[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 107 (Tuesday, June 26, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4382-S4385]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        AGRICULTURE AND NUTRITION ACT OF 2018--MOTION TO PROCEED

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the 
Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 2, 
which the clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed Calendar No. 483, to H.R. 2, a bill to 
     provide for the reform and continuation of agricultural and 
     other programs of the Department of Agriculture through 
     fiscal year 2023, and for other purposes.

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Michigan.
  Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, I thank the majority and minority 
leaders for bringing this bill to the floor for consideration as 
quickly as they have done. I appreciate all the Agriculture Committee 
members on both sides of the aisle for working together to write this 
important legislation. Most importantly, many thanks to my friend and 
my partner, Chairman Pat Roberts, for his work and his leadership and 
his commitment to our farmers and growers throughout this process. It 
is a great pleasure to work with him.
  From the very beginning of this process, Chairman Roberts and I made 
a commitment that we would deliver a strong bipartisan farm bill. 
Despite the long road we faced, we stayed true to our word. I am proud 
to say that we wrote a bill that will provide certainty, as the 
chairman talked about, to our farmers, our families, and rural 
communities.
  We stayed focused on strengthening our Nation's diverse agricultural 
economy and the 16 million jobs it supports. This is a jobs bill for 
America. A lot of those jobs are in my home State of Michigan, where 
our food and agricultural economy supports one out of four jobs in 
Michigan.
  People look at us as an auto State, which we proudly are, an auto 
manufacturing State. We make things, but we make things and we grow 
things. I don't think you can have an economy or a middle class unless 
somebody makes things and grows things. That is what we do. This bill 
is critical to both of those things. The farm bill helps us make things 
and grow things, and it is critical to our Michigan economy and to the 
economy of the country.
  Even though agriculture supports the livelihood of so many families, 
the rest of us may take for granted the work they do and how much we 
depend on them to be successful. After all, we all have to eat, and the 
food on our plates comes from a farm or a ranch. Farms like Everbest 
Organics in Munger, MI, grow the black beans you may find in your 
burrito. Dietrich Orchards in Conklin produces the apple slices your 
kids might eat as a snack.
  The men and women who own and operate so many farms in Michigan and 
across this country are the reason our grocery shelves are stocked with 
the safest, most affordable food in the world. The food we eat depends 
on the hard work they put in day in and day out. They do this work 
knowing the great risks they face. For a farmer, a year of work can be 
lost in a single day. I saw an example of that in the Upper Peninsula 
of Michigan just yesterday, where severe flooding and mudslides have 
caused unimaginable losses in Houghton, MI, and Hancock and the 
surrounding small towns. A number of farms in Menominee County 
experienced heavy damage. The loss of hay alone will hurt dairy and 
cattle operations for weeks and months to come.
  On top of the uncertainty farmers face from Mother Nature, they also 
contend with unpredictable markets and certainly unpredictable 
situations today in terms of Federal policy. The farm economy is 
struggling right now with low prices. Many farm families are struggling 
to make ends meet. Uncertainty about international trade is definitely 
not helping.
  When times are tough, the farm bill provides a strong safety net to 
protect our farmers and ranchers. We took

[[Page S4383]]

steps to strengthen the risk-management tools and crop insurance to 
help producers of all types protect their businesses from unexpected 
losses. We create that risk-management safety net for all types of 
farms, large and small.
  We also made a number of important changes for our dairy farmers. The 
dairy support in the last farm bill, unfortunately, did not work as 
expected, leaving many family dairy farms without a reliable safety 
net. In addition to the $1.1 billion we secured in the Bipartisan 
Budget Act, we replaced the Margin Protection Program with new, 
affordable coverage for dairy farmers when the market dips.
  Thanks to the support and the leadership of Senator Gillibrand, 
Senator Baldwin, and Senator Klobuchar, we also refund premiums for 
dairy farmers who did not see returns under the old safety net.
  From commodities and dairy to specialty crops and urban farming, the 
strength of American agriculture is rooted in the diversity of what we 
grow and how we grow it. This is certainly true in Michigan, where we 
grow more crops than every other State but one--that little State 
called California. We are working on that one.
  Our farm bill continues to support the wide variety of farms all 
across America, big and small, urban and rural. We invest in the bright 
future of agriculture by helping new and beginning farmers, including 
young people and returning veterans. We expand agricultural market 
opportunities so our farmers can make a living. Historic investments in 
organic farming help producers tap into one of the fastest growing 
sectors of agriculture.
  New and permanent investments in international trade promotion will 
help our farmers sell their production abroad. Streamlined, permanent 
support for farmers markets, food hubs, and local food processing will 
help our farmers sell to their neighbors.

