Food Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 - Conference Report

Floor Speech

FOOD CONSERVATION, AND ENERGY ACT OF 2008--CONFERENCE REPORT -- (Senate - May 14, 2008)

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Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I also rise today in support of the farm bill conference report. Before my colleague, Senator Lincoln, leaves the floor, I wish to take a few minutes to thank her for the tremendous work she has been willing to do with me. She and I were both elected to the House of Representatives in the same year, and we were elected to the Senate in the same year. We have served on a lot of the same committees, not the least of which has been the Agriculture Committee and the Finance Committee, both of which have important parts of this legislation.

We have had a tremendously good relationship over the years. We come from different sides of the aisle, but we work closely together in a bipartisan way on issue after issue. One of those very important issues, which Senator Lincoln already mentioned, is the Endangered Species Reform Act. I will talk about that later in my remarks.

Before she left the floor, I wished to thank her for being the lead cosponsor on that legislation that we have worked on literally for 6 or 7 years, to make sure we build a consensus-based solution to issues in this country that will make a difference. Again, I thank the Senator for that. I truly appreciate the working relationship we have, and I could not agree more with the comments she has made overall about the farm bill and the tremendous blessing we have in this Nation to have literally the lowest per capita cost in the world in our budgets for the American families with regard to the dollars they must put forward for food and fiber. At a time when people around the world are struggling to deal with recent natural disasters and to ensure that their families have the food they need, we need swift enactment of this farm bill that will provide long-term certainty for farm families as they continue to feed the world's hungry.

This is the third farm bill that I have worked on since I have been elected to Congress. I have to say that although each bill, as we moved through the issues of the day, presented their unique problems, this has been the most difficult to bring together in a conference where we could literally come together--House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats--and propose good, solid policy for our Nation's food and fiber. I think we have to give credit to those who have been leaders in the Senate in making that happen: our chairman, Senator Harkin; our ranking member, Senator Chambliss; and on the Finance Committee, which, as I said, also has a significant piece of this legislation, our chairman, Max Baucus; and the ranking member, Charles Grassley.

There are many others.

Now that I started mentioning Senators, I could literally go through the members of the Agriculture Committee, both sides of the aisle, the members of the Finance Committee, both sides of the aisle, and list Member after Member who has worked tirelessly to make sure this policy comes together in a farm bill we can be proud of and which will strengthen America globally.

It is not limited to just the members of the Agriculture or Finance Committees. This Senate is committed to making sure we develop the kinds of policies that will keep our Nation strong and globally competitive, and many of those policies are included in this legislation.

In preparation for this farm bill, I held 23 farm bill listening sessions in my State, all across Idaho, to get input from Idahoans about what they need and what they saw important in a new farm bill. I appreciated the input I got from my constituents and, frankly, utilized that input in working with my fellow members on the Agriculture Committee and Finance Committee as we crafted this legislation.

There are a number of provisions I wish to highlight tonight.

The first, which I have already mentioned, is a part of the bill that comes in the conservation piece the Finance Committee worked so hard to bring forward. As I think most people who followed the debate in the battles over the farm bill over the last few months have realized, one of the battlegrounds--in fact, the major battleground--was the effort by the Finance Committee in the Senate to bring forward a significant new addition to the conservation efforts in our country as we deal with conservation policy.

One of the more important pieces of that battleground, if you will, was the Endangered Species Reform Act. The battle was not really over the policies; it was over the dollars because we wanted to make sure we paid for the increased costs of what we were doing. But it was nevertheless a very difficult time as we tried to find a path forward.

Most people who are involved in land management issues, whether they be farmers, consumers, or people who are involved in development or simply homeowners, realize that we have had a significant area of conflict in this country for decades over the implementation of the Endangered Species Act.

