Barbara Boxer

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Carper, I ask unanimous consent that Khesha Jennings, a legislative fellow in his office, be allowed privileges of the floor during the climate change debate.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Javier Gamboa, an intern with the EPW Committee, be allowed privileges of the floor for the duration of the debate on S. 3036.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, June 3; that following the prayer and the pledge, the Journal of proceedings be deemed to have expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and that there be a period of morning business until 11 a.m., with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees, with the Republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the final half; that following morning business, the Senate resume the motion to proceed to S. 3036, the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008; that the Senate recess from 12:30 p.m. until after the official Senate photograph to allow for the weekly caucus luncheons to meet, and that any time during adjournment, recess, or periods of morning business count postcloture.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, as a reminder, following the weekly caucus luncheons tomorrow, the official photograph of the Senate of the 110th Congress will be taken at 2:15 p.m.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I am proud today to ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the National Military Appreciation Month. As a cosponsor of the bill that designated May as the National Military Appreciation Month in 1999, I ask my colleagues and fellow Americans to honor, remember, and thank the generations of American military personnel and their loved ones, whose sacrifices have brought us the liberties that we enjoy today. This May, the National Military Appreciation Month acknowledges a number of important milestones that highlight the best traditions of our Nation's military history: Loyalty Day, May 1, VE Day, May 8, Military Spouse Appreciation Day, May 9, Armed Forces Day, May 17, and Memorial Day, May 26. These special dates during National Military Appreciation Month provide reminders of the invaluable contributions that our military personnel and their loved ones have made throughout the course of our Nation's history. Every man and woman who has worn the uniforms of our armed services, and every person who has supported their endeavors deserves our gratitude and respect. Their contributions continue to protect and promote the values that define the United States. During this month of remembrance, I am continuing my work to ensure that our servicemembers and veterans receive the honor and care they rightly deserve, and that those serving in war can return home soon. In the Senate, I am working for concurrent receipt for our retired military personnel so that disabled veterans can receive the benefits they deserve. With Senators Lieberman, Bond, and Obama, I have also championed efforts to improve mental health care and services for Active Duty military and veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I proudly support Senator Jim Webb's new GI bill, S. 22, to vastly improve educational benefits for our newest generation of servicemembers and veterans. We must all remain committed to ensuring that our military members, veterans, and their families are taken care of. As Americans from across the Nation pay tribute to our military this month, I offer my appreciation and admiration for all the men and women who have contributed to the history and traditions of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the great work and remarkable accomplishments of Moorpark High School's Academic Decathlon team for winning the 2008 U.S. Academic Decathlon Championship. Members of the National Championship team include Jonah Buck, Anaamika Campeau, Angela Chen, Justine Levan, Chrissa Rutkai, Kris Sankaran, Paul Watanabe, Christie Calle, Colin Calle, and team coach Larry Jones. Moorpark High School has earned the distinction of becoming a three- time U.S. Academic Decathlon Champion, having previously won the prestigious competition in 1999 and 2003. The 2008 Moorpark High School Academic Decathlon team achieved the highest score in the U.S. Academic Decathlon's 26-year history. Competing in an academic decathlon requires hard work, dedication, and determination. These dedicated students from Moorpark High School devoted many hours of their leisure time honing their skills in preparation for the Academic Decathlon competition. Their commitment to excellence has rightfully earned them the respect and admiration of their community, friends, and family. The 2008 Moorpark High School Academic Decathlon team is a great source of pride and joy to their community and is a great testament to the value of team work. I invite all of my colleagues to join me in congratulating California's Moorpark High School Academic Decathlon team for winning the 2008 U.S. Academic Decathlon Championships.