[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 21 (Tuesday, February 4, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S735-S736]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AGRICULTURAL ACT OF 2014--CONFERENCE REPORT--Continued
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will be 20
minutes equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their
designees. If no time is yielded, time will be equally charged to both
sides.
The Senator from Michigan.
Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, we have heard a lot from colleagues
the last 2 days about just how important this farm bill is, and that is
because there is so much more in this bill than what we would call a
farm bill. It is really 12 different pieces of legislation, from farm
to research, to fruits and vegetables, to energy across the board all
put together in something we call the farm bill.
This is, most importantly, a major bipartisan jobs bill that makes
sure the 16 million people who work in agriculture--from Michigan to
Mississippi, to Minnesota, to Oklahoma, and everywhere in between--have
the support they need.
This is an exports bill that will help expand opportunities for
American agricultural exports, one of the few areas where our Nation
maintains a healthy, robust trade surplus.
This is a research bill that will make a permanent long-term
commitment through a new public-private foundation and other
investments that will allow us to find solutions to pests and diseases
and focus on innovations for the future.
This is an energy bill that will help create the next generation of
biofuel to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and will help farmers
and rural small business owners generate their own power to improve
energy efficiency and lower their costs for their businesses.
This is an economic development bill that will help rural businesses
and communities get broadband Internet access so they can find new
customers and compete and connect around the country and around the
world.
This is a conservation bill that helps farmers and ranchers protect
our precious land and water resources. This is our country's largest
investment in conservation on private lands that we make as Americans.
Most of our land is privately owned. It includes a historic new
agreement between commodity and conservation groups that ties
conservation compliance with crop insurance so we are being the best
possible stewards of our land.
This bill will save taxpayers money and conserve our lands and waters
for years to come by preserving millions of acres of wildlife habitat,
which in turn has helped rebuild populations of ducks and quail and
pheasants, among others. That is why the bill has the strong support of
the National Wildlife Federation, Ducks Unlimited, the Nature
Conservancy, Pheasants Forever, and the World Wildlife Fund, which are
only a handful of the more than 250 conservation groups that have
endorsed this farm bill.
This is a nutrition bill that makes sure families have a safety net,
just as we do for farmers. The savings in food assistance comes solely
through addressing fraud and misuse while maintaining and protecting
critical benefits for those who need help, most often temporarily,
putting food on the table for their families while they get back on
their feet after having lost their job.
It strengthens the integrity and accountability of SNAP, making sure
every single dollar goes to families in need while they get back on
their feet. It gives our children more healthy food options in schools
and will help bring more healthy, locally grown food into our
communities.
This is a deficit reduction bill that will save taxpayers $23
billion. All together we have cut spending, a portion of it accounts
through sequestration, the rest in additional spending in this bill,
where we have voluntarily--as I have often said--voluntarily agreed to
cut spending in our own area of jurisdiction. By the way, that $23
billion is more than double the amount of agricultural cuts recommended
by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission.
This is a reform bill that contains the greatest reforms to
agricultural programs in decades. We have finally ended direct payment
subsidies which are given to farmers even in good times. Instead, we
move to a responsible risk-management approach that only gives farmers
assistance when they experience a loss. This farm bill is focused on
the future, not the past. This bill is taking a critical step toward
changing the paradigm of agriculture and the broad range of
agricultural production in this country.
This bill has the support of over 370 groups and counting from all
parts of the country and ideological backgrounds. That is because as we
wrote this bill we worked hard to find common ground to develop a bill
that works for every kind of agricultural production in every region of
our country. We worked hard and together--and I want to thank my
ranking member, the distinguished senior Senator from Mississippi, for
his leadership and partnership in this effort--we have included
valuable input from both sides of the aisle and from the House and the
Senate. I wish to thank all of our colleagues for their ideas, for
their willingness to put partisanship aside and work together. This is
an example of how we can get work done, and I hope it is just one step
of a productive year moving forward.
Thanks to all that work, we have arrived at a farm bill that works
for all of America--for families and farmers, for consumers, for those
who care so deeply about protecting our lands and our water. This bill
will strengthen agriculture for years to come. It is time to pass it.
It is time to get it to the President for signature.
Every single Senator in this Chamber has constituents who work and
benefit from agriculture, and certainly just coming from lunch today we
should each be thanking a farmer for the safest, most affordable food
supply in the world.
After 491 days without a farm bill, our constituents need us to get
this done. I urge colleagues to join in a bipartisan way, as we have
throughout this process, to vote yes on this farm bill and to give our
farmers, our ranchers, and the rest of the 16 million people who work
in agriculture the farm bill they deserve.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
Mr. COCHRAN. Madam President, I first of all want to commend the
distinguished Senator from Michigan for her outstanding leadership of
the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. As we proceeded
from the hearings to review those suggestions being made for change and
modernization of our agriculture act to the final days of committee
hearings and now full debate in the Senate and in the House, it comes
to this final vote.
Last night there was a decisive vote of 72 to 22 to end debate on the
farm bill. That reflects the appreciation and respect the Senate has
for the work of this committee, led by our distinguished chairman, the
Senator from Michigan. So I thank her, as well as our House committee
counterparts, Frank Lucas of Oklahoma and ranking member Collin
Peterson of Minnesota, as well as the members of their staff, as we
worked our way through the conference between the House and the Senate
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry leadership.
I wish to thank, too, our majority staff director Chris Adamo and all
of Chairwoman Stabenow's staff for their hard work in developing this
farm bill. Our committee clerk Jessie Williams and her staff have also
provided great assistance throughout this process. They have worked
diligently and competently and thoughtfully on this legislation. Their
dedication to developing the bill and the conference report led to long
days, many working weekends, and we do owe them a very strong debt of
gratitude and commendation for this work product.