There is very little disagreement that we want to protect and preserve the beautiful environmental heritage we have and the species we have that are so rich and abundant in our country. At the same time, we wanted to try to find a way to avoid conflict with private property owners and with the economic activities of people in our country who are trying to develop jobs and opportunities in the economy to provide for themselves and their families. It is that conflict which we have worked on in the context of the Endangered Species Act now for about, as I say, 6 or 7 years, to try to build a solution that could be broadly supported but which would help both species and people, the economy, and help private property owners and those who are interested in protecting and preserving our rich environmental heritage.

We have succeeded in the Endangered Species Reform Act. This act is broadly supported by the environmental community because over 80 percent of the threatened or endangered species in our Nation is located on private property. The act does not give us the ability to reach into the private property as effectively as we need to help implement recovery plans for species that are threatened or endangered. This legislation does so.

At the same time, as I indicated earlier, our private property owners have been concerned about the reach of the Endangered Species Act and what it would do to them if an endangered species were found on their property. This act makes it so they can actually find economic compensation if that happens.

The core of the act is that it focuses on helping landowners on a voluntary basis have a tax deduction for actions they undertake on their property to help implement recovery plans, to help facilitate and strengthen species.

This is a tremendous incentive, with the backing of the Federal Government, for these tax deductions to encourage private property owners to undertake activities that will tremendously benefit species on their property. The private property owners are compensated for the impacts on their property, the species are benefited, and everyone in the country is a winner in terms of the improvement of the opportunities to strengthen our endangered species protection.

This has the broad support of sportsmen organizations across this country, of environmental organizations across the country, and of private property groups across the country.

I am glad we were able to work our way through literally the battlegrounds we faced in order to make sure we got this legislation included in the final piece of the farm bill.

There is more to do. We had to work it through and adjust pieces of it that we would rather have kept in, but we got the core of the bill in place. And now we look forward to strengthening and improving this important protection of the Endangered Species Act.

While she is on the floor, I thank Senator Stabenow for her tremendous efforts in the conference to make sure we were successful in getting this critical legislation for the endangered species and private property owners included in the final conference report.

Specialty crop producers were also very significantly benefited by this legislation. Speciality crop producers in Idaho and nationwide will receive more than a $2 billion investment in programs important to them, including $456 million for speciality crop block grants that assist with marketing, research promotion, and other efforts to increase the competitiveness of speciality crops.

Again, Senator Stabenow should be given great credit for fighting to work with me and many others to make sure this happened.

The legislation also contains significant assistance for producers impacted by disaster, including new assistance for aquaculture producers who are impacted by drought or assistance for ranchers utilizing the Federal grazing permits who are impacted by a loss of grazing due to fire.

In addition, more than $4 billion in new spending is going to be provided for conservation programs which enable landowners to meet the environmental needs and goals and, frankly, in many cases mandates that we put on them to make sure our environment is protected and preserve.

I have often said, as we talked about different farm bills, and this one is no different--in fact, this one is probably a better example than any we have done so far--that one of the most, I will say the most important pieces of legislation this Congress ever works on with regard to truly making a difference in protecting, preserving, and strengthening our incredible environmental heritage in this country is the farm bill because of the powerful provisions we have in the conservation title.

This farm bill moves forward with significant strides to strengthen and enhance the environmental and conservation goals of our country through farm policy and private property policies.

This investment is an important step we must not forget. Farm bill conservation programs are an example of the Federal Government assisting with the environment in the right way with a carrot rather than a stick. Our conservation programs have contributed significantly to improving water and air quality and preserving and enhancing habitat for species.

An estimated 95 percent of the world's consumers live beyond our borders. The bill also will assist in reaching those consumers by expanding market opportunities through the inclusion of $200 million annually for the Market Access Program.

In addition, the bill seeks to better ensure adherence to the softwood lumber trade commitments through inclusion of a softwood lumber importer declaration program. I appreciate the tremendous work that was done to include this important provision.

The legislation also continues and expands support for

the Idaho commodity producers, including our barley, dairy, pulse crop, sugar, wheat, and wool producers. Idaho's agricultural industry is more than a $5 billion industry and is a critical part of Idaho's economy.