  Just as the farm bill provides a safety net for farmers, it also 
provides a safety net for our families. We know nutrition assistance 
provides a critical lifeline for families who are struggling to make 
ends meet. The good news is, according to the Congressional Budget 
Office, nutrition programs are saving over $80 billion more than 
expected because the economy is getting better and fewer people need 
temporary help. So we focused on strengthening nutrition assistance the 
right way--by working on a bipartisan basis.
  We improved the integrity of SNAP and created new job-training 
opportunities and public-private partnerships, while preserving 
critical food access for American families. We also worked to improve 
access to healthy foods through SNAP by bolstering fruit and vegetable 
incentives--what we call in Michigan Double Up Bucks--and reducing 
paperwork for senior citizens on fixed incomes.
  The farm bill also plays an important role in improving the quality 
of life in every single small town and rural community, like where I 
grew up in Clare and where I was this weekend up in the Upper 
Peninsula.
  Access to high-speed internet is one of the top concerns we hear 
about in rural America. In 2018, having internet access is not a 
luxury, it is a necessity. High school students need to do their 
homework and be able to apply for college. Hospitals and health centers 
need it to connect patients with specialists and use telemedicine and 
reach those in their homes. Farmers and small business owners count on 
it to steer their tractors and sell their products and communicate with 
customers. The farm bill includes new opportunities that will connect 
communities that need it most.
  We are also continuing to create jobs. The strong investments in 
rural small businesses promote entrepreneurship. Support for renewable 
energy helps farmers and businesses be more efficient, while also 
adding installation jobs in rural communities.
  Biobased manufacturing creates rural and urban jobs--taking crops 
like corn and soybeans and turning them into products we use every day, 
from laundry detergent, to seats in automobiles--yes, you may be 
sitting on soybeans in your car--to biofuels.
  All of these things create opportunities for young people to stay in 
their hometowns and raise their families. We want children to feel they 
can stay at home in their small town and have the quality of life they 
want for themselves and their families and have the opportunity to 
raise their children there.
  Despite facing a tough budget, the farm bill continues to be one of 
the largest investments in the conservation of our land, water, and 
Great Lakes, which is so important to us in Michigan. Contrary to the 
House bill, we made no cuts to the conservation title, which helps our 
farmers be more productive and more profitable. In fact, by focusing on 
successful conservation partnerships, we will actually grow funding by 
leveraging an additional $1 billion in private investments.
  Clean water and healthy wildlife habitat are not only good for our 
farmers and our environment, they also support hunting, fishing, and 
outdoor recreation. Again, that is where I grew up. We were outdoors 
all the time hunting, fishing, enjoying the outdoors. The great news is 
that this accounts for over 7 million jobs.
  There is no doubt that this farm bill is a jobs bill, and, as the 
chairman said, it is a national security bill. It is a conservation 
bill. It is a food security bill. It is also a bipartisan bill, with 
the strong support of the members of the Agriculture, Nutrition, and 
Forestry Committee.
  I am proud to be here with my friend and colleague, the leader of our 
committee, Chairman Roberts, and I urge our colleagues to join us in 
swiftly passing this bill.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kennedy). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cruz). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I rise to discuss, once again, an issue 
of utmost importance to the people of Louisiana and to the millions of 
Americans who live in coastal States or in a floodplain. I am talking, 
of course, about the National Flood Insurance Program, or as we refer 
to it, the NFIP.
  As one knows, in the absence of reauthorizing legislation, this 
program will expire at the height of hurricane season, and its 
expiration will leave more than 5 million American families and 
businesses without insurance and, therefore, in limbo. For the good of 
our national economy, we simply cannot allow that to happen. That is 
why I am requesting a vote to extend the program through hurricane 
season as either an amendment to our farm bill or after recess as a 
stand-alone bill. My amendment to the farm bill is clean. It would be a 
6-month emergency extension that would just maintain the status quo and 
give flood insurance policyholders peace of mind while allowing us to 
put together a viable, bipartisan, long-term reform bill.
  As one well knows, flooding is the No. 1 natural hazard in this 
country. It poses an extraordinary risk to both life and property. Of 
course, families who live near oceans, lakes, rivers, and bayous rely 
on the NFIP to protect their homes and businesses. Yet winter storms 
and snowmelt also flood thousands of properties every year, and you 
don't have to live in a coastal State to have a bad rainstorm. In fact, 
you are twice as likely to have your home flood as you are to have it 
catch on fire, regardless of where you live. I can assure you that 
regardless of where you live, if you have 20 or 21 inches of rain over 
a 2-day period, you are going to flood. I do not care if you live on 
Pikes Peak.
  If you do happen to have your home or business flood, your normal 
homeowner's policy is not going to help you. You are not covered. That 
is why Congress created the NFIP, and that is why we need to continue 
it. Yet we find this program in jeopardy once again. I mean no 
disrespect, but Congress has repeatedly and consistently mangled the 
reauthorization of the NFIP.
  Despite its being the primary source of flood insurance coverage for 
millions of American homeowners, Congress allowed the National Flood 
Insurance Program to expire four times in 2010, for a total of 53 days. 
Those disruptions had lasting effects on ordinary Americans. In June of 
2010, for each day the NFIP had been expired, over 1,400 home sales had 
been canceled or delayed.