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I wish to recognize the important work and accomplishments of the Screen Actors Guild as the organization celebrates its 75th anniversary. Founded on June 30, 1933, the Screen Actors Guild was established in part as a reaction to the restrictive, long-term studio engagement contracts. Since then, it has helped to protect and improve the lives of actors and their families by fighting for fair wages and health and retirement benefits. The Screen Actors Guild has a unique position in labor history. It claims a former Senator, George Murphy, and a former President, Ronald Reagan, as former union presidents, as well as James Cagney, Charlton Heston, Edward Asner, Patty Duke, Dennis Weaver, and many other notable actors. Its current president is Alan Rosenberg. The founding meeting of the Screen Actors Guild included just six actors. Yet, 75 years later, it has more than 127,000 members with 20 offices across the United States. It represents a broad variety of members from motion pictures, television programs and commercials, and nonbroadcast industries such as video games, music video, Internet, and other new media formats. The Screen Actors Guild has also taken a leading role in combating movie and new media piracy, while working toward increased privacy protections, child labor laws, and health care reform. With the rapid expansion of so many alternative forms of entertainment, it has also met the challenge of representing its members in new challenging contract issues. And, of course, its esteemed Screen Actors Guild Awards honor its members each year for outstanding performances. I invite all of my colleagues to join me in commending the Screen Actors Guild for its dedication to improving workers' rights on its 75th anniversary.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I am pleased to ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing Dr. Louis Fernandez as he retires from a long career in public service as provost and vice president for academic affairs with California State University, San Bernardino. His service and commitment to the students, faculty, and staff of California State University, San Bernardino, and to his community have provided an example for us all. After earning his doctorate in geology from Syracuse University, Dr. Fernandez served at several institutions of higher learning throughout the Nation. At each of these universities, Dr. Fernandez was as an exemplary educator and community leader. Through his career at the University of New Orleans as a professor, dean and department chair, Dr. Fernandez worked to secure the university's first National Science Foundation grant to recruit and mentor underrepresented students in the geosciences. The State of Louisiana named him Educational Administrator of the Year in 1991, and he has since received numerous laudatory titles and honors for his work in education. Dr. Fernandez later joined the California State University, San Bernardino campus. By 1994 he served as acting vice president for academic affairs, and was named provost a year later. Since then, Dr. Fernandez has served the university and the surrounding communities by working to secure a sound academic plan for academic growth, a responsible university budget, and a university-wide commitment to student diversity. For several years, Dr. Fernandez chaired the National Association of Geology Teachers Minority Affairs Committee. He served on the National Science Foundation's Advisory Committee to the Earth Sciences. He chaired the American Geological Institute's Minority Participation Program Advisory Committee, and as a member of the Geological Society of America's Ad Hoc Committee on Minorities, and the National Association of Geology Teacher's Minority Scholarship Program. For his broad service and leadership, the Hispanic Caucus of the American Association of Higher Education awarded him the Outstanding Support of Hispanic Issues in Higher Education Award. Throughout his long career in education and public service, Dr. Louis Fernandez has consistently worked to foster stronger communities and attain higher education ideals. I am pleased to ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating him on his retirement.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, today I am pleased to ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the exemplary model of service and conservation provided by the Student Creative Recycle Art Program Gallery as it celebrates Earth Month Coachella Valley. Their efforts to highlight the importance of environmental consciousness through community activities provides an example for our Nation. For more than 30 years, America has recognized the importance of environmental preservation, and we have dedicated every April 22, Earth Day, as a day for environmental consciousness. The S.C.R.A.P. Gallery has taken bold steps to heighten America's awareness of conservation in dedicating the entire month of April to environmental awareness. Throughout the month of April, the S.C.R.A.P. Gallery operates a number of enrichment activities throughout southern California, aimed at improving youth education and environmental awareness. Events such as field trips that highlight the importance of waste prevention, recycling programs that encourage youth to transform used bicycles into artwork, theater productions that enable students to attend professional children's theater performances focused on conservation, and hands-on events that allow students to gain direction from local and renowned artists have helped engage youth throughout southern California and helped to highlight the importance of environmental concerns. For more than a decade, the S.C.R.A.P. Gallery has been recognized as an integral community organization by numerous organizations and municipalities. The S.C.R.A.P. Gallery has received the Arts Organization Award from the city of Indio, the Best Grassroots Organization Award from the U.S. Department of Education, the Waste Reduction Award from the California Integrated Waste Management Board, the Keep California Beautiful Award, the Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award, and the Award of Achievement in Education from the Natural Resources Council of America. This year, as the S.C.R.A.P. Gallery dedicates an entire month to conservation and environmental awareness, I am pleased to ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing their tremendous leadership. The efforts of the S.C.R.A.P. Gallery have successfully engaged communities of young people and have highlighted the importance of environmental awareness throughout their community.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. I didn't want to forget to offer the motion.