The commodity title in this bill will continue to allow those farmers to be protected and strengthened as they face incredible global pressures and, frankly, what I consider to be anticompetitive actions by other nations as we deal in a global agriculture market.

The legislation benefits rural America in a number of important ways. Across the United States, rural communities struggle to access funds necessary to comply with Federal, State, and local environmental regulations. Through changes to SEARCH grants, small rural communities with populations of 2,500 or less will have greater and more streamlined access to funding to assist with water and wastewater infrastructure projects. Let me explain what this means.

Across this country, we have requirements that our wastewater and our drinking water be protected. In fact, often in America we talk about the fact that we have the safest, cleanest water in the world. When you come to America to visit, you don't have to worry about drinking the water. When you live here, you don't have to worry about drinking the water. The reason is because of our very strong environmental standards.

We are proud of that, and we need to protect our water quality. But the protection comes at a price, and often the mandates we put on communities to assure that water quality are not able to be met by the smaller communities because they simply don't have the economies of scale to be able to implement the wastewater and other treatment facilities that are necessary to enable them to comply with the environmental mandates and keep the water quality so clear and clean.

We need to provide ways to assist these strapped rural communities as they try to do what we all want to do, and that is make sure America has clean, safe water. That is what these projects will do in the SEARCH legislation.

The bill also provides $120 million in mandatory spending to be directed at pending applications for water and wastewater disposal grants and loans--Again, to help with the same problem.

As well in the rural areas, broadband access is a key to growth and economic development. This farm bill simplifies the application process for broadband assistance and ensures that broadband assistance is targeted at communities with the least amount of access.

Improving the economic position of rural areas by stimulating the growth of rural businesses is accomplished through reauthorization of important programs such as the rural business opportunity grants and the rural cooperative development grants, which will ensure the continuation and technical assistance and training to our Nation's rural businesses and cooperatives.

In addition, value-added producer grants are going to continue to provide producers with the means to improve on the value of their products through planning activities and marketing and the reauthorization of the national rural development partnerships which will enable individual State partnerships, such as the Idaho Rural Partnership, to continue working to strengthen and improve life in rural America.

The farm bill also incorporates language from the Biodiesel Education and Expansion Act of 2007. That is S. 1791 which I introduced with Senator Klobuchar to reauthorize the Biodiesel Education Program. This program has been very important to the biodiesel effort in Idaho. The University of Idaho has received about 20 percent of those funds through a competitive grants process to help educate Government and private owners of vehicle fleets about the benefits and technical aspects of biodiesel fuel.

In addition, the bill includes a new temporary cellulosic biofuels production tax credit for up to $1.01 per gallon available through December 31, 2012.

The conference report also provides $300 million for the Bioenergy Program which provides incentives for expanding production of advanced biofuels made from agricultural and forestry crops and associated waste materials, including animal manure and livestock food processing waste.

The importance of this is that we in the United States have a serious problem in our energy policy. We can debate the many aspects of it in other contexts. The bottom line is we are far too dependent on petroleum in this country as a source of energy. And in the context of petroleum, we are far too dependent on foreign sources of petroleum.

I often analogize our core need in terms of energy policy of being one of trying to diversify our energy portfolio. We need to move into alternative and renewable fuels, and we need to provide the support to enable us to do the research and development to expand energy opportunities.

One of the things this bill does in areas I already mentioned, such as cellulosic biofuels and other efforts in that context, is to help us do the research and to do then the thinking that goes into making sure we move into these other types of alternative and renewable fuels.

Another important part of this legislation in that context is that we establish a sugar-to-ethanol program which will better enable the sugar industry to contribute to our energy independence.

There are many things we could be doing and we ought to be doing--all of them to find the ones that will best work and will best help us to diversify our energy economy.

