Thad Cochran

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. The Senator from Michigan is correct in stating that frequently there exist many agricultural emergencies which are best addressed by the action of the Secretary of Agriculture.

Mr. COCHRAN. I want to thank my colleagues for bringing this issue to the attention of the Senate. I appreciate the significance of establishing this institute, and I will make every effort to accommodate their request in the Conference.

Mr. COCHRAN. I will be pleased to speak with my colleagues regarding this issue. I understand that this is a cooperative approach to enhance the accessibility and utility of genomic information for plant genetic research, and Senator Domenici championed the authorization for this institute in the recently enacted Agricultural Risk Protection Act.

Mr. COCHRAN. I thank the Senators from Montana for working with the Agriculture Appropriations Committee to bring to our attention the need for funding of this important measure.

Mr. COCHRAN. I want to thank the Senator from Pennsylvania, and appreciate him bringing this issue to my attention. As move forward, I will work with him to ensure that the USDA takes into consideration the existing data and research, and completes the study within a reasonable timeframe.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I want to thank the Senator from Idaho for his kind remarks. We have tried hard to accommodate every worthwhile request but, as we all know, we are constrained by our budget allocation. I want to assure him, however, that I will thoroughly review the request made by the Idaho Accelerator Center at Idaho State University and will give it appropriate consideration during Conference.

Mr. COCHRAN. I thank the Senior Senator from Maine for her tireless efforts over these past five years to not only keep the ARS laboratory open but to assure that the facility is staffed with skilled scientists and support staff that continue to be of great service to the agriculture community in Maine. This research facility has my support and the appropriate technical change will be made for a soil physicist.

Mr. COCHRAN. I appreciate your bringing this issue to the attention of the Committee, and I will carefully consider this issue affecting the FDA's Adverse Event Monitoring System regarding dietary supplements. I thank the Senator for raising this matter to my attention. USDA-ARS New England Plant, Soil and Water Research Laboratory

Mr. COCHRAN. I assure the Senator from Michigan that this specific request will be carefully considered in conference as I can understand how important this matter is. fda's adverse event reports

Mr. COCHRAN. I thank the Senator from Michigan for his comments. He is correct in stating that the House Appropriations Act for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies for Fiscal Year 2001 funds research regarding Postharvest Handling and Mechanization to Minimize Damage for Fruits while the Senate counterpart does not.

Mr. COCHRAN. Yes.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I am prepared to be guided by the interest of the Senate. I have a list of the amendments which I am prepared to read if Senators would like. I can send the list to the desk and have it printed in the Record. I asked my staff if we read the list last year, and they said we did not. Maybe considering the mood of the Senate, I should not read the list.

Mr. COCHRAN. I do not have an estimate. They are within the budget allocation of the committee. None of them will require a waiver. There are two amendments that are attached to this bill that are not within the jurisdiction of this subcommittee. One is related to methamphetamine laboratory cleanup which comes under Commerce-Justice, and another is related to Customs Service computer systems which comes under the Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Subcommittee's jurisdiction.

Mr. COCHRAN. I will be happy to yield to the Senator.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, for the information of Senators, we have been awaiting word from the minority staff of the subcommittee to clear the managers' package. We have cleared the managers' package on this side of the aisle. We have statements and colloquies relating to the managers' package, and I will momentarily send up all of the amendments and the statements and colloquies related thereto.

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

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I am pleased to announce to all Senators we are only 2 or 3 minutes away from getting a managers' package of amendments to wrap up the final consideration of this bill. We also have some colloquies and statements that Senators have presented to us during the final stages of the consideration of the bill we are now reviewing and processing. I expect to be able to present for unanimous consent agreement, for inclusion in the Record, these statements and colloquies. We know of no other amendments that are to be offered. May I ask the Chair, what is the pending business?

Mr. COCHRAN. I further ask consent that it not be in order in the Senate, for the remainder of the 106th Congress, to consider any bill or amendment that raises the level of emergency spending for agriculture above the level contained in this Agriculture appropriations bill as of the adoption of the above described amendments.

