[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.

[[Page S4616]]

  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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