[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
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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
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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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