Congressional
Record Statement of
U.S. Senator Russ Feingold
Passage of the Farm Bill Conference Report
May 15, 2008
Mr. President, I am pleased
to have the opportunity today to support the Farm Bill conference report.
This bill, while far from perfect, is an important step in the right
direction in a number of areas. This incremental improvement in farm
programs and significant improvement in nutrition is preferable to the
President’s proposal to extend the status quo for several more
years. I would like to commend Chairmen Harkin and Peterson, Ranking
Members Chambliss and Goodlatte, and the rest of the conferees and their
staffs on their hard work over the past few months on this bill.
While I share the concerns
I have heard from some Wisconsinites, as well as some of my colleagues,
about the lack of reform to the commodity programs, I believe the good
in this bill outweighs the bad. This bill makes significant improvements
to programs that help farmers in Wisconsin every day, such as the Milk
Income Loss Contract (MILC), Organic Certification Cost Share, and the
Beginning Farmer and Rancher programs. It is important to point out
that for the first time the Farm Bill contains a separate title dedicated
to non-program or specialty crops to assist a broader group of farmers
with their pressing research and disease concerns, among other provisions.
The nutrition title of this
bill makes significant steps forward in the fight against hunger in
America. My colleagues and the American people are well aware of the
erosion in Food Stamp benefits over the past decade. In this time of
increasing food and fuel costs, which are crippling many low- and middle-income
Americans, it is a moral imperative to act to increase these benefits.
In addition, the $50 million in immediate funding for the Temporary
Emergency Food Assistance Program will make a real difference for food
banks in Wisconsin. I commend the conferees for recognizing the critical
need for improvement in these programs and addressing it, despite the
tight budget constraints we face.
Mr. President, I am extremely
pleased that the bill makes improvements to the Milk Income Loss Contract
(MILC) program. Along with several of my colleagues, including Senator
Kohl, I have called for the MILC program’s reimbursement rate
to be raised to its original 45 percent. I also strongly support the
feed cost adjustor that was including in conference to help ensure the
MILC safety net can keep up with the rapidly rising costs of production.
The MILC program is an important safety net for Wisconsin’s dairy
farmers, and one that operates in a responsible way—only kicking
in and providing payments to farmers when times are tough. Further,
the MILC program caps the amount of payments one farmer can receive,
ensuring that it helps small and medium farmers survive tough times
without subsidizing expansion of larger farms. The improvements to this
program are vital to farmers in Wisconsin.
I am also pleased that long-overdue
oversight of energy markets is included in the final Farm Bill. It is
past time to prevent market manipulation by energy traders. Energy market
speculation is part of the reason we are facing high gas prices and
the Farm bill takes an important step to close the “Enron loophole”
that has allowed oil and gas traders to make electronic energy trades
without federal oversight. We cannot allow energy traders to secretively
bid up the price of oil and saddle Americans with the price at the gas
pump. I am a cosponsor of Senator Feinstein’s Oil and Gas Traders
Oversight Act that has been incorporated into the Farm Bill. In a February
2008 letter, a bipartisan group of my colleagues and I urged the conference
to retain the Senate-passed provision in the final Farm Bill. Our letter
stated: “With energy prices at or near record high levels, farmers
and foresters are struggling to fill their tractors, heat their homes,
fertilize their crops, and transport their goods to market. It is critical
that the Congress take advantage of this opportunity on the Farm Bill
to increase transparency and reduce the threats of manipulation and
excessive speculation that have plagued our energy commodity markets
over the past several years.” I am pleased we succeeded.
The conference report included
a number of provisions I included in legislation that I introduced last
year, the Rural Opportunities Act, to help sustain and strengthen rural
economies for the future, and create more opportunities in rural communities.
I am pleased that the conference committee included a number of provisions
similar to my legislation to support local bioeconomies and food markets,
encourage local renewable fuels and biobased products, expand broadband
Internet service in rural areas, and help develop the next generation
of farmers, ranchers and land managers.
In addition, the bill includes
significant improvements to programs supporting organic agriculture.
Wisconsin has a number of organic farmers and consumers who will benefit
from the extra funding for the Organic Certification Cost Share and
Organic Transition Assistance programs, among others. This Farm Bill
is the first to recognize the specific challenges faced by organic farmers,
particularly as more and more consumers seek out their products.
On a related note, I am pleased
that the bill contains a provision similar to one I first proposed in
2006 allowing schools and other entities participating in federal food
programs to use local preference when purchasing products, which they
are not currently allowed to do. This will allow schools to select in-season
food grown locally, and will complement a number of programs, like the
Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program, by providing a link between
farmers and consumers, particularly children. This is better for farmers
and consumers, Mr. President, and a common-sense reform that is long
overdue.
For some time I have worked
to keep dairy imports from free-loading off of the dairy promotion money
paid for by our hard-working dairy farmers. I am glad that the conference
report makes every US state and territory eligible and allows this assessment
to be charged on imports as was intended in the 2002 Farm Bill. I am
somewhat disappointed that the payment rate for imports is less than
that paid by domestic producers, but half a loaf is better than none.
I will continue to seek to level the playing field.
In addition to the Agriculture
Committee’s portion of the bill, the Finance Committee also made
a significant contribution to this legislation. I was glad that a provision
similar to my Farmer Tax Fairness Act was included in the Finance portion
of the conference report. This legislation will update the optional
ability for farmers and other self employed individuals to remain eligible
for social security and disability benefits that had been eroded by
inflation. It also indexes the program to inflation, so we are not in
the same situation again sometime in the future.