[[Page S4384]]

This had injected uncertainty into a fragile housing market. It had 
disrupted mortgage lending and had sent our local economies into a 
tailspin. If the NFIP were to lapse this July--and unless we do 
something, it will lapse on July 31--the National Association of 
Realtors estimates that more than 40,000 home sale closings will be 
affected each month.
  As it now stands, we have 21 Senate session days until the NFIP 
expires at 12 midnight on July 31. I regret to say that no meaningful 
progress has been made with regard to our efforts to confect a reform 
bill that would continue and improve the NFIP. To make matters worse, 
our friends in the House of Representatives decoupled the NFIP from 
spending bills in the omnibus, which has only increased the likelihood 
that the NFIP will be allowed to expire, which is unacceptable.
  Without independent reauthorizing legislation--either stand-alone 
legislation or an amendment to our farm bill--Congress stands poised to 
bring our domestic real estate market to a standstill and leave 
Americans in our coastal States and elsewhere exposed in the middle of 
hurricane season. We simply cannot afford to let down that many 
Americans who depend on the National Flood Insurance Program.
  Again, I strongly encourage my colleagues to support this emergency 
extension of the NFIP, which I am working on, along with Senator 
Cassidy, who is the senior Senator from Louisiana and whose support I 
greatly appreciate.
  We are a month away from a lapse of the NFIP--21 working days in the 
Senate. That is why I am requesting a vote on a clean, short-term, 
status quo reauthorization that will get us through hurricane season.
  I thank the Presiding Officer.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, as we all know, we are on the farm bill 
this week in the Senate. I express my gratitude to Chairman Roberts and 
Ranking Member Stabenow for bringing us this far.
  Interestingly, in a town where differences tend to be along partisan 
lines and ideological lines, the differences in the farm bill tend to 
be largely regional as much as anything else, but they have done a good 
job in trying to bring a fair and equitable bill to the Senate floor. 
That is reflected by the near unanimous vote in committee for the bill.
  The farm bill has always been important. With its being renewed every 
5 years, it helps to ensure that Americans and the people who benefit 
from American exports around the world enjoy access to the safest, 
cheapest, most reliable food source on the planet. The farm bill 
impacts many areas beyond food production. It promotes the conservation 
of farmland and watersheds. Foreign food aid programs are reauthorized 
as part of this bill, and we lay down the policy that affects the 
management of our Nation's forests.
  I am especially pleased with this year's farm bill and its impact on 
my home State and the Presiding Officer's home State of Texas. Among 
the most noteworthy provisions is protecting seed cotton eligibility 
for the farm bill safety net. This year's bill also retains and 
strengthens the Price Loss Coverage Program to help provide Texas 
agricultural producers with stability through unpredictable weather and 
natural disasters. Finally, the bill promotes animal health and 
reauthorizes disease research programs, including a crucial one that 
will help the U.S. Department of Agriculture provide research to 
contain the spread of the cattle fever tick. I doubt many people have 
heard of the cattle fever tick, but it is a real threat to our herds, 
our beef herds, and it has the potential to wipe out cattle herds and 
cause devastating financial losses.
  I want to highlight three areas where I do think the bill could stand 
some improvement--first, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance 
Program. There is a lot of good done in the bill for farm and 
agricultural programs, but many people don't know that about 80 percent 
of the money spent in the farm bill is directed to so-called nutrition 
programs. So calling this a farm bill is a bit of a misnomer, since 
only 20 percent of its resources deal with farm and agriculture. So we 
need to consider targeted ways to ensure that tax dollars used to pay 
for these nutrition programs are used wisely.
  That is why I will support an amendment that expands work 
requirements for those who receive SNAP benefits. It is not just for 
work, but for people who are able-bodied who need to train for work or 
provide community service as condition of qualifying for this welfare 
benefit.
  My second related amendment will authorize a pilot program to 
encourage nongovernmental partners to help address food insecurity in 
local communities. While I salute Chairman Roberts and Ranking Member 
Stabenow for attempting to ensure the integrity of our nutrition 
programs, I believe these amendments will further promote the goal we 
all share.
  The last one I will cosponsor with the junior Senator from Kansas, 
whose leadership I would like to commend, is one that addresses the 
wildfires we have had the last 2 years and the destruction these 
natural disasters have provided in farm country.
  I see the chairman of the Agriculture Committee on the floor, and I 
yield to him if he has a question he would like to ask.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, just a comment, and I state to the 
Presiding Officer that I thank the Senator from Texas for his general 
support for the farm bill.
  The issues Senator Cornyn has mentioned are very important. In the 
nutrition title, we have addressed deficiencies that he has mentioned. 
We have 10 States now that have private projects for job training to 
figure out what really works best. The law currently allows States to 
have job training and a worker program. Kansas has that law. I am sure 
Texas probably has the law.
  I think we have achieved about as much as we can to at least 
determine where we are going. The House bill, with all due respect, has 
$8 billion in cuts, and then there are questions as to how that is 
implemented and what agency does that. Agriculture, I don't think, is 
prepared to really launch into a full program of job training. The one 
issue the Senator from Texas specifically mentioned that caused me to 
come down here and interrupt his great speech is, we do have that 
private part to supplement the Federal situation in the Food Stamp 
Program. I don't know if we have hit all three areas of concern he has 
mentioned, but we are pretty darn close.
  I appreciate the Senator's interest. We are just trying to get a 
program that has better integrity, that works better, and is more 
efficient.
  By the way, we deal with that bonus program, where some States--
actually, only eight States--were not guilty of this, but a lot of 
States gamed the system, and we have taken care of that. We have taken 
a hard look at the nutrition program, but we don't declare the farm 
program to be a welfare program or try to put it into that kind of a 
description.
  So, basically, I am just saying with the three things the Senator 
just mentioned, we tried to address all three. Now, perhaps, not to the 
degree that the distinguished Senator would like, but that is still up 
for consideration, and I appreciate his comments.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I appreciate the comments of the chairman 
of the Agriculture Committee, and I appreciate his efforts to try to 
accommodate the concerns I have raised.
  Believe me, I understand this isn't his first rodeo. He has been down 
this path many times trying to come up with a farm bill that can get 
passed by both Houses of Congress and signed by the President of the 
United States, and that is no easy task.
  I would state on the work requirement for qualifying for the so-
called nutrition program, I am aware of the fact that since these are 
Federal dollars, many States, even though they have the authority to 
impose some work or community service requirement, can waive that 
rather easily, since they are not spending their

