budget agreement. That bill eliminated
eligibility for several classes of legal immigrants for food stamps.
Refugees, asylees, elderly and disabled legal immigrants and their
children, Hmong refugees and certain native Americans who were unfairly
denied food stamp benefits will once again be eligible for this
important food assistance under this bill before us.
I might also add, parenthetically, that it is not just compassion,
but it is dollar wise. We know in the past when these people are cut
off from the needed food stamps, the elderly and the disabled, their
kids are cut off, and when they lack nutrition, where do they end up?
They are at the emergency room door of our hospitals, and we pay for
that. Better we put some money into adequate food and nutrition to keep
them healthy in the first place rather than pay for the needed medical
services they would require later on.
Under research and rural development, the research provisions of this
bill will ensure that our farmers and ranchers have the word's best
science and technology at their disposal to produce food and fiber, to
protect the environment, and to create rural economic opportunities. In
this regard, we are devoting $600 million in new funds over the next 5
years to advance the science and technology underlying our agricultural
system. This new initiative will invest in priority research
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topics like food safety, biotechnology and environmental quality. There
are new incentives for the development of new crops and new uses for
existing crops. Finally, modest reforms in the land grant system will
help it to remain a leader in research, education and outreach in the
coming century.
We have also extended the Fund for Rural America through the year
2002, and we have reaffirmed our commitment to the pressing development
needs of our rural communities. This fund was a key component of the
1996 farm bill, created to provide funds to help farmers in rural
communities to transition to the new farm policy environment. Although
I wish we could have found more funds for this purpose, I am pleased
that over the next 5 years, an additional $100 million was added to the
Fund for Rural America.
Finally, the third component of the bill is crop insurance. Since the
last Crop Insurance Reform Act in 1994, participation in crop insurance
has more than doubled in our country. Without agreement to this
conference report, millions of farmers face the possibility of canceled
insurance policies in just the next few months. That would leave them
without risk protection for the 1999 crop season.
The action we have taken in this bill will secure funding for the
Crop Insurance Program for the next 5 years. It will set the stage also
for a vigorous debate about how to further restructure and reform the
program in the coming years. I look forward to working with Chairman
Lugar in moving that discussion and that debate forward. The more tools
and options we can give our farmers to manage the risks of production,
the more resilient our rural communities will be in the face of market
and weather fluctuations.
So this conference report accomplishes a great deal in a single
package. We have let the world know that we care about the vulnerable
in our society, those who are refugees and asylees who are escaping
persecution--many times religious persecution in other countries. A lot
of times when they come here, they don't have a million dollars in
their pockets. Usually those aren't the kind of people who are
persecuted. But those who are persecuted for religious beliefs or
otherwise, a lot of times who flee their countries, who come here, they
don't have a lot of money. They need an education. And, yes, we provide
them food assistance. I think that is a part of what we ought to be
about in this country. What this bill does is it restores it. We say to
those people, if you are escaping intolerable situations in other parts
of the world, our doors will be open to refugees and asylees, and we
are going to assure that you have adequate nutrition to get you to the
point where you can apply for citizenship.
Second, we have let the world know we are serious about equipping
American agriculture for future food production challenges. We have
taken the steps to assure the taxpayers that research dollars are
expended in the most efficient manner. Finally, we ensure that our
farmers will have good risk management tools available to them.
We have done all of this in a very strong, bipartisan manner. We can
all take pride in the fact that today we have made a significant
investment in a better future, not only for our farmers and ranchers,
but also in a better future for an increasingly crowded and hungry
world. So, Madam President, I urge my colleagues to agree to this
conference report without delay.
Madam President, I will have more to say tomorrow about the pending
amendment by the Senator from Texas, who as I understand, would exempt
from the coverage of the Food Stamp Program, refugees and asylees who
come to this country after, I think it is August of 1996, if I am not
mistaken. I think that would just be the wrong step to take, first of
all, for a compassionate and caring society, and for those of us who
care about asylees and refugees. I think that covers both political
parties, and certainly covers all of the religious institutions in
America. I know I received letters from--I know Cardinal O'Connor in
New York, from many members of the Jewish faith, other Christian faiths
who have written to us asking us to please make this fix in food stamps
to cover these very vulnerable people who are in our society.