I was also pleased that several
of my amendments that were included in the Senate bill were included
in some form in the Conference Report. First, in a continuation of an
effort I began with Senator Jeffords in 1998, I am pleased that the
Senate accepted my amendment to improve the authority of what we had
called the Small Farm Advocate in a previous amendment. I continued
this effort with Senator Sanders, and while the conference report made
this office a division within the new Office of Advocacy and Outreach,
I expect that this will continue to help America’s small and beginning
farmers.
Ensuring transparency and
fair competition in the dairy industry has been a priority throughout
my Senate career. Over the past year and a half, a couple developments
showed a need for further action in this area. First, a GAO report on
cash cheese trading that I requested with several of my colleagues confirmed
that the market remains prone to manipulation even though there have
been some improvements. Secondly, a sustained non-fat dry milk price
reporting error that lasted over a year was found to have cost dairy
farmers millions in reduced prices. I was glad to have an amendment
accepted in the Senate that would require regular auditing of the dairy
price reporting and require the USDA to better coordinate oversight
of the dairy industry both within the department and with other federal
agencies. The conference report retained the auditing requirement and
shifted the improved oversight to a directive in the Joint Managers
Statement. I hope that this added diligence and transparency can help
give dairy farmers added confidence in the system.
As we look to expand our
nation’s renewable energy and lessen our dependence on oil, we
need to provide opportunities for farmers and rural communities. Several
key elements of my Rural Opportunities Act supporting local bioenergy
were included in the farm bill. One amendment I got accepted encourages
the USDA’s continued support for and the expansion of regional
bioeconomy consortiums, which can consist of land grant universities
and state agriculture agencies dedicated to researching and promoting
sustainable and locally supported bioenergy. The final bill maintains
report language supporting these consortia. I was also pleased to work
with Senator Coleman on another “rural opportunity” provision,
which is based on our legislation, S. 1813, to provide local residents
an opportunity to invest in biorefineries located in their communities.
The Farm Bill provision gives priority to grants and loan guarantees
for biorefineries with significant local ownership. This bill also makes
significant strides in providing increased support for cellulosic ethanol
and other innovative solutions to the energy problems we face as a nation.
While Wisconsin is perhaps
more widely known as a leader in milk and cheese production, we also
lead the nation in the production of cranberries and ginseng. I was
glad to see a priority competitive research area for cranberries continue
through the Senate bill and conference report. Similarly, I was glad
that my legislation with Senator Kohl and Representative Obey to require
country of harvest labeling for ginseng was accepted as an amendment
in the Senate and continued as country of origin labeling in the conference
report. This is an important step to help combat mislabeling of foreign
ginseng as U.S. or Wisconsin grown, which receives a premium price for
its higher quality.
Overall, I was pleased that
this bill provides a significant increase in conservation programs.
I am particularly glad to see an emphasis on working lands programs
like the popular Environmental Quality Incentive Program and an updated
Conservation Stewardship Program, which benefit farmers and the environment.
The Farm bill also included provisions based on Senator Wyden’s
Combat Illegal Logging Act of 2007, S. 1930, which I cosponsored, to
address rampant, unsustainable illegal logging practices in developing
nations. The bill also reauthorizes and the Great Lakes Basin Soil Erosion
and Sediment Control Program and allows the Secretary of Agriculture
to use this program to carry out projects to implement the Great Lakes
Regional Collaboration Strategy. While I was disappointed that the funding
levels of certain programs like the Wetlands Reserve Program were not
what they should be and that the “sodsaver” provision was
not a national protection, this bill is largely a step forward for conservation.
Continuing in the category
of mixed results, I was extremely pleased to see the addition of a new
livestock title in the bill to promote competition and fair practices
in agriculture, but was disappointed that many of the Senate’s
commonsense provisions were removed or watered down in conference. I
am pleased that producers will be able to have a choice to accept or
decline arbitration when they sign agricultural contracts under the
conference report, even though I was disappointed that a stronger Senate
provision that mirrors legislation I have with Senator Grassley was
not retained. On balance, this is a step in the right direction and
I hope the USDA works to ensure that this remains a real choice for
producers and there is no intimidation.
In addition to the handful
of improved competition protections that will benefit livestock producers,
the underlying bill contains two other provisions that are also especially
beneficial. I was glad to support Senator Kohl’s long-standing
efforts to find a way for meat from small and often specialty state-inspected
meat processors to be sold across state lines so that consumers nationwide
can enjoy these high quality Wisconsin products. The conference report
contains a compromise that appears to strike a fair balance on this
issue and this is a significant benefit to Wisconsin’s local livestock
producers and processors. I was also glad that the conference report
will finally allow a country-of-origin labeling requirement for meat
and produce to be enforced.
While I have discussed at
length the positive aspects of the legislation, let me be clear, Mr.
President, that the reforms in the commodity title should go further.
I authored an amendment with Senator Menendez to make modest trims to
direct payments, and was disappointed the Senate did not vote on it.
In addition, I supported the Dorgan-Grassley amendment to lower payment
limits, the Klobuchar amendment to lower the AGI cap, and the Brown
amendment to trim subsidies for crop insurers. I was disappointed that
these efforts to make the commodity support programs more balanced and
better targeted toward family farms and not concentrate payments in
larger corporate-scale operations were unsuccessful. With these defeats,
both the Senate-passed bill and the conference report missed an important
opportunity for meaningful targeted reform of the farm support programs.
There were some small steps
in the right direction to be sure. Direct payments were trimmed by a
few percent, excessive insurance company subsidies were trimmed and
the cap on wealthy non-farmers was lowered. But there was an opportunity
to do much more and I will continue that fight.
One other provision I am
concerned about is the cut to the McGovern-Dole International Food for
Education and Child Nutrition Program. In light of food shortages across
the globe, reducing the level of aid we provide to poor countries is
simply wrong. I hope that, through the appropriations process, Congress
will be able to continue providing funding for this important program.
I yield the floor.
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