The legislation also provides expanded fresh fruit and vegetable programs, which provides domestically grown fresh fruit and vegetables to students as healthy snacks and educates our students in every State on the importance of eating healthy foods.

This program has already been well received as a pilot program in a number of States, including Idaho. I am proud to continue this program not only in Idaho but to help expand it to all States across the country.

The bill strengthens assistance for America's food banks by providing more than $1 billion for the next 10 years for commodity purchasing, nearly doubling the current funding level. Access to food banks is particularly important given the economic hard times that we are facing with regard to high gas prices.

Also, I would like to talk a little bit more about the global competition we face. As I indicated earlier, one of the pressures that our producers face is anticompetitive conduct from other nations. These are subsidies, tariffs, or nontariff barriers which are erected against our producers.

Yes, we support our agricultural producers and, yes, we have tariffs. I am not sure what the numbers are today, but within the last couple of years the imbalance in those tariffs shows what I am talking about. The average I am recalling that we have discussed over the last few years is that the average tariff against our producers as we try to export into other countries is around 60 percent, whereas the average that we impose on those bringing their products into our country is more in the neighborhood of 10 or 12 percent.

Those kinds of disparities create tremendous trade barriers to our producers. The same is true with the level of subsidies provided to producers in other countries that compete with our producers. One of the critical parts of this bill is to provide that safety net or that protection to our producers in the international contest as we seek to make sure the trade arena globally is balanced fairly.

I know some have criticized this bill by saying it spends too much limited Federal funding on agriculture. Let me make an important note there. This bill has a number of titles. Agriculture commodity programs are one of those titles. About 70 percent of the spending in this bill goes to our nutrition programs, such as the Food Stamp Program.

Most people in America don't realize that because we often call this the farm bill. Yet 70 percent of it goes into our nutrition programs. What percent goes to the commodity programs? A little less than 14 percent. And those important conservation programs I talked about? They get around 7 percent of the funding in the bill. The rest, the 8 or 9 percent that is left over, goes into the rural development part, the titles--the energy titles and other portions of the bill that are critically important to our national concerns, such as rural development and energy.

When you look at this bill, it is not an ag bill or a farm bill. It is a food and fiber bill. It is much more than that. It is a bill that is very important, as I have said, to everything from energy policy to rural development to our conservation efforts in this country to our agriculture commodity programs and to our nutrition programs for those who face hunger in this Nation. It is important to recognize that.

Also, I think it is important for us to note that some criticize this bill for not being reform minded enough and not being strict enough on payment limitations for the extremely wealthy who, it is claimed, get all of the resources of the bill in that 14-percent commodity title. However, the conference report has taken major steps forward in terms of reform. I think those steps need to be recognized and noted.

The conference report would eliminate the triple entity rule, which has already been talked about extensively on the Senate floor tonight, and changes the current adjusted gross income limit from $2.5 million to $500,000 for nonfarm and $750,000 for farm income. These are considerable reforms that should be acknowledged and recognized.

This is a broad and diverse country, and no bill is a perfect bill from the perspective of any individual Senator, I am sure. We have 50 States and 435 Congressional Districts and we have tremendous debates about how we should implement policy. But this bill worked its way through that process to develop policy and reforms that are meaningful and significant and should not be undermined.

In conclusion, this legislation with its 15 titles covers a wide range of important policy matters that go far beyond our traditional farm support, as I have said. These titles include things, as I have indicated, such as conservation, trade and food aid, nutrition, farm credit, research, energy opportunities, crop insurance, and disaster assistance and many more. The breadth and depth of this legislation reaches into so many people's lives--everyone in America, not just those in farm country--everyone in America should be paying attention to this legislation and should be glad that we have been able to find that agreement that has enabled us to get a conference report between the House and Senate.

Again, I thank all my colleagues for their tremendous work in this very difficult and lengthy process we have been going through, to make sure we develop the right policies for our food and fiber in this Nation, and we continue to keep America strong and on the competitive edge in the production of food and fiber for the world.

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