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. FEINGOLD. 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 nonprogram 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.

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 commonsense 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 U.S. 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 nonfat 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 longstanding 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 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 nonfarmers 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.

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