And, second, I would just say again, if the amendment contemplated by
the Senator from Texas were to be successful, that is referring this
back to conference committee, that would be the end of this bill. Make
no mistake about it. The amendment that I have seen written and
proposed--he has not offered it yet, but as proposed by the Senator
from Texas--would kill this bill. It would kill the research provisions
of this bill and it could kill the crop insurance provisions of this
bill along with the food stamp provisions.
Why do I say that? For two reasons. First, because we worked long and
hard to get to this point in a bipartisan fashion. There were long,
serious discussions both in the Senate and in the House and in
conference, and we reached our agreements and we have strong bipartisan
support for this. If this were to go back to the conference committee--
one, either the conference committee would not or could not make these
changes, and thus the bill would die in conference; or if the
conference committee voted to make these changes and it went back to
the House, there is no way that it would succeed in the House. Maybe it
wouldn't even succeed in the Senate. I don't know.
But, Madam President, I have been on the Agriculture Committee now,
both in the House and the Senate, for 23 years. I have been through a
lot of farm bills and a lot of farm bill amendments and modifications.
And we have for a long time had a good working relationship with our
urban friends in keeping a good, strong coalition together to both
answer the needs of those of us who represent rural America and to
answer the needs of those who represent urban America.
I believe it has been a good working relationship. When we look at
it, hunger in America is almost nonexistent. Yes, we have some gaps out
there. Yes, we have some nutritional gaps out there, but compared to
any other country, we are light-years ahead.
We provide the needed nutrition from the School Breakfast Program to
the School Lunch Program to afternoon programs to the Food Stamp
Program to Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, and then we
provide support for our food banks and our soup kitchens and feeding
facilities around the country along with the private sector.
We have taken care to address the nutritional needs of those who live
in our urban areas, and we have taken care of the needs of those who
live in our rural areas. As I said, part of this bill is funds for
rural America that helps continue to invest in rural economic
development so our people who live in small towns and communities will
have the kind of jobs and support they need. Our farmers will have the
risk management tools and crop insurance they will need to provide the
food and fiber for America.
It has been a good coalition, a healthy coalition. The amendment
contemplated by the Senator from Texas will tear that coalition apart.
That is why I say, if it were to succeed--I don't think it will, I hope
it won't, I don't think it will--if it were, that would be the end of
this bill.
I am hopeful, and I know the Senator from Texas is sincere in what he
is trying to do--I happen to disagree with him, deeply disagree--that
we ought to carve out asylees and refugees from the food stamp
provisions of this bill.
Be that as it may, I still suggest that this amendment really is a
basic amendment that will kill this bill. We can't afford to have that
happen. I hope all my colleagues will support the chairman and support
others on both sides of the aisle who signed the letter to bring up the
bill and to pass it as it is. If we do that, I think we can have a
swift conclusion of this bill tomorrow, get it down to the President
for his signature, our farmers can go ahead and get their crop
insurance contracts renewed, we can begin the process of changing our
research system, and we can meet the nutritional needs of the most
vulnerable in our society. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Grams). The Senator from Mississippi is
recognized.
Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I am pleased that the order has been
entered for the consideration of the conference report on the
agriculture research bill. As Senators may remember, when we passed the
1996 farm bill, the research
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programs were only authorized to the year 1997. This allowed the
committees of jurisdiction to undertake a reevaluation of the way in
which Federal dollars are allocated to research facilities that are
operated by the Department of Agriculture and that are used for grants
for research and extension service activities at colleges and
universities throughout the country.
As a result of that review, this legislation was produced. It
improves the way those funds are allocated. It targets those funds to
the highest priority subjects for agriculture research in our country.
It is this Senator's hope that the Senate will approve the conference
report and we can proceed to consider other related legislation.
I point out the fact that we are in the appropriations process now
for the next fiscal year. The passage of this conference report will
facilitate the handling of the appropriations bill for the Department
of Agriculture and other departments of the Government. If we are sent
back to rewrite the bill in conference on a motion to recommit, it will
slow down the process. It will make it more difficult to achieve the
kind of coherent funding procedure that we would otherwise be able to
enjoy.
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