[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 82 (Tuesday, June 11, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4206-S4207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             THE FARM BILL

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I rise today to speak about the 2013 
farm bill that the Senate just passed. I want to congratulate 
Chairwoman Stabenow and ranking member Cochran for their work and 
success on this bill. I am proud to support this bill.
  Last year, the Senate passed a strong bi-partisan farm bill that I 
was also happy to support. I greatly appreciate the work that 
Chairwoman Stabenow and former ranking member Roberts put into last 
year's bill and their willingness to work with me, and my colleagues 
from Chesapeake Bay region States to keep the conservation programs in 
the bill strong and effective for Maryland and other Chesapeake Bay 
States' farmers.
  I was pleased to see the strength of the farm bill's conservation 
programs, namely the Regional Conservation Partnership Program 
retained, and in some respects improved, in the bill that the 
Agriculture Committee reported in May. I greatly appreciate that 
through floor consideration of the bill the conservation programs 
remained largely unchanged. During last year's consideration of this 
bill my Chesapeake Bay State colleagues and I, in working with Senators 
Stabenow and Roberts, put a great deal of work into improving the 
Regional Conservation Partnership Program and I appreciate that all of 
our work from last year remains intact in this year's Senate farm bill.
  I have spoken with my State's soil conservation district managers 
about the new Regional Conservation Partnership Program that is coming 
and they are excited and ready to make sure that it works well in 
Maryland. I look forward to talking with more farmers and other 
stakeholders about the importance of this new program and will 
encourage their participation.
  Farming in Maryland is extremely challenging. Pressure from 
developers is compounded by the water quality concerns that persist in 
the bay and its tributaries. The facts of the matter are that the bay 
is polluted and it is everyone in the watershed's responsibility to 
help clean it up.
  The Chesapeake Bay is the world's largest most productive estuary. It 
is a national treasure that has an economic value over $1 trillion. I 
firmly believe that it is in the Nation's interest to protect this 
resource. It is in the interest and purview of the Federal government 
to coordinate the efforts of the six States and the District of 
Columbia. Because protecting this national treasure is an initiative in 
the Federal Government's interest I have made providing farmers 
financial resources to reduce pollution from their farms from polluting 
the bay a priority issue of mine in each farm bill I have worked on in 
the Senate.
  Because water quality concerns in the bay watershed are so high, 
Maryland farms must meet extremely standards of operation to prevent 
sediment and nutrient loss.

[[Page S4207]]

