[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 144 (Tuesday, August 28, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5992-S5994]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Ms. COLLINS (for herself and Mr. Carper):
S. 3394. A bill to establish a national mercury monitoring program,
and for other purposes; to the Committee on Environment and Public
Works
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, today along with Senator Carper, I am
introducing the Comprehensive National Mercury Monitoring Act. This
bill would ensure that we have accurate information about the extent of
mercury pollution in the United States.
A comprehensive national mercury monitoring network is needed to
protect human health, safeguard fisheries, and track the effect of
emissions reductions. This tracking is particularly important in light
of increasing mercury emissions from other countries, including a
substantial amount of mercury emissions from China. Mercury can be
transported around the globe, meaning emissions and releases can affect
human health and environment even in remote locations.
The issue of mercury emissions is growing in importance around the
world. In 2013, the United States was the first Nation to join and sign
the Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global agreement to reduce
mercury pollution. The Minamata Convention has been signed by more than
125 countries and raises the issue that mercury poses a global threat
to human health. At present, scientists must rely on limited
information to understand the critical linkages between mercury
emissions and environmental response and human health. Successful
design, implementation, and assessment of solutions to the mercury
pollution problem require comprehensive long-term information. A system
for collecting such information, such as we have for acid rain and
other pollution, does not currently exist for mercury--a much more
toxic pollutant.
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin of significant ecological and public
health concern, especially for children and pregnant women. It is
estimated that approximately 200,000 children born in the U.S. per year
are exposed to levels of mercury in the womb that are high enough to
impair neurological development. Mercury exposure has gone down as U.S.
mercury emissions have declined; however, levels remain far too high.
By accurately quantifying regional and national changes in
atmospheric deposition, ecosystem contamination, and bioaccumulation of
mercury in fish and wildlife in response to changes in mercury
emissions, a monitoring network would help policy makers, scientists,
and the public to better understand the sources, consequences, and
trends in mercury pollution in the United States. We must have more
comprehensive information and we must have it soon; otherwise, we risk
making misguided policy decisions.
Specifically, the Comprehensive National Mercury Monitoring Act
would:
Direct EPA, in conjunction with the Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S.
Geological Survey, National Park Service, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Association, and other appropriate Federal agencies, to
establish a national mercury monitoring program to measure and monitor
mercury levels in the air and watersheds, water and soil chemistry, and
in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial organisms across the nation;
Establish a scientific advisory committee to advise on the
establishment, site selection, measurement, recording protocols, and
operations of the monitoring program;
Establish a centralized database for existing and newly collected
environmental mercury data that can be freely accessed on the Internet
and is comprised of data that is compatible with similar international
efforts;
Require a report to Congress every two years on the program,
including trends, and an assessment of the reduction in mercury
deposition rates that need to be achieved in order to prevent adverse
human and ecological effects every four-years; and
Authorize $95 million over three years to carry out the Act.
We must establish a comprehensive, robust national monitoring network
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for mercury to provide the data needed to help make decisions to
protect the people and environment of Maine and the United States.
______
By Mr. WYDEN:
S. 3403. A bill to authorize transitional sheltering assistance for
individuals who live in areas with unhealthy air quality caused by
wildfires, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Clean Air
Refugee Assistance Act of 2018 to help Americans who have been driven
away from their homes by choking, hazardous wildfire smoke. Western
wildfires are getting bigger, hotter, and more difficult to fight and
scientists says it's only likely to get worse.
Folks back home in Oregon and across the Pacific Northwest already
know what I'm talking about because they're on the front lines of these
disasters. With dryer summers and lower snow packs, wildfires rage
across the West. They're threatening lives, homes, and businesses and
generating so much smoke that they're creating what I call clean air
refugees.
These are people who can't go outside and, in some cases, who must
flee their homes and communities to find pockets of fresh air.
I'm talking about children suffering from asthma and other conditions
and seniors who need a respirator to breathe.
In some cases, Oregonians lacking access to safe, clean air are being
told to seek shelter in public places like libraries and government
buildings.
My legislation would help provide some relief by opening the Federal
Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Transitional Sheltering Assistance
program to people seeking temporary shelter from wildfire smoke.