Mrs. BOXER. I reserve the remainder of my time. I look forward to a good vote on the Boxer motion.

Mrs. BOXER. How much time remains on both sides?

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, will you let me know when I have used up 5 minutes?

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I say to my colleagues that Senator DeMint's motion is a back-to-the-future position. Again, it is why his party is in so much trouble. It is not looking ahead with hope; it is looking ahead with fear. It is giving veto power to countries that we should not be following. We should not be following the environmental policies of China. You can barely breathe over there. Yet they are going to have the same until they decide to act and we sit here and do nothing about one of the greatest challenges to face our generation. I cannot look into the eyes of my grandchildren and tell them: Sorry, I am giving over my proxy to China, I am giving over my proxy to India, and I can't do anything about it. I don't know exactly what my colleague is talking about. He is telling me what I support, and he has no right to do that. He has no right to say I support higher taxes on consumers because I don't. He has no right to say I want to give away jobs. I have more support from working men and women in my State than probably almost anyone in this body. I take second to none in that category of fighting for the environment and fighting for jobs. Actually, if my friend knew a little bit more about what we are talking about, he would understand that the bill we are going to come up with has one of the biggest tax cuts in history in it--let me repeat that, one of the biggest tax cuts in history in it--which is going to ease the pain and ease the burden on consumers and on our people and help them pay for high prices of gasoline. My bill has cuts in carbon of 2 percent a year that we think is doable, and our bill is deficit neutral. It is, as my friend should know, a very bipartisan bill--Boxer, a Democrat; Lieberman, an Independent; Warner, a Republican, and it has bipartisan support. For someone to stand up and say the purpose of that bill is to hurt consumers, hurt America, hurt jobs, then they have not read the bill or they are giving a political speech. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig. I look at my friend's motion as a sad one. It is a position of surrender. It takes us back to the nineties, when we didn't know what we now know about global warming. It takes us back to the nineties, when we feared taking on that challenge. But our time has come. The time for change is here. It is time, once and for all, to stand up and say we are not going to depend on foreign oil anymore, we are going to make sure we have technology developed in this country that will get us away from foreign oil and away from the countries that hold such a vise around our neck. That is why Senator Warner is on this bill, that is why Senator Lieberman is on this bill, that is why I am on this bill, and many other colleagues on both sides of the aisle. So for my colleague to bring this issue up on the budget resolution is unbelievable because he has not even seen the bill. To stand up and say that what I want to do and what those of us who want to act against global warming will do is bad for our country is quite the opposite. In Great Britain, over the last 10 years, they have reduced carbon emissions by 15 percent. Their GDP rose by 45 percent, and 500,000 jobs were created that are green-collar jobs. You can stand in the corner and shiver and shake and say: Please, China, please act so we can act. You can say: Oh, India, please act so we can act. Or you can stand up like an American and say: We lead. This vote is an important vote because what I say in my side-by-side motion is we will not support legislation that does not address the issue of imports from countries such as China and India that have no emissions program. Motion to Instruct Madam President, I have a motion to instruct at the desk. I wish to make that clear.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I rise to speak against the DeMint motion and in favor of the Boxer motion, which takes on the issue of global warming in a way that is consistent with the information and the facts that we have today. The DeMint motion is a throwback to 10, 11 years ago when everybody around here, including myself, was saying we better watch out and not do anything about global warming until the undeveloped world acts. We better sit back and do nothing. You know what. We cannot do that anymore. This is a time of change. This is a time where we have to challenge the status quo. This is a time when we need to stand up as the leading country in the world and say that we can fight global warming, and we can win this fight. As a matter of fact, if we approach it with hope, not fear, we are going to create tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of new jobs. We are going to get our people off of fossil fuel, not having to worry about gas prices anymore, and we will create new technologies that will spur us on to an economic renaissance. But what happens with the DeMint motion, he gives China and India a veto power over what we should be