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, during year 2000, the National Boll Weevil Eradication Program (BWEP) will have approximately 6.8 million acres under active eradication and treatments will be initiated on an additional 832,000 acres, bringing the total acreage in active eradication to 7.65 million acres. The states participating in treatments currently are: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. By 2001 another 2 million acres will begin eradication, and at the same time, eradication will be completed on about 1 million acres. Thus the total acreage in active eradication in 2001 will increase to 8.8 million acres. The peak year for the high costs to the participants of the eradication program will be in 2001. Initially the BWEP operated on a 70/30 cost-share basis with the growers providing 70 percent through a pre-acre self-assessment approved by referendum and 30 percent provided through annual federal appropriations. Programs in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and portions of Alabama and Florida were completed with a 70/30 cost-share. As participating acreage rapidly expanded across the cotton belt, the federal cost-share declined from 30 percent to about 4 percent in fiscal year 2000. With the problems American agriculture is still facing with low commodity prices, droughts, and flooding, the burden of this program at a cost-share rate of 96/4 is jeopardizing the participation in the Boll Weevil Eradication Program nationwide. This amendment, which I am offering today to the Fiscal Year 2001 Agricultural Appropriations bill, increases the Animal, Plant and Health Inspection Service's salaries and expenses by $59,400,000. This amendment includes an emergency declaration which requires the President to request the full amount before the monies are appropriated. This additional appropriation will enable APHIS to increase federal funding for is to increase the Boll Weevil Eradication Program by $59,400,000 for 2000. This amount is needed to provide a thirty percent cost-share to farmers participating in the program. With this appropriation, farmers will be able to fully participate in the eradication program without putting another financial strain on their farm income. amendment no. 3971 (Purpose: To provide financial assistance to the State of South Carolina in capitalizing the South Carolina Grain Dealers Guaranty Fund) At the appropriate place in chapter 1 of title I of Division B, insert the following: For an additional amount for the Secretary of Agriculture to provide financial assistance to the State of South Carolina in capitalizing the South Carolina Grain Dealers Guaranty Fund, $2,500,000: Provided, That, these funds shall only be available if the State of South Carolina provides an equal amount to the South Carolina Grain Dealers Guaranty Fund: Provided further, That the entire amount necessary to carry out this section shall be available only to the extent that an official budget request for the entire amount, that includes designation of the entire amount of the request as an emergency requirement as defined in the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, as amended, is transmitted by the President to the Congress: Provided further, That the entire amount is designated by the Congress as an emergency requirement pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A) of such Act.

Mr. COCHRAN

Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield, these are figures that were provided to the committee by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. That service administers the Emergency Watershed Protection Program. These are the projected needs through fiscal year 2000. They were provided to the committee on July 18 at our request. This program was out of money as of sometime last fall because of the cutbacks in funding that we have been seeing in this bill, along with others as well. To try to achieve consistency with the budget resolution targets and our allocation under section 302(b), we were not able to fund programs to the full amount of the request from the administration for projected needs. These are given to us as certified emergency needs from this agency that has the responsibility of administering the program.

Mr. COCHRAN. The date of July 18 was chosen because it was on that date that the National Resources Conservation Service provided a list to the committee, at our request, of unfunded needs that were considered emergency watershed projects throughout the United States. It was this list from which we chose to estimate the funding needs that ought to be included in this bill as true emergencies. The total amount of the unfunded projected needs is $157,111,000. We have suggested the $70 million figure for emergencies. Of those projected needs, spring floods accounted for $30 million, hurricanes and tornadoes for $50 million, and fires for $10 million. These are either erosions or destruction of watershed protection facilities or the requirement for obtaining floodplain easements in those areas. That is generally across the United States. It is not State specific. Then there are 23 States where the amounts are specifically identified as totaling $67,111,000. These are the States: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin. They vary in each State from, for example, Alaska, which is a small number, $237,000, to a large number, California, $12 million; another large number, Illinois, $7.5 million; and Iowa, which was the subject of Senator Harkin's request, $7.5 million, to which the managers added all the other States so it wouldn't be just relief for one State but all States that were similarly situated would be included in this amendment because they all had similar needs.

Mr. COCHRAN. If the Senator will yield, I will be happy to give him the answer.

Mr. COCHRAN. The total amount of all of these amendments amounts to about $900 million. The bill contained $1.116 billion in emergency- designated programs and activities as reported by the committee. So the total emergency designated items and programs included in the bill, if this package is agreed to, would amount to $2.1 billion based on preliminary scoring made available to the committee by the Congressional Budget Office.