This program already permits FEMA to pay for temporary lodging for
people who can't immediately return home following a disaster.
My bill would permit clean air refugees to apply if they live in an
area where the air quality index is determined to be unhealthy for at
least three consecutive days as the result of a wildfire declared to be
a major disaster by the President or Governor of the affected state.
FEMA-approved applicants would pick from a list of participating
hotels and motels and FEMA would pay the lodging costs.
Mr. President, the Federal government needs to step up and be a
better partner on these wildfires and it can start by helping Americans
who have been driven from their homes find some refuge.
Passing the Clean Air Refugee Assistance Act would be a breath of
fresh air for folks struggling to escape the choking smoke, and I urge
my colleagues to support this important bill.
______
By Mr. BOOKER:
S. 3404. A bill to impose a moratorium on large agribusiness, food
and beverage manufacturing, and grocery retail mergers, and to
establish a commission to review large agriculture, food and beverage
manufacturing, and grocery retail mergers, concentration, and market
power; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Food and Agribusiness Merger
Moratorium and Antitrust Review Act of 2018, a critical bill that would
put a pause on the largest, most consequential acquisitions and mergers
in the food and agriculture sector, and give Congress an opportunity to
update our antitrust laws in order to protect America's farmers,
workers and rural communities who are being harmed by the ever
increasing levels of corporate concentration.
Almost 20 years ago, Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota introduced
the Agribusiness Merger Moratorium and Antitrust Review Act of 1999.
Senator Wellstone introduced that bill out of a concern that growing
concentration in the agricultural sector was harming our farmers and
rural communities, and was causing agricultural commodity markets to
become stacked against the farmer.
Senator Wellstone was right to be concerned, and over the past two
decades concentration has only gotten worse--much worse. Today a small
number of giant companies control every link of the food chain.
Consolidation has now reached a point where the top four firms in
almost every sector in the food and agriculture economy have acquired
abusive levels of market power.
Recently I traveled and met with farmers and ranchers in rural
America. I heard firsthand how excessive levels of concentration and
market power hurt our independent family farmers, who are being forced
to sell into ever more concentrated marketplaces that unfairly reduce
the prices they receive for their crops and livestock.
The data paints a grim picture: The farmer's share of every retail
dollar has plummeted from 41 percent in 1950 to approximately 15
percent today. Since 2013, net farm income for United States farmers
has fallen by half and median farm income was negative in 2017 and is
expected to be negative again in 2018.
Excessive market power has led to price gouging of both farmers and
consumers. For example, in 2016 the largest pork producer in the U.S.,
Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods, credited its enhanced profits to the
14-year low prices paid to farmers for live hogs and the higher selling
prices for pork to consumers.
In the past three decades, the top four largest pork packers have
seized control of 71 percent of the market, up from 36 percent. Over
the same period, the top four beef packers have expanded their market
share from 32 percent to 85 percent. The top four flour millers have
increased their market share from 40 percent to 64 percent. The market
share of the top four soybean crushers has jumped from 54 percent to 79
percent, and the top four wet corn processors control of the market has
increased from 63 percent to 86 percent.
The top four grain companies today control nearly 90 percent of the
global grain market.
During the past two years, there has been a wave of consolidation
among global seed and crop-chemical firms, and three companies now
control nearly two-thirds of the world's commodity crop seeds. Those
same three companies now also control nearly 70 percent of all
agricultural chemicals and pesticides.
In the United States, the four largest corn seed sellers accounted
for 85 percent of the market in 2015, up from 60 percent in 2000. Over
the past 20 years, the cost for an acre's worth of seeds for an average
corn farmer has nearly quadrupled, and the cost of fertilizer has more
than doubled. Yet corn yields increased only 36 percent over that time,
and the price received for the sale of a bushel of corn increased only
31 percent.
71 percent of the contract poultry growers who depend on the income
from their poultry contracts live at or below the federal poverty
level.
The United States is losing farmers at an alarming rate, agricultural
jobs and wages are drying up, and rural communities are disappearing.
These problems can be mitigated by more active use of our antitrust
laws, and allowing an opportunity for U.S. farmers and ranchers to
compete in fair and open markets.
