[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 128 (Thursday, September 20, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6499-S6500]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               FARM BILL

  Mr. BENNET. Madam President, I see we have been joined by the Chair 
of the Agriculture Committee, Senator Stabenow. She has just arrived, 
but I wanted to report to her that before she arrived I was talking 
about the need to pass a farm bill and the fact that, over the break, I 
had traveled 2,500 miles around the State of Colorado--in rural parts 
of our State on the west slope and on the eastern plains--and nobody 
wanted to talk about anything except why we can't get a farm bill 
passed. It makes no sense to them. They know it was completely 
bipartisan here in the Senate, and they know it is the only bipartisan 
piece of legislation with deficit reduction any committee of either 
Chamber has been able to accomplish.
  In the case of Colorado farmers and ranchers, we are going through 
the worst drought we have had in a generation, and they want to know 
why Washington, DC, has a completely different set of priorities than 
they have.
  There is still time for the House to pass this bill. This is the 
first time in modern history a House Ag Committee has passed out a 
bill--in this case a bipartisan bill, though not as good, I don't 
think, as ours, but a step forward--that hasn't come to the floor for a 
vote. They cannot even get a vote.
  So while the Senator is here, I wanted to thank her, and I would also 
say to the ranking member of the committee if he were here, for their 
extraordinary bipartisan effort over the last 2 years that resulted in 
a very fine bill. I also think their work sets a model for the way we 
should be approaching our work in this Chamber.
  I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
  Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, first, I did come to the floor to talk 
about the urgency of the farm bill, but I also want to thank my friend 
and colleague from Colorado, who chairs our conservation subcommittee, 
for the tremendous piece of work on the conservation title in the farm 
bill. I thank him for all of that effort and also say to him I 
understand what is happening in Colorado. As he and I know, we passed 
disaster assistance--a permanent livestock disaster assistance 
program--in our farm bill, along with help for food growers in Michigan 
and other places.
  We are totally committed in the short run to helping those who have 
the riskiest business in the world, which is farming and ranching in 
this country, but we also know what they want is the economic certainty 
of a 5-year farm bill. So I thank my friend for all of his efforts and 
in coming to the floor.
  I want to say, for the record, there are 10 days until September 30--
10 days until the farm bill expires and 16 million people in this 
country who rely on agriculture for their jobs or their livelihood are 
put in limbo. That is the reality of where we are.
  We worked so hard, on a bipartisan basis in the Senate, to pass a 
farm bill,

[[Page S6500]]

