Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 - Conference Report

Floor Speech

FOOD, CONSERVATION, AND ENERGY ACT OF 2008--CONFERENCE REPORT -- (Senate - May 15, 2008)

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of the 2008 farm bill. I thank the chairman, Tom Harkin of Iowa, and Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia for their leadership on this bill.

This is, on balance, a good bill, but it could be better. In particular, I am concerned that we were not more aggressive in making sure that the commodity program payments are targeted and justified. At a time when millions of middle-class Americans are struggling to keep up with higher gas prices, grocery bills, and health care costs, the Federal Government should not be in the business of sending checks to millionaire land owners.

Currently, most full-time farmers are eligible for farm subsidies regardless of income. Many of my colleagues and I began this process hoping that Congress would change this situation in the farm bill. Unfortunately, the conference agreement rejected all farmer income tests for the countercyclical and marketing loan subsidy programs and includes only a weak net income cap for direct payments: $750,000 for single farmers and $1.5 million for married farmers after all business deductions.

The conference report also waives payment limits for the Marketing Loan Program. The current cap is $75,000. Millionaire land owners are now eligible for unlimited LDP payments without any income test.

In addition, the bill puts in place provisions that shield our domestic sugar program from all international competition. Sugar growers secured an increase in price supports and a guarantee of 85 percent of the domestic sugar market at these guaranteed prices. This isn't reform and it isn't justified.

I am disappointed with other aspects of the bill as well.

There is less than $100 million in the bill for rural development. Rural communities are aching for water and wastewater infrastructure, high speed telecommunications, and financing for business development. This bill underfunds that key priority. In conference, a program designed to improve broadband deployment by providing cost-share assistance to statewide nonprofits was removed. This was a missed opportunity to improve access to broadband in rural areas at a time when the United States is falling farther and farther behind in this key area.

The bill provides marginal funding for agricultural research. The bill provides less than $100 million for the McGovern-Dole School Feeding Program, which uses U.S. commodities to feed some of the world's poorest children in schools.

However, the bill makes significant investments in nutrition, conservation, and renewable energy programs. It creates a forward-thinking revenue-based safety net. The members of the Senate Agriculture Committee can be proud of these components of the package.

The most significant impact of this package may be in the nutrition title.

In Illinois, over 158,000 households experienced hunger in 2005. If we include households that have had to struggle to put food on the table or have had to skip meals to make sure the food would last through the week, it adds up to 500,000 households in Illinois living with food insecurity. These are working families who just are not able to make ends meet.

This farm bill provides $10 billion more over 10 years for domestic nutrition programs that help lower income families put food on the table, including $7.8 billion for the Food Stamp Program, $1.25 billion for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, TEFAP, and $1 billion for the fresh fruits and vegetables snack program.

In Illinois, over the next 10 years, this bill will provide $373 million in additional funding to help families that haven't been able to outrun hunger.

In the Food Stamp Program, the bill will raise the standard deduction and the minimum benefit and index them for inflation. Nationwide, that helps 11 million low income people, including families with children, seniors, and people with disabilities. The adjustment to the standard deduction will increase benefits for 415,000 Illinois residents, and the minimum benefit increase will boost benefits for 27,000 Illinois recipients.

This farm bill also eliminates the cap on the dependent care deduction and no longer counts retirement accounts and education accounts toward the asset limit.

The conference report helps food banks and soup kitchens meet the growing demand for assistance by increasing funding for commodity purchases for TEFAP--The Emergency Food Assistance Program--by $110 million each year. The bill increases the availability of fruits and vegetables in low-income schools.

And, I am glad to report that this package includes a modified version of the Hunger Free Communities Act, a grant program I have long supported that will help fight hunger in communities. This antihunger grant program is the first program that will encourage communities to work together to identify and address hunger locally.

What we see here is strong bipartisan support to end hunger. Even with a war abroad and budget deficits at home, this Senate made the decision that progress against hunger is possible.

This farm bill makes another important investment, to protect open lands and restore habitat for future generations to enjoy. The USDA administers the largest conservation easement programs and this bill continues and expands those programs.

In Illinois, there are a total of 78,000 contracts statewide and more than 1 million acres in the CRP program, including more than 55,000 acres of wetlands. The Wetlands Reserve Program is aiding in what will become the second largest restoration of wetlands in the United States, in Emiquon in Fulton County, IL.

These open spaces provide important wildlife habitat and recreation benefits and prevent erosion of sensitive ground. The conservation title makes significant investments in the Wetlands Reserve Program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Conservation Security Program, and the Farmland Protection Program.

Unfortunately, a key provision that I originally authored in the 2002 farm bill to prevent over-planting on sensitive land, called Sodsaver, was significantly weakened in conference. These weak protections, combined what can only be called the most generous Commodity Title in history relative to market conditions, provides perverse incentives to overproduce, which will result in the breaking up of sensitive ground.

The investments made in conservation are tempered by the fact that we are missing an opportunity to protect wildlife and native habitats in some of the few areas that have never been farmed in this country.

Another important feature of the bill is that we were able to secure a modified version of a revenue-based safety net that Senator Brown and I originally proposed last summer. The version in the conference report allows farmers to elect to enter into this program starting in 2009 and provides a revenue guarantee to producers in the program depending on market conditions and previous earnings.

It is a good step forward for Illinois producers and for the future structure of our commodity programs. At this time of high prices, the program provides producers a risk-management tool they can really use.

The energy title funds renewable energy technology, particularly focused on next-generation biofuels. These should diversify our energy portfolio and help us lower U.S. dependence on petroleum. America's heartland is poised to become this nation's power plant if we make the right investments in wind, solar, and bioenergy.

The bill provides $230 million for grants and loan guarantees to build and develop next-generation biofuels plants. It provides $250 million in loans and grants for smaller-scale renewable energy projects in rural parts of the country and about $200 million in cellulosic feedstock and harvesting research.

I do think we missed an opportunity to make further reforms, to invest in rural America, and to help address the international food crisis with a strong commitment to McGovern-Dole. But we also made important commitments to nutrition and conservation, and I thank Chairman Harkin and the committee for their work.

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