[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 93 (Tuesday, July 18, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7143-S7145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND 
               RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2001

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now 
turn to H.R. 4461, the Agriculture appropriations bill. I further ask 
unanimous consent that all after the enacting clause of H.R. 4461 be 
stricken and the text of S. 2536 with a modified division B be inserted 
in lieu thereof, and that the new text be treated as original text for 
the purpose of further amendment, and that no point of order be waived.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I express my 
appreciation to Senator Wellstone for being so reasonable on this 
issue. As usual, he spotted the issue. It has been explained to him. We 
are now moving forward on this legislation.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I know the manager, Senator Cochran, is 
ready to proceed. We hope to go forward with opening statements and any 
amendments that can be considered tonight. I will consult with Senator 
Cochran and the managers about how to proceed throughout the remainder 
of the night. But we will turn back to this legislation in the morning 
not later than 9:30. We will have stacked votes, if any are ready by 
then, at 2:15 or 2:30 p.m. tomorrow. We will indicate a specific time 
later.
  I thank the Senator from Mississippi, Senator Cochran.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 4461) making appropriations for Agriculture, 
     Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related 
     Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 
     2001, and for other purposes.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi is recognized.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I am very pleased to present for the 
Senate's consideration the fiscal year 2001 Agriculture, Rural 
Development, Food and Drug Administration, and related agencies 
appropriations bill. This bill provides fiscal year 2001 funding for 
the programs and activities of the Department of Agriculture, the Food 
and Drug Administration, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. 
The U.S. Forest Service is funded by the Interior appropriations bill.
  This bill, as reported, also provides fiscal year 2000 supplemental 
appropriations and rescissions to respond to emergency needs resulting 
from natural disasters and other unanticipated funding requirements.
  The fiscal year 2001 provisions are contained in Division A of the 
reported bill. It provides total new budget authority for fiscal year 
2001 of $75.3 billion. This is $295 million less than the fiscal year 
2000 enacted level, excluding emergency appropriations, and $1.5 
billion less than the President's budget request.
  Just over eighty percent of the total recommended by this bill is for 
mandatory appropriations over which the Appropriations Committee has no 
effective control. The spending levels for these programs are governed 
by authorizing statutes. The mandatory programs funded by this bill 
include the

[[Page S7144]]

Commodity Credit Corporation, the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, 
and the Food Stamp and Child Nutrition Programs.
  About twenty percent of the total appropriations recommended by this 
bill is for discretionary programs and activities. Including 
Congressional budget scorekeeping adjustments and prior-year spending 
actions, this bill recommends total discretionary spending of $14.850 
billion in budget authority and $14.925 billion in outlays for fiscal 
year 2001. These amounts are consistent with the Subcommittee's 
discretionary spending allocations.
  I would like to take a few moments to summarize the bill's major 
funding recommendations. For the Food Safety and Inspection Service, 
appropriations of $678 million are recommended, $29 million more than 
the fiscal year 2000 level. For the Animal and Plant Health Inspection 
Service, $468 million is recommended, $25 million more than the 2000 
level.
  Appropriations for USDA headquarters operations and for other 
agriculture marketing and regulatory programs are approximately $84 
million more than the fiscal year 2000 appropriations levels. Included 
in this increase is $25 million to support information technology 
investments in support of the Department's Service Center Modernization 
initiative; $42.4 million to support the Department of Agriculture's 
buildings and facilities and rental payment requirements; $5.9 million, 
as requested, for costs associated with implementing the Mandatory 
Livestock Reporting Act; and $6.2 million for the Agricultural 
Marketing Service to implement a microbiological data program.
  For farm credit programs, the bill funds an estimated $3.1 billion 
total loan program level, the same as the fiscal year 2000 level, 
excluding additional loans funded through fiscal year 2000 emergency 
appropriations. The amount recommended includes $559.4 million for farm 
ownership loans and $2.4 billion for farm operating loans.