[[Page S4385]]

money; they are spending the Federal Government's money. So we are 
looking for ways to perhaps strengthen that provision.
  I hope we will have an opportunity to have a vote on it. My goal is 
to make sure we pass a farm bill, but I do think it is important that 
we demonstrate our commitment to protecting the Federal taxpayer and 
imposing modest work, preparation for work, or community service 
requirements on able-bodied people.
  I yield to the chairman.
  Mr. ROBERTS. I thank the Senator for yielding.
  We are looking at those provisions, and we are looking at making sure 
able-bodied people do achieve the goal of going from dependence to 
independence, more especially in this time of economic recovery, which 
is really the secret to all of this. The numbers in the Food Stamp 
Program have decreased dramatically as we have seen our economy 
improve, but we are taking a look at those waivers. The difference is, 
in the House bill, we have a situation where if somebody has children 6 
and under, it used to be 10 and under, and then on the other side, 
people who were 50 to now 60 are included--that has raised some dust.
  There are several other issues the Senator has mentioned. It is just 
a matter of degree. We want to provide integrity to that program. We 
want it to work and have it go to the people who truly need it, and we 
have tried very hard to accomplish that.
  We will study hard the good recommendations the Senator has 
mentioned, and we will do our best.
  Mr. CORNYN. I appreciate the chairman's comments, and I have 
confidence in him and his ability to manage this bill successfully 
across the floor.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________