[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 23405-23406]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    LIMITING TRANSFER OF CERTAIN COMMODITY CREDIT CORPORATION FUNDS

  Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the Agriculture Committee be 
discharged from further consideration of S. 2856, and that the Senate 
proceed to its immediate consideration.

[[Page 23406]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk 
will report the bill by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 2856) to limit the transfer of certain Commodity 
     Credit Corporation funds between conservation programs for 
     technical assistance for other programs.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  (At the request of Mr. Daschle, the following statement was ordered 
to be printed in the Record.)
 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am pleased to support the passage 
of S. 2856, legislation that will restore the conservation funding 
commitment Congress and the administration made to farmers and ranchers 
in the 2002 farm bill. I applaud the leadership of Agriculture 
Committee Chairman Cochran and Ranking Member Harkin for their 
leadership to correct the shortfall in conservation technical 
assistance funding. For the last 2 years I have worked to correct this 
problem and am pleased to join my colleagues in this effort.
  Despite historic funding conservation levels in the 2002 farm bill, 
family farmers and ranchers offering to restore wetlands, or offering 
to change the way they farm to improve air and water quality continue 
to be rejected when they seek USDA conservation assistance. Producers 
are being turned away due to the Department of Agriculture's decision 
to divert over $200 million from working lands conservation programs to 
pay for the cost of administering the Conservation Reserve Program, 
CRP, and the Wetlands Reserve Program, WRP, over the last 2 years. In 
particular, USDA diverted significant funds from the Environmental 
Quality Incentives Program, EQIP, the Farmland and Ranchland Protection 
Program, FRPP, the Grasslands Reserve Program, and the Wildlife Habitat 
Incentives Program, WHIP, to pay for CRP and WRP technical assistance.
  The 2002 farm bill clearly intended USDA to use mandatory funds from 
the Commodity Credit Corporation, CCC, to pay for conservation 
technical assistance. The plain language of the statute, the General 
Accounting Office, and every Member of Congress who had a hand in 
writing the farm bill support this interpretation of the farm bill.
  Our legislation would override USDA's decision and prevent funds from 
working lands incentive programs like EQIP and WHIP from being used to 
pay for the technical assistance costs of CRP. The House Agriculture 
Subcommittee on Conservation has already approved similar legislation, 
H.R. 1907, requiring each program to pay for its own technical 
assistance needs. Our legislation parallels that effort. Simply put our 
amendment would require the administration to honor the 2002 farm bill 
and mandate that technical assistance for each program is derived from 
funds provided for that program.
  By providing more than $6.5 billion for working lands programs like 
EQIP and WHIP in the 2002 farm bill, Congress dramatically increased 
funds to help farmers manage working lands to produce food and fiber 
and simultaneously enhance water quality and wildlife habitat. For 
example, EQIP helps share the cost of a broad range of land management 
practices that help the environment, include more efficient use of 
fertilizers and pesticides, and innovative technologies to store and 
reuse animal waste. In combination, these working lands programs will 
provide farmers the tools and incentives they need to help meet our 
major environmental challenges.
  Full funding for working lands incentive programs like EQIP and WHIP 
is vital not only in helping farmers and ranchers improve their farm 
management, but also in meeting America's most pressing environmental 
challenges. Because 70 percent of the American landscape is private 
land, farming dramatically affects the health of America's rivers, 
lakes and bays and the fate of America's rare species. Most rare 
species depend upon private lands for the survival, and many will 
become extinct without help from private landowners. When farmers and 
ranchers take steps to help improve air and water quality or assist 
rare species, they can face new costs, new risks, or loss of income. 
Conservation programs help share these costs, underwrite these risks, 
or offset these losses of income. Unless Congress provides adequate 
resources for these programs, there is little reason to hope that our 
farmers and ranchers will be able to help to meet these environmental 
challenges.
  In addition, USDA conservation programs promote regional equity in 
farm spending. More than 90 percent of USDA spending flows to a handful 
of large farmers in 15 mid-western and southern States. As a result, 
many farmers and ranchers who are not eligible for traditional 
subsidies, including dairy farmers, ranchers, and fruit and vegetable 
farmers, rely upon conservation programs to boost farm and ranch income 
and to ease the cost of environmental compliance. Unlike commodity 
subsidies, conservation payments flow to all farmers and all regions. 
But, the farmers and ranchers who depend upon these programs, farmers, 
and ranchers who already receive a disproportionately small share of 
USDA funds, have faced a disproportionately large cut in spending.
  By passing this legislation Congress and the administration will 
correct the shortfall in conservation technical assistance funding by 
directing USDA to use CCC funds to provide technical assistance to USDA 
conservation program. This legislation restores the clear intent of the 
authors of the 2002 farm bill relating to the payment of conservation 
technical assistance.
  Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third 
timed and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and 
any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (S. 2856) was read the third time and passed, as follows:

                                S. 2856

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.

       (a) In General.--Section 1241 of the Food Security Act of 
     1985 (16 U.S.C. 3841) is amended by striking subsection (b) 
     and inserting the following:
       ``(b) Technical Assistance.--Effective for fiscal year 2005 
     and each subsequent fiscal year, Commodity Credit Corporation 
     funds made available for each of the programs specified in 
     paragraphs (1) through (7) of subsection (a)--
       ``(1) shall be available for the provision of technical 
     assistance for the programs for which funds are made 
     available; and
       ``(2) shall not be available for the provision of technical 
     assistance for conservation programs specified in subsection 
     (a) other than the program for which the funds were made 
     available.''.
       (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) 
     takes effect on October 1, 2004.

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