doing. Imagine sitting back and saying we are not going to do anything about human rights until China acts. We are not going to do anything about a better educational system until India acts. Why would we give up our chance to take the mantle of leadership and finally grab hold of this issue, and do it in a way that makes us quite strong in the global marketplace? So when you look at the DeMint motion, it is very similar to what passed in the last century, if you will, more than 10 years ago. That is why I think my friend's party is in so much trouble--because they fight against change, they fight for the status quo, they fear change, and this is a time of change. I didn't ask for this moment during the budget debate. I don't think this is the right place to debate a cap-and-trade system because we will be tackling this subject matter soon enough. It is not going to be easy. Change isn't easy. But this is positive change, where America says we will lead. We know from the Pentagon, and we know from our intelligence officials that if we do nothing, we become less secure in the world because global warming, we know, will have an impact on drought, floods, cyclones--all of the things we are already seeing--if we do nothing because we have given over our chance to act to India and China, and our people will suffer. Yesterday, the Bush administration declared that the polar bear is a threatened species because the polar bears' habitat is shrinking away. The permafrost and the ice that the polar bear stands on to hunt is literally melting out from under them. Now, for the Bush administration to declare that is extraordinary. They said it is because of global warming, and that in 30, 40 years we will not have any more polar bears. That is one example. Scientists tell us 50 percent of God's species could be gone. For those of us who happen to believe there is a spirituality to this world--and I do--it is our destiny to save the planet. It is not our destiny to support the DeMint motion, which leaves it up to China and India. We have a better way. We say in our substitute that no legislation should pass mandates on greenhouse gas emissions until it effectively addresses imports from China and India and other nations that have no similar emissions programs. We agree that no bill should pass unless it addresses the imports from these nations. So that is our alternative-- not to say stop the world, I want to get off; not to say that America will be missing in action in the biggest domestic challenge of our time, but to grab hold of that challenge and make sure we do it in a way that is fair to our industry, fair to our workers, fair to our consumers, fair to our manufacturers. And when those imports come in at our ports, if those countries seeking entry into our country do not have equivalent programs, then they will have to get the allowances at the border in order to bring those goods into the country. That is the way we are going to handle this problem. So, once again, I say to my colleagues, we are going to have a debate on global warming very soon, thanks to Senator Reid putting it on the schedule for June 2. When we are told by the leading scientists of the world that if global warming is left unchecked, our planet will become inhospitable to us as human beings, to our children, to our grandchildren, and that there will be vectors around that we cannot combat, there will be amoebas in our water, bacteria that have never been there before; there will be storms, cyclones, droughts, and floods--extreme weather conditions; when we see that the habitat for beautiful animals--God's creatures, such as the polar bear--is already being impacted now as we speak, for us to say we will do nothing until China acts--I don't want China dictating what I do in this country. I don't want India dictating what I do in this country. I want to make sure that we handle this issue right and that we are not disadvantaged because they may not act. That is what our alternative does. I hope we will have a good vote on that alternative and reject the status quo--the throwback position of Senator DeMint. I yield the floor and reserve the remainder of my time.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, colleagues, I hope you pay attention to this because there are two motions that deal with global warming. The first one is the Boxer motion, and what it says is, we should not enact any global warming legislation until we address the issue of goods imported from nations such as India and China, countries that do not have their own global warming program. So we protect our people and yet we allow global warming legislation to proceed. Senator DeMint's motion is a back-to-the-future motion. He basically says we can do nothing--nothing--until India and China act. This is wrong. We should not be held hostage to the actions of China and India or any other nation when it comes to our own country, when it comes to an issue which is so serious that even the administration, that has been kind of dragging on this, yesterday found that global warming is threatening a beautiful species called the polar bear. We do not want to be held hostage to India and China. Vote aye on the Boxer motion, and no on the DeMint motion. Thank you.