  For salaries and expenses of the Farm Service Agency, total 
appropriations of $1.095 billion are recommended. This is $89 million 
more than the 2000 level and the same as the President's budget 
request.
  The bill provides total appropriations of $1.4 billion for 
agriculture research, education, and extension activities. Included in 
this amount is an increase of $3.8 million from fiscal year 2000 for 
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) buildings and facilities, an 
increase of $41.2 million for research activities of the ARS; and a 
$19.2 million increase in funding for the Cooperative State Research, 
Education, and Extension Service.
  For conservation programs administered by USDA's Natural Resources 
Conservation Service, total funding of $867.6 million is provided, $63 
million more than the 2000 level. This includes $714 million for 
conservation operations, $11 million for watershed surveys and 
planning, $99 million for watershed and flood prevention operations, 
$36 million for the resource conservation and development program, and 
$6 million for the forestry incentives program.
  USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service is funded at a program level of 
$117.7 million, $4 million more than the fiscal year 2000 level. In 
addition, a total program level of $996.7 million is recommended for 
the Public Law 480 program, the same as the fiscal year 2001 budget 
request and $51.4 million more than the fiscal year 2000 level. This 
includes $159.7 million for Title I and $837 million for Title II of 
the program.
  The bill also provides a total program level of $2.5 billion for 
rural economic and community development programs. Included in this 
amount is $749 million for the Rural Community Advancement Program, $33 
million for the Rural Business-Cooperative Service, and $75 million to 
support a total $2.6 billion program level for rural electric and 
telecommunications loans.
  In addition, the bill devotes additional resources to those programs 
which provide affordable, safe, and decent housing for low-income 
individuals and families living in rural America. Estimated rural 
housing loan authorizations funded by this bill total $4.6 billion. 
Included in this amount is $4.3 billion in section 502 low-income 
housing direct and guaranteed loans and $114 million in section 515 
rental housing loans. In addition, $680 million is included for the 
rental assistance program. This is the same as the budget request and 
$40 million more than the 2000 appropriations level.
  Appropriations totaling $35 billion for USDA's nutrition assistance 
programs continue to command the highest percentage of the total 
appropriations recommended by the bill--nearly 47 percent of the total 
new budget authority provided. This includes $9.5 billion for child 
nutrition programs, including $6 million to complete funding for the 
school breakfast pilot program; $4.05 billion for the Special 
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); 
$140 million for the commodity assistance program; $140 million for the 
elderly feeding program; and $21.2 billion for the food stamp program.
  For those independent agencies funded by the bill, the Committee 
provides total appropriations of $1.2 billion, $54 million more than 
the 2000 level. Included in this amount is $67 million for the 
Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and $1.1 billion for the Food and 
Drug Administration (FDA). The bill also establishes a limitation of 
$36.8 million on administrative expenses of the Farm Credit 
Administration.

  Total appropriations recommended for salaries and expenses of the FDA 
are $33.7 million more than the 2000 appropriations level. This 
additional amount, along with $34 million redirected from FDA's tobacco 
program in light of the recent Supreme Court decision, provides a total 
increase of $67.7 million for fiscal year 2001. Included in this amount 
is the full increase requested in the budget for FDA rental payments to 
the General Services Administration; an additional $24 million for FDA 
food safety initiatives; and $25 million for premarket review 
activities. The additional funding for premarket review will continue 
to strengthen FDA's ability to perform its core statutory mission of 
reviewing drugs, foods, medical devices and products within statutory 
time frames and to ensure patients' speedy access to new products and 
the latest technology.
  The bill also makes available $149 million in Prescription Drug User 
Fee Act collections, $4 million more than the fiscal year 2000 level.
  The discretionary budget authority allocation for this bill is 
approximately $200 million more than the CBO baseline level, or a 
``freeze'' at the 2000 enacted appropriations level. To provide the 
increases the Committee felt were necessary to maintain funding for 
essential farm, housing, and rural development programs, several 
mandatory funding restrictions are included in the bill. Modest 
limitations on the Environmental Quality Incentives and Conservation 
Farm Option programs are maintained at the fiscal year 2000 levels. 
Funding for the Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems and 
the Fund for Rural America is deferred until fiscal year 2002, as 
proposed in the President's budget.
  Although the total discretionary spending recommended by this bill is 
approximately $277 million in budget authority below the President's 
budget request level, as reestimated by the Congressional Budget 
Office, the President's proposed budget relies on additional revenues 
and savings to accommodate much higher levels of discretionary 
spending. The President's budget proposes to generate a net total of 
$564 million in collections from new user fee proposals, and to 
redirect funds from ongoing projects and Congressional initiatives to 
pay for Presidential initiatives.
  This Committee does not have the luxury of relying on revenues and 
savings from legislative proposals that have not been acted on by the 
Congress and signed into law. Consequently, within the discretionary 
spending limitations established for this bill, we have not been able 
to afford many of the discretionary spending increases and new 
initiatives proposed by the Administration, and still remain consistent 
with the Budget Act.
  Food safety continues to be a high priority of this Committee. This 
bill, as recommended to the Senate, provides the funds necessary to 
ensure that American consumers continue to have the safest food supply 
in the world. Not only does this bill provide increased funds required 
for meat and

