[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 36 (Thursday, February 25, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S876-S877]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              AGRICULTURE

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, on Tuesday, the Senate confirmed Tom 
Vilsack as the Secretary of Agriculture. It is a role he is familiar 
with, having previously served as Agriculture Secretary under President 
Obama. I voted in support of his nomination because I believe he 
understands the issues facing farmers and ranchers and is sincere in 
his desire to work with Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle 
to support our Nation's agriculture producers.
  Agriculture is the lifeblood of my home State of South Dakota, and 
fighting for farmers and ranchers is one of my top priorities here in 
the Senate. I am very pleased to, once again, serve on the Senate 
Agriculture Committee in this Congress, which gives me an important 
platform to advocate for South Dakota farmers and ranchers and farmers 
and ranchers across the country.
  One huge priority for me over the past year has been making sure 
agriculture producers have the support they need to weather this 
pandemic. During debate on the CARES Act--our largest coronavirus 
relief bill to date--I fought to make sure we included relief for 
farmers and ranchers, and I followed up by advocating for cattle 
producers with the Department of Agriculture to make sure they would 
receive funds.
  I also worked to ensure that additional relief for farmers and 
ranchers was included in the COVID legislation that we passed in 
December. The Coronavirus Food Assistance Program that the USDA 
established to distribute funding, included in the CARES Act, has 
distributed billions in direct support to agriculture producers, which 
has been key in helping them weather this pandemic.
  Now that Secretary Vilsack has been confirmed, I urge him to lift the 
Biden administration's freeze on part of this important program and 
distribute the additional funding from the December relief package as 
soon as possible. I also urge the Department of Agriculture to use its 
authority to provide assistance to agriculture processors like the 
biofuels industry.
  During my meeting with Secretary Vilsack prior to his confirmation, 
we spent time discussing my Soil Health and Income Protection Program, 
which became law as part of the 2018 farm bill. That program, the SHIPP 
program, allows farmers to take their lowest performing croplands out 
of production for 3 to 5 years. This benefits the environment by 
increasing soil health and water quality, and it benefits farmers by 
providing them with a rental payment for the acres they have 
temporarily removed from production.
  I will continue to urge Secretary Vilsack to expand farmers' access 
to SHIPP by holding another signup this year. I will also continue to 
urge him to address another priority I brought up in our meeting, and 
that is the November 1 haying and grazing date for cover crops on 
prevented plant acres, which is too late in the year for farmers in 
more northern States like South Dakota.
  As I said, one of my top priorities has been making sure farmers and 
ranchers have the support they need during the pandemic. When it became 
clear that farmers and ranchers were largely missing out on the 
Paycheck Protection Program that Congress had set up to help small 
businesses weather the pandemic, Senator Baldwin and I introduced 
legislation to allow more farmers and ranchers to access the program by 
allowing them to use their gross incomes rather than their net incomes 
to determine their loan awards. Our Paycheck Protection for Producers 
Act became law as part of the coronavirus relief bill that Congress 
passed in December.
  Senator Baldwin and I have continued to engage with the Treasury 
Department and the Small Business Administration to ensure that the 
Paycheck Protection Program is working properly for farmers and 
ranchers. For example, we recently led a bipartisan letter urging a 
broader implementation of our Paycheck Protection for Producers Act to 
ensure that farmers and ranchers who are organized as partnerships or 
limited liability companies are allowed to apply for Paycheck 
Protection Program loans by using this more favorable gross income 
formula, as was intended.
  These issues are front of mind for ag producers in my State, and, 
last week, I had the opportunity to discuss many of them in person with 
representatives of the South Dakota Corn Growers Association, which 
represents and advocates for corn farmers in South Dakota. Another 
thing we spent a lot of time talking about was biofuels. In addition to 
helping to feed our Nation, corn and soybean farmers provide essential 
feedstocks for biofuels, like ethanol and biodiesel, which provide an 
important source of cleaner energy. I have long been an advocate for 
biofuels for their clean energy potential and the benefits they offer 
to the agriculture industry.
  When I met with Secretary Vilsack, he committed to working with me to 
promote ethanol as a form of clean energy--a commitment he echoed at 
his confirmation hearing.
  I recently introduced two bipartisan pieces of legislation to support 
the increased use of biofuels and emphasize their clean energy 
potential. The Adopt GREET Act, which I introduced with Senator 
Klobuchar, would require the Environmental Protection Agency to update 
its greenhouse gas modeling for ethanol and biodiesel by using the U.S. 
Department of Energy's GREET model. A recent Harvard study found that 
ethanol is 46 percent cleaner than gasoline, with some technologies 
reducing life-cycle emissions by as much as 61 percent. These findings 
underscore how biofuels can reduce emissions in the near term using our 
Nation's existing vehicles. Currently, however, the EPA's modeling does 
not fully recognize the tremendous emissions-reducing potential of 
ethanol and other biofuels. The Adopt GREET Act would fix this problem 
and pave the way for increased biofuel use both here and abroad.
  I also introduced a bill to advance long-stalled biofuel 
registrations with the EPA. Regulatory inaction has stifled the 
advancement of promising technologies, like ethanol derived from corn 
kernel fiber, even though some of these fuels are already being safely 
used in States like California. My bill would speed up the approval 
process for these innovative biofuels. This would allow biofuel 
producers to capitalize on the research and facility investments they 
have made and improve their operating margins while further lowering

[[Page S877]]

emissions and helping our Nation's corn and soybean producers by 
reinforcing this essential market.
  The pandemic has highlighted vulnerabilities in our Nation's food 
supply chain, especially when it comes to meat processing capacity. Too 
much of our Nation's processing capacity is concentrated in a handful 
of facilities, leaving our meat supply vulnerable if a problem like a 
coronavirus outbreak occurs at one of these plants.
  I recently introduced the Strengthening Local Processing Act with 
Senator Merkley. Our legislation would help expand national meat 
processing capacity by providing new resources for smaller, more local 
meat processing operations. Spreading out and expanding our Nation's 
meat processing capacity over more plants will make our Nation's meat 
supply less vulnerable to interruption in situations like the 
coronavirus pandemic or natural disasters and provide livestock 
producers with more marketing options.
  I am proud to represent South Dakota's farmers and ranchers here in 
Congress, and I will continue to do everything I can to ensure that all 
of our Nation's farmers and ranchers have the support they need to 
weather the rest of this pandemic and to continue feeding our Nation 
and the world.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.

                          ____________________