Thad Cochran

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I will yield back time if no other Senator seeks recognition because I don't need to talk anymore. I have talked enough about the bill, trying to explain that we have attempted to identify not only the emergency needs that exist by reason of the collapse of prices for commodities for agricultural producers but also the disaster assistance that is needed now to compensate those who have suffered drought-related and other weather-related disasters on the farm. We have in the conference report a statement by managers indicating that we realize it may be difficult or impossible to ascertain the exact dollar amount of losses attributable to disaster during this crop year. For that reason, we call upon the Department of Agriculture, the Secretary, to monitor the situation and submit to the Congress, if it is justified, a supplemental budget request for any additional funds. We are confident the Senate and the House, as well, will carefully consider any supplemental request for such funds. We think this is a generous response to the needs in agriculture, but we know it is not enough to satisfy every single need of every individual in agriculture. I don't know that anybody could design a program that would do that. I don't recall there ever being a more generous disaster assistance program approved by this Congress than this one--$8.7 billion in emergency assistance. We hope that will be helpful. That is only a part of this legislation, however. There is $60 billion of funding for all the fiscal year 2000 programs that will be administered by the Department of Agriculture and also funds for the operation of the Food and Drug Administration and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. This bill is within its allocation under the Budget Act. It is consistent with the budget resolution adopted by this Congress. We are hopeful the Senate will express its support by voting overwhelmingly for the conference report. I am aware of no other Senator who has requested time to speak on the bill. I know we have 5 minutes remaining on the bill. To await the arrival of any Senator who does want to speak, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. COCHRAN. The Democrats have used all time allocated to them.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, may I inquire how much time remains for debate on the conference report under the order.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, there is none that this Senator knows about.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, as far as the regular appropriations bill for fiscal year 2000 funds are concerned, there is no advance funding. In the disaster assistance package, there is $30 million for advance funding of fisheries disaster assistance.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield, I think his point is illustrated by the fact we have seen legislation introduced to reform and improve the Crop Insurance Program to get at that kind of problem. If farmers find crop insurance both affordable and effective to compensate them for losses of this kind, they would buy crop insurance. We have a flawed program now. We are trying to get the legislative committee to act on legislation on that subject. Senator Lincoln from Arkansas and I have cosponsored a bill that we think is needed in order to make that kind of program effective and more attractive in the South. We think the current program does not represent a reasonable or thoughtful investment of a farmer's funds--at least that is the attitude of most southern farmers with whom we have talked on this subject. One other point on this and that is, there is a Federal Emergency Management Agency appropriation that is made every year. That is a subject in the budget resolution, and we have in the VA-HUD appropriations bill funds to appropriate to that agency to respond to the needs of people confronted with disaster. It is not that the budget is silent on the subject of disasters. There is the Crop Insurance Program that is subsidized by the Government, and there is the FEMA program that is funded in the budget each year.

Mr. COCHRAN. The Appropriations Committee allocations that were made to each subcommittee do not contain a designation for emergencies as such. And as far as I know, the budget resolution did not contain any specific section with an authorization or a designation of funds in the budget for emergencies.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I say again, we have no set of criteria. There is no statute that provides any criteria or test against which a finding of emergency need be made. So it would be presumptuous on my part to try to answer what part or if all of the emergency spending in the bill would stand the test of the criteria the Senator has identified. All five of the ones you have listed are subjected to-- there is no analytical test, in other words, with which one can do this. I do not think there is any substitute for good judgment and common sense myself, and I think that is what the Senate relies upon.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, it is my understanding there is no statutory test for defining or deciding what is and is not an emergency. Even for OMB, it is a matter of policy, as we understand it, and that is an executive branch agency under the jurisdiction of the President of the United States. In the Senate, an emergency is whatever the Senate decides is an emergency. A majority of the Senate can designate an event or an appropriation as being for an emergency purpose, and that is how we judge whether it is an emergency--whether a majority of the Senate approves it as such.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, when we passed the bill in the Senate, there was $7.6 billion approved by the Senate as emergency spending for agriculture.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield, the amount included in the conference committee report that is attributable to emergencies is $8.7 billion which is for disaster assistance and economic assistance for farmers.

