Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013 - Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOEVEN. I rise to speak on behalf of the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013, a 5-year farm bill. This bill saves more than $24 billion to help reduce our deficit and our debt, it streamlines farm programs to make them more efficient, and it ensures that our farmers and ranchers continue to have good risk management tools, particularly crop insurance.

It is vitally important to so many facets of our national interests. It is important to food, of course, but also to fuel, to fiber, to rural development, agriculture research, and many other areas. It touches the life of every single American in some of the most basic ways.

This year the farm bill is moving through the Senate because we have already debated and passed more than 90 percent of this bill in the last session. A lot of this bill we worked on very hard in the last session and passed it through this body with a big bipartisan vote.

Unfortunately, the House was not able to pass their version so we were not able to go to conference and finish the job. This year we need to do that.

This farm bill, again, 90 percent-plus we voted on in this body last session. We had a big bipartisan vote to pass it. We need to do that again. We need to get into conference with the House, and we need to get this done for farmers and ranchers and for the benefit of all Americans.

Last week we passed a bill out of the Senate Agriculture Committee, on which I serve, where I had the opportunity to help craft it--again, building on the product that we put together last year when we voted it out of committee with a big bipartisan vote. The House also passed its version of a farm bill out of their Agriculture Committee last week. They are looking to bring their bill to the House floor in June. We are hopeful they will pass it in June, but we need to be ready. We need to have ours done. I think we can show real leadership on this issue and be ready to get into conference with the House and get this important work done.

The Senate version we passed supports our farmers and ranchers in substantive and sensible ways. It gives them the necessary risk management tools and ensures that Americans, all Americans, continue to enjoy the highest quality, lowest cost food supply, not just in the world but in the history of the world.

Among the provisions of the commodity title is the no-cost Sugar Program. I wish to take just a few minutes to talk about the Sugar Program and its importance in the context of this farm bill. The Sugar Program warrants discussion because some Members--I believe certainly with the best of intentions--want to actually weaken this vitally important program. But weakening our current sugar policy would accomplish nothing. In fact, it would subject our producers, consumers, and industries to a distorted world market. Further, it would threaten more than 140,000 jobs in 22 States that depend on a vibrant, competitive sugar industry.

The world's sugar market is not a free market. Make no mistake, it is not a free market in any conventional sense of the term. I can tell you now, foreign governments heavily protect and subsidize their sugar producers. For example, Brazil spends between $2 and $3 billion per year to subsidize its producers. Mexico literally owns one-fifth of its industry and subsidizes the rest.

Our sugar farmers, along with the rest of America's farmers and ranchers, have told foreign competitors, time and again, we are ready to compete in a truly freely market, but we will not and must not unilaterally disarm, nor will dismantling the Sugar Program result in lower costs to consumers and American businesses. Once you factor in transportation costs, the world price of sugar is higher than the price in the United States.

Sugar prices are not only higher in Brazil and Mexico, they are higher worldwide. If we do away with sugar policy altogether and subject producers strictly to a distorted global market, what we will see is not lower prices but rather extreme volatility in the global sugar market.

Not only are sugar prices lower in the United States and elsewhere, but the cost of sugar in most products is tiny. For example, in a Hershey's chocolate bar it is less than 2 percent of the cost. Further, it should be noted that sugar prices have fallen by more than 50 percent in the last 2 years, but candy prices at the store are not seeing the same level of reduction at all.

The truth is, if consumers are paying higher costs, it is because of labor and health care costs in the United States, not because of the cost of sugar.

For 10 years now, sugar policy has operated at zero cost to the American taxpayer because our farmers are efficient and competitive and because American sugar policy has always made sure they were playing on a level playing field. As a result, consumers in this country enjoy more affordable sugar than elsewhere in the world and American consumers enjoy a safe and reliable homegrown source. The bottom line is that sugar policy is cost-effective and fair and it should be retained in the commodity title of the farm bill.

But I would like to turn, again, to the broader legislation. Good farm policy benefits every single American. As I said, we have the lowest cost, highest quality food supply in the world thanks to our farmers and ranchers and thanks to good farm policy. How do we put a value on our safe, abundant, nutritious, dependable food supply? It is invaluable. By any standard it is invaluable. Just consider the benefits that this farm bill provides.

The farm bill is a job creator and it helps our economy. Agriculture supports 16 million jobs in the United States and contributes billions of dollars to the national economy. Year in and year out we sell more food and fiber than we buy from abroad. Further, American agriculture produces a financial surplus. Through relentless innovation, best practices, and good stewardship of the land, American agriculture creates a positive balance of trade.

The farm bill saves money to help reduce the deficit and the debt. Think how important that is.

The 2013 farm bill, like the farm bill we passed last year, provides more than $24 billion in savings--more than is required by sequestration--to help address the Nation's deficit and debt. Farmers and ranchers are stepping up and doing their part.

The farm bill also provides a strong market-based safety net for the producers. The safety net in the 2013 farm bill focuses on enhanced crop insurance; that is what they have asked for and that is the focus--not direct payments. Direct payments are limited. It enhances crop insurance with the inclusion of a new product called the supplemental coverage option, SCO. The SCO enables purchasers to purchase a supplemental policy beyond their individual farm-based policy, thereby creating an additional level of risk management.

The bill also includes the Agriculture Risk Coverage or ARC Program that provides assistance for shallow loss or multiple-year losses, which again helps our farmers to better manage risk. They are business people and they need to manage their risks.

Let's not forget the farm bill strengthens our national security. Our country doesn't have to depend on other countries for our food supply--countries that don't necessarily share our interests or values--and that makes us safer. The fact is we are secure in that most basic, vital necessity--our food supply.

The farm bill is about so many things that are important to the people of America. This is about all Americans. Again, I say good farm policy benefits every single American. We have the highest quality, lowest cost food supply in the world thanks to our farmers, ranchers, and good farm policy.

This is about 16 million jobs in this country which are supported by agriculture. This is about a positive balance of trade which helps build our economy. This is about $24 billion in savings where agriculture is stepping up and not only doing its share but more than its share to help with the deficit and debt. In the most fundamental ways, a good farm bill makes America stronger, safer, and more secure. We need to pass this farm bill.

I yield the floor.

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