The Food and Agribusiness Merger Moratorium and Antitrust Review Act
provides the opportunity to stop increased consolidation through
acquisitions and mergers until such time as a full review of the impact
of concentration is completed and government responses are formulated.
Specifically, this bill would halt large mergers in the food system
for 18 months and would set up a commission to study how to strengthen
antitrust oversight of the farm and food sectors and publish
recommended improvements to merger enforcement.
This moratorium would provide needed time to develop new tools to
strengthen merger enforcement and antitrust rules to address the unique
conditions in the farm and food economy and protect farmers, workers
and consumers.
The federal government needs to provide safeguards to the
agricultural marketplace so that farmers and workers have the
opportunity to share in the prosperity that open, transparent and fair
markets can provide them.
Senator Wellstone was prescient when he put forward this legislation
almost twenty years ago. The problem of concentration was apparent
then, and has grown even worse. What would
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have been had the Senate passed this legislation then?
I did not have the opportunity to serve alongside Senator Wellstone,
but I know from my colleagues who did, that there was no better
advocate, no better organizer, who understood the power of coalitions,
who understood the power of taking an issue to the Senate floor and
demanding action. I look forward to working with my colleagues,
educating others about this issue, and continuing the work he started
to defend farmers, workers, and consumers from the harms being posed by
corporate concentration.
This legislation has broad support, with endorsements from the
following organizations:
ActionAid USA, Alabama Contract Poultry Growers
Association, Alliance for Democracy, American Agriculture
Movement, American Grassfed Association, Animal Wellness
Action, Appetite for Change (MN), Beyond Pesticides,
California Dairy Campaign, California Farmers Union, Campaign
for Contract Agriculture Reform, Campaign for Family Farms
and the Environment, Cattle Producers of Louisiana, Center
for Food Safety, Community Farm Alliance (KY), Contract
Poultry Growers Association of the Virginias, The Cornucopia
Institute, Crawford Stewardship Project (WI), Dakota Rural
Action of SD, Dallas Farmers Market Friends, Family Farm
Action.
Family Farm Defenders (WI), Farm Aid, Farm and Ranch
Freedom Alliance, Farmworker Association of Florida,
Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund,
Food & Water Watch, Food Chain Workers Alliance, Food for
Maine's Future, Food Policy Council of San Antonio, Friends
of the Earth U.S., Government Accountability Project, GROW
North Texas, HEAL Food Alliance, Idaho Organization of
Resource Councils, Illinois Farmers Union, Illinois
Stewardship Alliance, Independent Cattlemen of Wyoming,
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Iowa Citizens for
Community Improvement, Iowa Farmers Union.
Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (MD), Kansas
Farmers Union, Land Stewardship Project (MN), Michigan
Farmers Union, Minnesota Farmers Union, Missouri Farmers
Union, Missouri Rural Crisis Center, National Family Farm
Coalition, National Farmers Organization, National Farmers
Union, National Latino Farmers & Ranchers Trade Association,
National Women Involved in Farm Economics, Nebraska Farmers
Union, North Dakota Farmers Union, Northeast Organic Dairy
Producers Alliance, Northeast Organic Farming Assoc.--NY,
Northeast Organic Farming Assoc.--VT, Northern Plains
Resource Council (MT), Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance
(MA), Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association.
Oklahoma Independent Stockgrowers Association, Oklahoma
Stewardship Council, Organic Farmers' Agency for Relationship
Marketing (OFARM), Organic Seed Alliance, Organic Seed
Growers & Trade Association (OSGATA), Organization for
Competitive Markets, PCC Community Markets (WA), Pennsylvania
Farmers Union, Powder River Basin Resource Council (WY), R-
CALF United Stockgrowers of America, Rocky Mountain Farmers
Union, Rural Advancement Foundation International--USA (RAFI-
USA), Rural Coalition/Coalicion Rural, Rural Vermont, Slow
Food Dallas-Ft. Worth, South Dakota Farmers Union, Southern
Colorado Livestock Association, State of Missouri National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Western
Colorado Alliance, Wisconsin Farmers Union.
Thank you, Madam President.
____________________