  I am proud to have worked with the chairman and ranking member to 
develop the programs in this bill that maintain the traditions of 
providing farmers with financial resources to mitigate nutrient and 
sediment loss from their farms.
  Perhaps, what is even more important than the specific financial 
resources this bill provides farmers to implement conservation 
activities on their farms is reestablishing the requirement that farms 
must protect highly erodible lands and wetlands in order to qualify for 
crop insurance premium assistance. This was an issue that I was proud 
to help champion last year and that ultimately my Republican friend, 
the Senior Senator from Georgia, was able to win a floor vote to 
require any producer seeking crop insurance premium assistance to also 
meet a basic set of conservation compliance criteria established under 
the Sodbuster and Swampbuster programs.
  The concept behind the conservation compliance programs is simple: 
The expenditure of Federal taxpayer dollars in support of farming 
operations cannot support farming practices that result in drainage of 
wetlands or farming of highly erodible lands. These conservation 
compliance requirements have long been accepted and applied to broadly 
to a variety of other longstanding farmer financial safety net 
programs. In fact, up until the 1996 farm bill these conservation 
compliance programs also applied to Federal crop insurance premium 
assistance programs.
  These minimum qualifications have been a success in ensuring that 
Federal taxpayer dollars are not supporting farming practices that lead 
to costly natural resource degradation. In Maryland, however, these 
practices are common place not just because our farmers want to be good 
stewards of the bay but because the State requires farmers to manage 
for wetland and soil loss on their farms.
  While I am proud of my Maryland farmers for their conservation work, 
they are punished in the marketplace for their good stewardship where 
they compete with producers whose production costs are lower because 
their operations are located in States that do not require mitigating 
the impacts of their operations on the natural environment.
  Because the 2013 farm bill aims to move farmers out of direct payment 
programs and into expanded Crop Insurance Premium Assistance programs, 
reestablishing conservation compliance eligibility requirements for the 
Crop Insurance Program helps level the competitive playing field for 
Maryland farmers and other State's agricultural sectors that are doing 
what is right to protect the environment.
  While mine and Senator Chambliss's efforts last year were met with 
significant challenges last year, a series of discussions between our 
Nation's leading agricultural interests groups, like the American Farm 
Bureau, and our Nation's top wildlife and conservation organizations 
resulted in a mutually agreed proposal to re-link conservation 
compliance requirements to the crop insurance premium assistance 
program.
  The Federal safety the farm bill provides for both farmers growing 
our Nation's food and low income families who have difficulty putting 
food on the table continues on in this bill but with needed reforms. I 
am proud to support this bill and congratulate the chair and ranking 
member.
  Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, yesterday, I voted against passage of S. 
954, the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013, which is 
commonly known as the farm bill. With an overall cost of nearly $1 
trillion, this legislation is more than we can afford at a time when 
our debt of nearly $17 trillion is growing rapidly each day. While I 
support some of the programs in this bill that are important to Florida 
and our State's important role in America's food supply, we cannot 
allow Washington to continue spending recklessly and condemning our 
children and grandchildren to a diminished future.
  Not only was I concerned about the cost of this legislation, but I am 
disappointed that ample opportunity was not provided to Senators to 
improve it through a more open amendment process. When the farm bill 
was considered last year, the Senate voted on over 70 amendments to the 
bill, including my RAISE Act amendment, which would have allowed 
workers to earn more money for a job well done without having to first 
clear it by union bosses. This open process was not the case this time 
around and prevented my colleagues and I from introducing measures to 
improve the bill, as well as timely measures such as my proposal to 
punish Internal Revenue Service employees who violate the First 
Amendment rights of our citizens.
  I remain committed to championing sound policy important to the 
farmers and working families that contribute to the agriculture 
industry's success and whose products ultimately end up at our dinner 
tables. It is why I am pursuing reforms in other areas that would 
benefit our farmers and our Nation. For example, I continue working 
towards national immigration reform, which would help create a guest 
worker visa program to ensure an adequate agriculture workforce. This 
reform would achieve an agricultural workers program that allows us to 
bring in both temporary and long-term laborers to provide our farms, 
dairies and other agricultural industries with the workers they need 
and in a way that also protects the dignity and safety of those 
workers.
  Ms. WARREN. Madam President, yesterday, I voted for the Agriculture 
Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013--the farm bill--which makes 
important reforms, such as ending the practice of direct payment 
agricultural subsidies, and provides strong support to our local 
farmers which will help stabilize our food policies and increase access 
to fresh produce for the next decade.
  I especially want to acknowledge and thank Senator Cowan, with whom I 
worked closely, for his successful effort to include in this bill a 
provision that was also advocated by former Senator Kerry to help our 
struggling fishermen in Massachusetts. This provision extends 
eligibility in the emergency disaster loan program to fishermen.
  When our farmers are struck by disasters, they have access to low-
interest emergency disaster--EM--loans available through USDA's Farm 
Service Agency. These loans have been used in the past by farmers, 
ranchers, and aqua farmers to help recover from crop production losses. 
Now, our Nation's fishermen will also have access to this important 
loan program.
  I am also proud to have worked with Senator Cowan on his amendment to 
authorize the Department of Agriculture to conduct a study to propose a 
method for a voluntary crop insurance program for seafood harvesters. 
Fisherman and farmers face the same economic hardships when there are 
significant drops in production. This study is an important step toward 
providing the seafood industry with an insurance product to reduce 
their risk. I thank Senator Cowan and former Senator Kerry for their 
leadership on these efforts to help out fisherman who experiencing very 
difficult economic hardships.
  Although I am proud to support the broad policies in this 
legislation, there are certain measures in this bill that I strongly 
oppose and that I will push to modify when the bill is considered in 
conference.
  In particular, I am deeply concerned with the changes that the farm 
bill makes to the SNAP program. I will continue working to ensure that 
assistance is available to all families who need help putting food on 
the table.

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