[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 60 (Wednesday, April 16, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H2361-H2362]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TEMPORARY EXTENSION OF FARM PROGRAMS

  Mr. PETERSON of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules 
and pass the bill (H.R. 5813) to amend Public Law 110-196 to provide 
for a temporary extension of programs authorized by the Farm Security 
and Rural Investment Act of 2008 beyond April 18, 2008.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 5813

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. ADDITIONAL TEMPORARY EXTENSION OF AGRICULTURAL 
                   PROGRAMS AND SUSPENSION OF PERMANENT PRICE 
                   SUPPORT AUTHORITIES.

       Effective as of April 18, 2008, section 1 of Public Law 
     110-196 (122 Stat. 653) is amended--
       (1) in subsection (a), by striking ``the Secretary of 
     Agriculture shall carry out the authorities, until April 18, 
     2008'' and inserting ``the authorities shall be carried out, 
     until April 25, 2008''; and
       (2) in subsection (d), by striking ``April 18, 2008'' and 
     inserting ``April 25, 2008''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Minnesota (Mr. Peterson) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. 
Goodlatte) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.
  Mr. PETERSON of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as 
I may consume.
  I rise today in support of H.R. 5813, a bill to temporarily extend 
the current farm programs until April 25, 2008.
  Madam Speaker, since the House conferees were appointed last week, 
the conference committee has been meeting to try to work out the 
remaining unresolved issues between the House and Senate version of the 
farm bill. I'm pleased to report that on the core farm bill issues we 
have reached agreement, and there are only a few Member-level issues 
that must be resolved.
  I want to take this moment right now to thank Chairman Rangel, who 
has devoted a great deal of his time and his staff's time to helping us 
to come to resolution with the Senate about how to fund the additional 
$10 billion of new spending for farm bill priorities. Without his 
leadership and that of Speaker Pelosi and the leaders on the Republican 
side, we would not be so close to finalizing this bill.
  The farm bill maintains and strengthens the safety net that helps 
farmers and ranchers stay productive and competitive. It also includes 
important new investments including $9.5 billion for nutrition programs 
that are even more important today as food prices continue to climb. It 
contains $4 billion for conservation programs that will help protect 
our land, even as crop reduction soars; $1.2 billion for renewable 
energy programs that will help us address the rising cost of gasoline 
and help us get independent of foreign oil; and $1.3 billion for new 
initiatives and programs to support fruit and vegetable producers, 
including new programs to help socially disadvantaged and beginning 
farmers and ranchers.
  All these important investments will be lost if we don't have time to 
finish this conference. This short extension will allow us to finish 
our work and bring back to the House a conference report that meets the 
needs of all of American agriculture and the consumers.
  Madam Speaker, I'm pleased to report that I've been in conversations 
with Chairman Rangel and others that have been involved in the effort 
to identify the offsets, and can report that they have made significant 
progress, that we have been able to, apparently, convince the Senate to 
jettison the extraneous items, and so now we're talking about $10 
billion instead of $12.5 billion, which is a major accomplishment and 
victory, and we are getting very close to being able to resolve the 
differences in the offsets because, where we've been at is the House 
has put out one set of offsets and the Senate has put out another, and 
we're trying to reconcile that.
  I also, last night, had discussions with the Secretary of 
Agriculture, Mr. Goodlatte and others, asking that the Secretary and 
the White House be brought into this negotiation to help us finish up. 
And from what I can tell, there appears to be an effort to get that 
engaged. So I think we're very close to having this offset issue 
resolved, hopefully, in a way that will have the bipartisan support in 
this body, as well as in the other body, and also hopefully have the 
support, at the end of the day, of the White House.
  And that is what Mr. Goodlatte and I have been struggling to 
accomplish since last July. We've made a lot of progress. We're not 
there yet, but we feel we've made huge progress in the last few days, 
enough to warrant another 1-week extension of the farm bill so that we 
can finish up our work.
  I want to commend Congressman Goodlatte for his outstanding 
leadership in this effort, his outstanding leadership when he was 
chairman of the committee last session, and getting this farm bill 
process started. And I can tell you that, without a doubt, that we 
would not be at this point without him being willing to work with us 
and help us make some tough decisions to get to where we are. So I just 
appreciate very much he and his staff and the leadership that they've 
shown because, over in the House, what we're trying to do here is not 
only have a bill that we can be proud of, but also have a bill we can 
pass. And I think we're heading in that direction.
  Madam Speaker, I urge passage of the bill.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the temporary farm bill extension 
that will extend some provisions of the 2002 farm bill just a little 
while longer so that we may complete the work on this farm bill. I 
believe we've made good progress on coming to agreement on the funding 
which has been the biggest obstacle preventing any real movement on the 
completion of a farm bill to this point. While we're not there yet, I 
do believe we are getting close.
  The House and Senate conferees have been meeting every day this week, 
and we intend to continue our work throughout the rest of the week. We 
are committed to putting together a reform-minded bill that we can 
bring before this body soon and earn the support of our Members here 
and in the other chamber, and then go on to the President for his 
approval.
  We all recognize the need for a new farm bill. This process has 
already been delayed enough, and while it is a long time coming, we 
shouldn't halt the momentum that is finally getting this process moving 
to a positive direction.
  I urge my colleagues to support this farm bill extension to give us a 
little more time to work out the rest of the funding issues and wrap up 
the policy differences so that we can produce a good farm bill.
  I want to thank the chairman of the committee, Mr. Peterson, for his 
kind words, and say that there is no doubt that no one, in this body or 
the other, I'll take the chance of saying that, has worked harder or 
longer in order to try to get to this point than Chairman Peterson has. 
He has spoken to innumerable people in order to try to bring about the 
kind of consensus it takes to get here. He has been down many different 
avenues, and if one doesn't work, he comes back, starts over again and 
tries a different approach. And his persistence and his attention to 
the details in this farm bill and his knowledge of the wide range of 
issues that comprise the farm bill has enabled us to negotiate 
effectively with the Senate to negotiate effectively with Members in 
this body who have legitimate concerns that need to be addressed in the 
farm bill.

[[Page H2362]]

  But with the limited resources and the differences of opinion that 
arise in any bill, particularly one of this complexity, he has done an 
outstanding job of listening to the concerns of many different people, 
and I am optimistic that we can move forward and reach a final farm 
bill to bring before this body and before the other body.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. PETERSON of Minnesota. I thank Mr. Goodlatte for his kind words. 
I would just make one final comment, that we are extending this bill 
for 1 week at this point because we feel that's sufficient time to come 
to resolution.
  I do want to warn people that we fully expect to have these things 
wrapped up by the 25th in terms of having the policy differences in the 
Ag Committee and the funding differences resolved. But everybody needs 
to understand that after that, we're going to need an additional 
extension probably of 2 weeks in order, this is a very complex, huge 
bill. It's going to take us time to pull together to enroll to get 
passed through the House and the Senate and get to the President in 
time for him to read it before he signs it. So people can expect that 
we're going to have to have another couple of weeks after next Friday, 
provided we get everything resolved, which I expect we will.
  Again I thank my good friend, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. 
Goodlatte), all the other people that have worked with us, and 
encourage my colleagues to support the bill.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Peterson) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 5813.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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