[[Page S7145]]

poultry inspection activities of the Food Safety and Inspection 
Service, it provides total funding of $377 million, a $53 million 
increase from the 2000 level, for USDA and FDA programs and activities 
included in the President's Food Safety Initiative.
  Turning to ``Division B'', the reported bill recommended a net total 
of $2.2 billion for emergency and regular supplemental appropriations 
and rescissions for the fiscal year 2000.
  A number of these provisions have been enacted into law as part of 
the conference report on the fiscal year 2001 Military Construction 
Appropriations Act. The substitute amendment deletes those provisions 
and makes other accompanying technical and conforming changes to 
Division B of the reported bill.
  The Chairmen of the various Appropriations Subcommittees may speak to 
those provisions in Division B of the reported bill under their 
respective jurisdictions.
  However, for programs and activities within the jurisdiction of the 
Agriculture Subcommittee, Division B, as modified, recommends $1.1 
billion in emergency supplemental appropriations for fiscal year 2000.
  Supplemental appropriations for emergency housing and relief to 
farmers as a result of the North Carolina hurricane and other natural 
disasters; for the Farm Service Agency to meet high workload demands; 
and to offset the assessment on peanut producers for program losses 
have now been enacted into law.
  The remaining emergency supplemental appropriations recommended in 
the bill reported to the Senate still must be addressed.
  These include the $13 million requested by the President to cover a 
shortfall in available funding for crop insurance premium discounts; 
$35 million to support ongoing acreage enrollments in the Conservation 
Reserve and Wetlands Reserve programs; and an additional $130 million 
for the Rural Community Advancement Program.
  Just as devastating to producers as losses from hurricanes, drought 
and other natural disasters are losses from new and emergent diseases 
and pest infestations. The bill provides authority for the Secretary of 
Agriculture to compensate growers for losses as a result of the plum 
pox virus which has devastated the stone fruit industry; citrus canker; 
Mexican fruit fly; grasshoppers and Mormon crickets; and Pierce's 
disease, a new problem plaguing the grape industry.
  In addition, emergency assistance totaling an estimated $443 million 
is recommended for dairy producers and $450 million for livestock 
producers.
  Mr. President, this appropriations bill was reported by the Committee 
on May 10th. It was one of the first of the thirteen fiscal year 2001 
appropriations bills to be reported to the Senate by the Appropriations 
Committee.
  Although the companion bill was reported from the House 
Appropriations Committee around that same time, on May 16th, the House 
did not begin consideration of the bill until June 29. The House 
resumed consideration of the bill immediately following the July recess 
and passed the bill on July 11 by a vote of 339-82.

  There are approximately 26 legislative days remaining before the 
October 1 start of the fiscal year. It is my hope we can expedite the 
Senate's consideration of this bill so we can go to conference with the 
House and get this bill to the President as quickly as possible.
  I thank the distinguished Senator from Wisconsin, the ranking member 
of the subcommittee, Mr. Kohl, as well as other members of the 
subcommittee, for their support and cooperation in putting this bill 
together. It is never easy to determine funding priorities, or to 
balance the many competing and legitimate needs that confront 
agriculture in this bill and stay within the subcommittee's required 
spending limitations. I believe this bill represents a responsible 
funding recommendation. I ask the Senators to give it their favorable 
consideration.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent 
that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Brownback). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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