Mrs. BOXER. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, how much additional time did Senator DeMint get?

Mrs. BOXER. Then, Mr. President, I would ask for the same amount of time, equally divided, between myself and Senator Warner.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I have the same amount of time Senator DeMint had, divided equally between myself and Senator Warner.

Mrs. BOXER. If the Presiding Officer will tell me when I have used half the time so I can stop. Colleagues, this is a very important vote. We already voted to level the playing field for America in that last vote so that countries cannot take advantage of us. But I have to say, this motion would hold this Nation hostage to China and India. Since when do we wait around for countries such as China to act on human rights issues, on economic issues, on environmental issues? That is not America. I believe this is a motion that looks to fear, not hope. This is the greatest country on Earth, and I do not think we should tell ourselves we can do nothing about a pressing issue until a foreign country acts.

Mrs. BOXER

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I rise in support of the farm bill conference report. The bill takes many positive steps to level the playing field in American agriculture by recognizing the importance of specialty crops to the nation's economy and the need to provide more funding for programs that promote renewable energy, protect our environmental resources, and keep our children healthy. This is by no means a perfect bill, but it is a great improvement over our current, outdated farm policy that for too long has hurt California's farmers and growers. California is the Nation's largest agricultural state, with more than 350 different crops worth $32 billion per year. Yet our State has been largely overlooked when it comes to the billions in federal support for agriculture. For the first time, the farm bill is recognizing the importance of specialty crops to our Nation's economy. Included in the Senate bill is mandatory funding for specialty crops block grants, organic farmers, farmers market programs, trade assistance and foreign market access programs, the community foods program, and important specialty crops and organics research. The bill also provides over $1 billion in funding for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program, expanding participation in the program to all 50 States. This program provides a critically important strategy in the fight to prevent and reduce childhood obesity by providing as many as 3 million low-income elementary school children in 5,000 schools nationwide the ability to receive a fresh fruit or vegetable snack every day at school. Numerous studies have indicated that eating fruits and vegetables can prevent cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and hypertension, in addition to obesity. Yet less than one out of every six children eats the USDA recommended amount of fresh fruit, and only 1 out of 5 children eats the recommended amount of vegetables. The funding included in the farm bill will ensure that schools in California and in every State in the Nation can implement this important child nutrition program. Also included in the nutrition title are much needed modernizations and updates to the food stamp assistance program. The bill not only renames this program as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, but it also provides critical improvements that will greatly help families in need. As a result of deep cuts to the Food Stamp Program in the mid-1990s, the purchasing power of families' food assistance benefits has eroded greatly over time. The farm bill invests significant resources; $5.4 billion over the next 10 years, to end that erosion and partially restore benefit levels that have been lost. The bill increases the minimum SNAP benefit to $14, up from the current $10, and indexes that level to future inflation. The bill also increases assistance to families with high childcare expenses by allowing a full deduction for childcare expenses in calculating family income and benefit levels. And with our Nation's food banks experiencing unprecedented shortages during this period of high demand for supplemental food assistance, the bill nearly doubles the amount authorized for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, providing $1.25 billion over 10 years and providing $50 million in emergency money for food banks currently enduring severe shortages. The farm bill also provides an important opportunity to increase protection of our Nation's natural resources and its open space. Farmers can enroll in a number of conservation programs that allow them to provide habitat protection for native species, protect wetlands and grasslands, and undertake initiatives to make their farms more environmentally friendly--but the last farm bill did not do enough to provide farmers with the resources they need to fully participate in conservation activities. In 2004, California had a $143 million backlog in payments and enrollments in conservation programs due to lack of funding and low acreage caps. An average of 4,000 farmers and landowners in California are rejected each year when they apply to USDA conservation