My staff director T.A. Hawks has been at the job, it seems like, day
and night for a long time to help make sure we pass a bill that
reflects the sentiment and the suggestions for this Congress for
modernization of our agriculture legislation. James Glueck also worked
closely with T.A. Hawks and has been a trusted adviser. I am grateful
for his good help as well.
[[Page S736]]
All of our staff members have done great work in helping move the
farm bill to a successful conclusion and the approval by the Senate of
this work. My personal office agriculture LA Daniel Ulmer also was
involved in the work of this committee and advising me personally as we
worked our way to the conclusion of our responsibilities. He worked
very closely with the committee to help develop the farm bill;
likewise, chief of staff Bruce Evans, legislative director Adam Telle,
legislative aide Bennett Mize, and others from my staff have added
valuable input into this process, and I appreciate their good work.
With that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, I realize we will be having the vote
at 2:35, so let me just take one more moment to stress how important it
is that we recognize this was an effort in good faith between the House
and the Senate and Republicans and Democrats.
I too wish to join with my ranking member Senator Cochran in thanking
the chairman in the House Frank Lucas. He and ranking member Collin
Peterson were true partners with us as we moved through this process.
We actually started about 2\1/2\ years ago when the supercommittee on
deficit reduction at that time asked each committee to come up with a
way to reduce the deficit, to cut spending in their area of
jurisdiction. We decided to do it a little differently. Chairman Lucas
and I talked and we decided the four of us would get together and
actually come up with a House-Senate, Democratic-Republican
recommendation that would be solidly supported by all sides. So it was
a prenegotiation on the farm bill that we were going to be doing in the
next year.
So in July, August of 2011, we sat down and started going through
ways we could save dollars. We all agreed direct payment subsidies
could no longer be justified and needed to be eliminated. We also knew
it was important to have a safety net for our farmers, and disaster
assistance for our ranchers and farmers as well, and that we needed to
help them manage their risk. We came up with an approach which took
part of the dollars we cut and put it back into strengthening risk
management tools, such as crop insurance--which is just like any other
insurance: you pay a premium, you get a bill--not a check--and you
don't get any kind of help unless you have a loss.
But we also took a look at other areas of the farm bill. We found
there were 23 different conservation programs. Every time somebody had
a good idea, we added a new program. We thought, let's go back and
really take a look at this. If we were starting from scratch, how would
we put together all these important programs and do it in a way that is
more user friendly for farmers and ranchers and organizations that work
on land and water preservation. So we went from 23 to 13 programs and
put them in 4 different buckets, or subject areas, and we saved money.
Then we looked at every part of the farm bill. I asked our staff not
to talk about programs but principles: What should we be doing? What
should the farm bill be doing for agriculture, for farmers, ranchers,
families, consumers, rural communities, job creators? Let's not protect
programs. Let's look broadly at principles.
So we did that, and we ended up eliminating about 100 different
authorization programs, consolidating, cutting down on duplication,
doing what I think Americans are asking us to do in every part of the
Federal Government.
We then turned around to set priorities about where to invest,
because it is not just cutting for cutting's sake, it is trying to make
things work better, be more effective, and save precious dollars, but
at the same time investing in the future--investing in that which will
strengthen agriculture, create jobs, strengthen rural communities, and
new opportunities for the broad array of production, what consumers are
asking for in organics, local food systems, and so on.
So we basically put together a plan that started with the deficit
reduction process, the supercommittee, and we made a recommendation of
$23 billion in cuts and deficit reduction. We all know that the broader
deficit reduction process did not proceed, but we decided to keep the
commitment to that $23 billion, and so we have. We have moved forward.
Part of the cuts now that we have put into place have been accounted
for by the Budget Office as part of sequestration. Most have not. But
when we add it all up, it is still $23 billion that we started with
back in 2011, when the four of us together decided to sit down and
listen to each other, understand each other, find common ground, and
make some tough decisions about how we could do things better in the
area of agriculture and the farm bill.
As we come to a close, I again thank colleagues who have given such
valuable input and been involved every step of the way. I hope everyone
will feel a sense of pride that this is something we have done
together--that people expect us to do together, which is do our job, to
make decisions and to govern, and to operate in a way which allows us
to listen to each other, find common ground, and get our work done.
Madam President, I yield back all remaining time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, all postcloture time
has expired.
Ms. STABENOW. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The question is on adoption of the conference report.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
The result was announced--yeas 68, nays 32, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 21 Leg.]
YEAS--68
Alexander
Baldwin
Baucus
Begich
Bennet
Blunt
Boozman
Boxer
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Chambliss
Coats
Cochran
Coons
Crapo
Donnelly
Durbin
Enzi
Feinstein
Fischer
Franken
Graham
Hagan
Harkin
Hatch
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Hirono
Hoeven
Isakson
Johanns
Johnson (SD)
Kaine
King
Kirk
Klobuchar
Landrieu
Leahy
Levin
Manchin
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Merkley
Mikulski
Moran
Murray
Nelson
Portman
Pryor
Reid
Risch
Rockefeller
Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Shaheen
Stabenow
Tester
Thune
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Vitter
Warner
Wicker
Wyden
NAYS--32
Ayotte
Barrasso
Blumenthal
Booker
Burr
Casey
Coburn
Collins
Corker
Cornyn
Cruz
Flake
Gillibrand
Grassley
Heller
Inhofe
Johnson (WI)
Lee
Markey
McCain
Murkowski
Murphy
Paul
Reed
Roberts
Rubio
Scott
Sessions
Shelby
Toomey
Warren
Whitehouse
The conference was agreed to.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
Mr. REID. Madam President, did we move to reconsider and lay on the
table the previous vote?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. No.
Mr. REID. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote.
Mr. COCHRAN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
____________________