Mr. COCHRAN. I yield such time as he may consume to the Senator from Minnesota, Mr. Grams.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Pennsylvania, Mr. Specter, for his comments about the work that went into crafting this bill and the challenges we faced along the way. We appreciate very much his assistance. He is a member of the legislative committee on agriculture and has provided valuable advice, counsel, and assistance in the crafting of this bill. We thank him for that. As I understand the status of time, we have about 20 minutes remaining on the Republican side.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I yield such time as may be consumed to the distinguished Senator from Pennsylvania.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, the House bill contained no funds for disaster assistance or economic assistance designated as emergencies.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator from Maine for her kind comments. We will certainly continue to do everything possible to be responsive to the needs of agricultural producers both in New England and elsewhere in the country. I yield such time as he may consume to the distinguished Senator from Vermont, Mr. Jeffords.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I yield 8 minutes to the distinguished Senator from Alaska.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I yield such time as he may consume to the distinguished Senator from Nebraska.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, seeing no Senators seeking recognition, I suggest the absence of a quorum and ask unanimous consent that the time be charged equally among all sides to the debate.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I yield such time as he may consume to the Senator from Minnesota, Mr. Grams.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I yield such time as he may consume to the Senator from Wyoming, Mr. Thomas.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, under the agreement, I yield myself such time as I may consume on the Agriculture conference report. As Senators will remember, we invoked cloture on this conference report yesterday. I think the vote was 79-20. So by a very decisive vote, the Senate has expressed its will that we should complete action on this conference report. So debate has been limited, by agreement, to 6 hours, as described in the announcement to the Senate. I am very pleased we have reached this point. This has been a very difficult and hard to resolve conference agreement. There have been a lot of issues extraneous to the appropriations process this year that had to be considered because they were raised either in the Senate or during consideration of the conference report. We have reached the point, though, that it is time to complete action on this conference report. We are appropriating funds for the fiscal year that began on October 1. So we have already begun the fiscal year during which the funds we will approve today will be needed. These funds are going to be allocated for administration by the Department of Agriculture among a wide range of programs. Sixty billion dollars are made available under the terms of this bill for programs of the Department of Agriculture including agricultural research, food and nutrition service, conservation programs, agricultural support programs, and rural development. We also have the responsibility of funding the Food and Drug Administration and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission activities under this bill. So funds are provided for those agencies as well. I am very pleased that the conference agreement reflects a very strong commitment to the food safety initiatives. The President has been very active in his effort to increase funding for a number of those programs. Funds are provided for that--not all that the President wanted for every aspect of the program, but it is a well-balanced program. We also fund the Food Safety Inspection Service of the Department of Agriculture. Under that program, we have inspection that is conducted at food processing plants throughout the country, trying to make sure the food that is made available in the marketplace in our country is safe and wholesome, trying to alleviate concerns and the risks of foodborne illnesses. I daresay we have the best record of any country in the world in protecting our citizens from foodborne illnesses, and this is due in large part to those industries and those people who are involved every day in preparing and marketing the foods that make up the U.S. food supply. So they are the ones who really deserve the credit, in my opinion, and we very often do not recognize that. Government officials like to take the credit for just about everything, and I think that is wrong. In our society, we have a lot of people who work very hard and in a very conscientious way with the latest technologies to try to help make this country the best in the world, and they have done it. We try to support the activities of food processors and producers, but we sometimes fall short. This year, for example, we have had a very serious problem in production agriculture because of low commodity prices. There is an oversupply of some commodities in the world market that has depressed prices a great deal. We have seen a lot of weather- related disasters strike production agriculture this year. So in this bill there is a response to that problem. A generous disaster assistance program totaling $8.7 billion is included in this conference report, providing emergency assistance for production agriculture. The head of the Mississippi Farm Bureau was interviewed after the House approved this conference report to get his reaction to the need in agriculture for the funds that were provided in this bill. Here is what David Waide of the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation said about this emergency assistance: It ``could well mean the difference in massive foreclosures and the ability to continue farming'' in Mississippi. ``It's that serious,'' he said, ``because of the market situation and the extremely low commodity prices and the natural disaster we've had with weather, every producer is impacted to some degree.'' He went on to say, ``With the type of market losses that we're seeing as a result of an extremely dry year, the producers are still going to have to struggle.'' I point this out because there are some who think we have overreacted to the problems in agriculture this year. Every farmer in every area of the country may not be seriously affected by the problems I have discussed and described but most are. In my State of Mississippi, David Waide has it right. He has described what the problems are and what the needs are, why it is important for this appropriations bill with this emergency disaster assistance program to be approved. I am hopeful Senators will come to the floor under the order that we have provided for debate. We have a good amount of time available for the discussion of sanctions legislation we adopted in the Senate on an amendment offered by Senator Ashcroft, which would have limited the unilateral power the President has to impose embargoes, in effect, or trade embargoes, stopping the flow of agricultural commodities from this country into the international marketplace as a means for trying to discipline other countries or coerce them into some kind of change of behavior. For many, this has seemed to be an area where we have unfairly targeted agriculture and made agricultural producers and exporters bear the brunt of American foreign policy and, in many cases, it hasn't worked. It hasn't worked to change the behavior of those countries against whom the trade embargoes or sanctions were imposed. And it has hurt our own economy--not just the agricultural producers and exporters but others, because it has had a ripple effect throughout our economy. So I supported that initiative and I hope we can see legislation of that kind enacted. But because it was legislation, a change in law, there were objections to it being included on this appropriations bill. So there will be other opportunities to take up that issue, and I hope the Senate will address that at the earliest possible time. We have time available for Senator Ashcroft and others who are interested in discussing that issue. Under the impression that there will be Senators coming to the floor soon to discuss those issues and others, I am prepared to yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum, and I ask unanimous consent the time under the quorum call be charged equally to both sides under the order.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, for the information of Senators, yesterday the Senate reached an agreement for 6 hours of debate on the Agriculture conference report. That time will expire today at 3:30 p.m. Senators may expect a vote on the conference report to occur then unless time is yielded back. The time will be controlled 2\1/2\ hours on each side, with 1 hour under the control of the Senator from Minnesota, Mr. Wellstone. During the rest of the session today, the Senate will go back into executive session to complete consideration of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty. There are approximately 3 hours remaining for debate, so a vote is expected to occur prior to adjournment today. The Senate is also expected to begin consideration of the campaign finance reform legislation or any conference reports that may be available for action by the Senate.