programs. Sixty-eight percent of California's farmers seeking Environmental Quality Incentives Program, EQIP, funding turned away. Nationwide, $18 billion worth of conservation applications have gone unfunded during the life of the 2002 farm bill. As a result of inadequate funding for conservation programs, California is rapidly losing thousands of acres of farmland and open space. Ninety-five percent of the wetlands in the Central Valley have been lost, and 171,000 acres of farmland were lost in California from 2002 to 2004. The conference report takes important steps to provide farmers with more access to conservation programs, and while I am disappointed that more funding was not included, the $4 billion in new spending will allow many more farmers and landowners in California to participate in important resource protection programs like the Wetlands Reserve Program, the Grasslands Reserve Program, and EQIP. I am also grateful that the conferees pushed back against efforts to restrict full-time farmers from participating in conservation programs. The purpose of conservation programs is to encourage farmers and landowners to provide a public benefit by protecting their land from development, and in the future we must ensure that income eligibility caps are not applied to conservation programs, as these would be very detrimental to resource protection efforts in California. The farm bill also authorizes a number of programs that will benefit California's rural communities, such as low-interest loans to rural electric cooperatives for renewable energy production and grants and loan guarantees to develop broadband access in rural areas. I am also pleased that the bill contains significant investments for farm-based energy, including the development of cellulosic ethanol. I am concerned about the impact of corn ethanol on food and feed prices, especially in light of the fact that alternative, renewable fuels can be created from a number of other agricultural sources, many of which are produced in California. This farm bill takes great steps to encourage the development of cellulosic fuels that can be produced in California by providing loan guarantees to encourage farmers to grow biomass crops and incentives to drive the advancement of commercial scale biorefineries for advanced biofuels. The conference report also includes important reforms to commodity programs, including the elimination of the three-entity rule, a direct attribution requirement, and income means tests to prevent very wealthy farmers from receiving certain commodity payments. I would have liked to see some additional reforms, but the conference report represents a positive first step in the effort to improve and update our commodity programs. I would also like to thank Chairman Harkin and the conferees for including a number of provisions I authored into the farm bill. Air quality improvements in agricultural areas: In rural areas around the country, smog and soot are threatening public health, fouling communities, and reducing crop productivity from pollution generated on farms. I joined forces with Congressman Cardoza to include language authorizing a new program in the existing Environmental Quality Incentives Program, EQIP, that will allocate $150 million in funds over the next 5 years toward air quality mitigation efforts in agricultural communities with poor air quality. USDA has invested money in California since 1998 that has produced measurable and permanent pollution reductions in a region that has some of the worst air quality in the Nation. With this new program in place, these efforts can be expanded in California and replicated throughout the Nation. Pollinator Protection Act: This provision authorizes up to $100 million over 5 years for high priority research dedicated to maintaining and protecting our honey bee and native pollinator populations. There has been a loss of about 25 percent of the Nation's honey bee population, and it is estimated that crops nationwide that depend on a healthy honey bee and native pollinator population are valued near $18 billion. Protecting sugar beet farmers and hundreds of jobs in Fresno County: I helped negotiate a change in the national sugar allocation program that will provide a sugar beet grower cooperative in the Central Valley with the necessary allocation to continue growing sugar beets and keep the Mendota sugar refinery open. The grower cooperative is working to purchase the sugar refinery from an out-of-state owner, and if successful, they will keep the refinery operating and save 400 full- time and seasonal jobs in Fresno County, where the March unemployment rate was 11.1 percent. Pest Detection and Surveillance Act: This provision authorizes $407 million to give USDA the authority to enter into cooperative funding agreements with States to enhance their pest and disease detection and surveillance programs and increase inspections at domestic points of entry, implement pest trapping systems, and create pest eradication and prevention programs, among many other pest detection and surveillance initiatives. This program will help protect California's agricultural economy from harmful pests and diseases and keep our farmers competitive. Preservation of 40-year-old meat inspection laws: The House-passed bill included language that would allow meat and poultry plants to forgo Federal inspections in favor of more lax and uneven State-run inspections--potentially putting the health of millions of Americans at risk. I worked with Senator Harkin, consumer groups, and labor unions to protect the integrity of the Federal meat inspection process. In the wake of the largest recall of beef in our Nation's history, Congress should be working to strengthen food safety standards, not rolling back the Federal Government's crucial role in protecting our people. Agricultural watershed enhancement: The Sacramento River watershed and other national regional watersheds have been identified by conservation groups as watersheds most in need of water quality and water quantity enhancement. I worked to ensure that the Sacramento River watershed is treated as a priority-funding area. Protection against use of harmful pesticides: I led an effort to prevent the inclusion of language that would have jeopardized the ability of conservation managers to encourage the use of the safest, least toxic, and most environmentally friendly pesticides in carrying out activities under key farm bill programs. The House-passed bill included this harmful provision at the urging of pesticide manufacturers, and it would have tied the hands of local managers to encourage viable alternatives to pesticides that can be harmful to our air, water, wildlife, pollinators, and human health. Edible schoolyards: The bill strengthens the Access to Local Foods and School Gardens Program by supporting the development of school curriculum that teaches the principles of ecology, origins of food, and promotes healthy food choices. This language supports the replication of the successful Edible Schoolyard Program in Berkeley, CA. The bill also includes $50 million over 5 years in mandatory funding for the Community Foods Program, which funds programs like edible schoolyards. I also worked with Chairman Harkin and the conferees to include an avocado marketing order agreement, a national study on biofuels infrastructure, language prioritizing edible schoolyards programs in schools under the Community Foods Program, and a $15 million asparagus market loss program to help growers in California. This bill had significant and widespread support from stakeholders in California and throughout the Nation. I want to recognize and thank the groups from my State that expressed their support for the bill. These groups include Western Growers Association, California Farmers Union, California Farm Bureau Federation, California Grape and Tree Fruit League, California Cattlemen's Association, California Rice Commission, California Citrus Mutual, California Association of County Agriculture Commissioners, California Association of Winegrape Growers, The Wine Institute, California Rangeland Conservation Coalition of California, California Apple Commission, Nisei Farmers League, California Kiwi Commission, Merced-Mariposa Cattlemen's Association, Northeast California Farm Credit, Blue Diamond Growers, Buy California Marketing Agreement, California Dried Plum Board, California Fig Institute, California Fresh Fig Growers Association, California Strawberry Commission, California Table Grape Association, California Walnut Commission, California-Arizona Watermelon Association, Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, Sunkist Growers, California Association and Nursery and Garden Centers, California Association of Wheat Growers, California Association of Food Banks, Alameda County Community Food Bank, California Food Policy Advocates, California Hunger Action Coalition, California School Employees Association, Catholic Charities, Diocese of Stockton, Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations, Congregation Emanu-El, Desert Cities Hunger Action, Emergency Food Bank Stockton/San Joaquin, Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo Co., Food Bank of Monterey County, Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, Food Bank of San Luis Obispo County, FOOD Share, Inc., Fresno Metro Ministry, Fresno Community Good Bank, Grace Resource Center, HRC Food Bank, Calaveras County, Imperial Valley Food Bank, Insight Center for Community Economic Development, Interfaith Council of Amador, Oceano Community Center, Peggy Cole Ministries Int'l, Redwood Empire Food Bank, San Luis Obispo County YMCA, San Luis Obispo Food Bank Coalition, San Luis Obispo Supported Living, Inc., Transitional Food and Shelter, Inc., Transitions Mental Health Association, Village Community Resource Center, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, Stockton Food Bank, Oakland Insight Center for Community Economic Development, Greater Stockton Emergency Food Bank, Second Harvest of Santa Clara County, Second Harvest of Santa Cruz County, Second Harvest of San Benito County, Second Harvest of San Mateo County, Food Bank for Humboldt County, Community Action Partnership of Orange County, San Francisco Food Bank, San Diego Hunger Coalition, Alameda County Community Food Bank, and Eureka Food for People. This farm bill is important for California's farmers, families, its environmental resources, our consumers, and for the State's economy, and I am pleased support it.