and we did that as quickly as we could so the House would have time to 
act and we could actually get things done in the summer before we got 
involved in what would be happening in the fall, with all of the 
critically important end-of-the-year issues that have to be addressed. 
So we passed a bill in June, as we all know, on a bipartisan basis. It 
took a lot of work.
  I continually thank everyone who was willing to hang in there with us 
to get this done--my ranking member, Senator Roberts, and our two 
leaders for giving us the time to do this. We worked hard and we got it 
done and we sent it to the House. Then the House committee went to work 
and they passed out a bipartisan bill. Never before, that I can 
remember--and I have been around here a while; this is my fourth farm 
bill--have we seen a situation where a bipartisan bill came out of 
committee and yet the House wouldn't take it up. They wouldn't take it 
up in July, the beginning of August, and wouldn't agree to allow us to 
negotiate differences over the August break to come up with a way to 
get this done by the end of this month.
  So here we are. The House is leaving today. The Senate is leaving 
either today or tomorrow or the next day, and there are 10 days left on 
the clock to provide economic certainty for 16 million men and women 
whose livelihoods come from agriculture. Many of these men and women 
watched as their crops withered under the hot summer Sun this year, as 
days and weeks went by without a drop of rain in the worst drought in 
50 years. Yet House Republicans are planning to leave without finishing 
their work on our farm bill. That is absolutely stunning to me.
  The work we did in the Senate passed on a strong bipartisan vote. As 
I said before, the committee in the House put forward their bill on a 
strong bipartisan vote. If nothing happens, in 10 days we begin to see 
a transition over the next few months to what is called permanent law, 
which goes back to the 1940s.
  We had over 90 different groups that came in last week. We had 
hundreds of farmers from around the country--farmers who got off their 
tractors, took their time at their own expense to fly in and say: Hey, 
wait a minute, When there is a job to do, you have to get it done. When 
the crops are ready to harvest, you don't wait a month. You have to do 
what you have to do when it needs to be done.
  That is exactly where we are right now. They just need to do it. I am 
confident the chairman and the ranking member, working in a bipartisan 
way, could do this in 1 day. I really believe they could do this in 1 
day. It is not as if there is a lot of other substantive work going on 
in the House. So 1 day. If they decided today: Okay, we are going to 
get this done before we leave, they would create a situation so our 
farmers, who are planning for next year, who have to go in and sit down 
with their banker, will know how to plan and what tools they have 
available. These are people who have been hit hard, have been 
devastated by disasters.
  In every single one of the counties in Michigan, 83 out of 83 
counties, there has been a disaster declaration. They are looking at us 
and saying: Thank you for what the Senate did, but why won't the House 
act? And, frankly, I don't know why the House won't act. But they 
should, because they are leaving an awful lot of people hanging.
  We know the consequences of not acting are that we begin to unravel a 
set of policies that need to be in place for production agriculture, 
for conservation, for local food systems, for energy, and for 
nutrition. We know also if we step up and do what we worked so hard to 
do in the Senate we will get the added plus of $23 billion in deficit 
reduction. The only thing that has passed the Senate that has 
bipartisan deficit reduction is our farm bill.
  We know we need to make reforms. That is why we eliminated four 
different subsidies, moved to a risk-based, market-based system, based 
on crop insurance providing tools for farmers to make sure they can 
make their own planning decisions, not plant for government programs, 
but make their own planning decisions and then have tools to support 
them and to manage the risks that come. We certainly know now, because 
we have seen this year, what kind of devastating risks may come for our 
farmers and ranchers across the country.
  I have gone through so many times what is in our farm bill that I 
will not do that now, except to say we have more reform--in fact, the 
Wall Street Journal said there is more reform in this farm bill than 
any in decades. We are proud of that. We have more in deficit reduction 
than in anything else we have passed. We have policies for the future. 
We have listened to farmers who said crop insurance is the most 
important thing for them in being able to manage their risk. We have 
focused on local food systems, providing schools with the ability to 
purchase locally and support their local farmers. There are energy 
opportunities for the future and bio-based manufacturing, where we 
truly can make things and grow things and grow the economy and grow the 
middle class of this country. There is rural development, where 
millions of Americans live--for small towns, such as Clare, where I 
grew up--with the ability to fund infrastructure--water, sewer, 
Internet--and have a business loan financed, and all those things that 
go into rural development. We provide for telemedicine to create a 
quality of life and health for seniors and families.
  All those things are involved in what we call the farm bill. All of 
those things were passed in the Senate. We did what I believe the 
American public wants us to do, and I certainly know people in Michigan 
want us to do--to make tough decisions, to evaluate what works and what 
doesn't work and to cut out the duplication. We eliminated over 100 
different programs and authorizations and we streamlined. That is what 
folks want us to do, and we did it. Now it is time for the House to do 
their job.
  The reality is, even though there are 10 days until the end of the 
month, the Speaker said they are going home with no action. So the real 
number is zero. We are out of time for farmers and ranchers and their 
families, and, frankly, for all of us. If we are fortunate enough to 
have lunch or breakfast today, we ought to care about the farm bill and 
the people who provide us with the safest, most affordable, and 
abundant food in the world. That is what we do in this bill. We are 
proud of it. And the House of Representatives should be ashamed of 
themselves for leaving town without supporting rural America.
  Madam President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEVIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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