[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.

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