Agriculture

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I want to thank our Ag chairman. I want to thank him for being here today. I want to thank him for his many, many years of service in this body. And most of all, what I want to thank him for today is his leadership on farm issues, on ag issues, on working on behalf of our farmers and ranchers, and in working in a very bipartisan way. That is what he is here doing.

You heard from our whip, the Senator from South Dakota, an ag State. You heard from our Ag chairman, the Senator from Kansas, an ag State. You are going to hear from other members of our Ag Committee. You are going to hear from the Senator from Iowa, an ag State. You are going to hear from Senator Boozman from Arkansas, an ag State; from Senator Fischer, Nebraska, obviously a big farm and ranch State; the Presiding Officer, I know, would be right here speaking with us if he weren't presiding--again, an ag State.

What this is all about today is making sure that we support farmers and ranchers. We are here in a very positive, encouraging way, and it is to make the point that we need to get assistance to our farmers and ranchers. We have some of that available. We have about $14 billion that we secured in the CARES Act that is ready to go out. It is ready to go.

We have done a ton of work with the USDA. We want to thank the Ag Secretary, Sonny Perdue. Georgia is another ag State. His whole team worked hard on this. We worked hard with him.

That $14 billion needs to get out to our farmers and ranchers and across the country. It really touches just about every State.

Then we need to replenish the Commodity Credit Corporation, the CCC. I chair Ag Appropriations. I work with that every year. There is about $30 billion, year in and year out, that goes in it. This is not a new thing. This is something we do every year. We need to get that done now in the CR so we can continue to provide that help and support for our farmers and our ranchers. This is what funds the key farm programs.

The countercyclical safety net. Very key programs--ARC, AGRIS coverage, and PLC, price loss coverage--are funded by the CCC. That is just fundable--that is the heart and soul of the bipartisan farm program we passed, as our Ag chairman just described. It is bipartisan, strongly supported in our committee, and strongly supported on the floor of this body, as well as in the House. As I say, this funding is the heart and soul of the farm program. It also funds conservation programs and other things. That safety net that our farmers and ranchers rely on every year is what is funded through the CCC. That is why we are here today.

As our Ag chairman said, we have over 40 farm groups from across the country that sent a letter to leadership and said: Absolutely, not only move forward with this aid we are talking about, the $14 billion we have gotten through CARES--and I think we are close to getting there again, thanks to the USDA. I think you will see that very soon. But absolutely take that step to replenish the CCC so that we can continue to provide that countercyclical safety net, that farm program our farmers and our ranchers depend on.

Remember, this isn't just about our farmers and ranchers. This isn't just about good farm policy. In this country, we have the lowest cost, highest quality food supply in the world that benefits every single American every single day because of our farmers and ranchers. That is how important this is.

Let me turn next to my colleagues. I am going to turn to the Senator from Nebraska. She is a cattle rancher. Who better to hear from next than Senator Fischer from Nebraska, a cattle rancher herself?

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Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I would like to thank the good Senator from Nebraska and turn to the Senator from Iowa, who has also been an absolute champion on behalf of agriculture. Thanks so much for being here.

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Mr. HOEVEN. I would like to thank the Senator from Iowa. Again, she directly brings that experience from the farm, growing up in agriculture.

Somebody else who is here represents Mississippi, so you can see we are going from North Dakota to Mississippi to Iowa to Nebraska. This is the whole country we are talking about.

The Senator also is somebody who has a long background in agriculture. I would like to turn to the good Senator from Mississippi.

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Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, again, I thank Senator Hyde-Smith of the State of Mississippi. Not only is she a strong advocate for our farmers and ranchers, but as I say, all of these people you are hearing from this morning have backgrounds in agriculture. They have been out there, and they know what they are talking about, as does the next Senator, somebody who himself has raised cattle--the Senator from the good State of Arkansas.

This documents again that ag touches every region of the country and that the people you are hearing from have strong ag backgrounds. So, when they talk about this issue, they know how important it is, and they know that this help is very much needed at this time.

I turn to the good Senator from Arkansas, Mr. Boozman.

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Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, I thank Senator Boozman for his strong leadership on ag. He said it very well and very clearly and very simply.

We have heard from more than 40 ag groups from across the country, including from the Presiding Officer's State. The last I checked, he has tremendous agriculture in his State of Florida, whether it be with the cattle raised in Central Florida or those wonderful oranges that we all enjoy all year round. It is just one more example of how agriculture touches everybody's life every day in the most important ways.

Our farmers and ranchers feed the country. They feed the world. What could be more important? Look at the challenges they have faced. They have come into this cycle with very low commodity prices when they have had years of low commodity prices. We have tough trade agreements in which countries like China and others have targeted us on trade. Then you put COVID on top of that. In the midst of that, they have continued to provide the food supply that feeds every American every single day. What could be more important? As we have said, that food supply is the highest quality, lowest cost food supply in the history of the world. Do you know what else? It is safe, and they have never missed a beat.

What we are talking about today, make no mistake, is of making sure that we fund the heart and soul of the farm program. The bill passed on a bipartisan vote in this body with about 87 votes. That is what we are talking about with regard to funding the CR. It is vitally important that we do it. I thank these members of the Ag Committee for making that point so clearly and so well.

We will wrap up, actually, pretty close to on time, which is fairly remarkable as seven Senators have just gone through this colloquy process, and I thank them all.

Remember what we are talking about here--the food supply that benefits every single American every single day.

Thank you.

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