Mike Rounds

Mr. ROUNDS

Mr. ROUNDS. I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendment be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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

Mr. ROUNDS

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. ROUNDS

Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to legislative session for a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. ROUNDS

Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 346, S. 526.

Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to; that the Risch amendment at the desk be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time.

Mr. ROUNDS. I know of no further debate on the bill, as amended.

Mr. ROUNDS. I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. ROUNDS

Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session for the consideration of Calendar No. 942; that the nomination be confirmed; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order; that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. ROUNDS

Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 347, S. 791.

Mr. ROUNDS. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time.

Mr. ROUNDS. I know of no further debate on the bill.

Mr. ROUNDS. I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. ROUNDS

Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m., Thursday, July 19; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. I ask that following leader remarks, the Senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the Bounds nomination; further, that all time in recess, adjournment, morning business, and leader remarks count against postcloture time.

Mr. ROUNDS

Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order, following the remarks of the Senator from Delaware.

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

Mr. ROUNDS

Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 416, S. 2850.

Mr. ROUNDS. I ask unanimous consent that the Flake amendment at the desk be agreed to, that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. ROUNDS

Mr. ROUNDS. Madam President, I rise today to discuss the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, or what is commonly known in our part of the country as the farm bill, which we are considering on the Senate floor this week. The farm bill is a vital piece of legislation to the people of my home State of South Dakota, where our economy depends on agriculture to survive. With more than 31,500 farms across the State, South Dakota ranks in the top 10 for ag production, providing a $25 billion impact on our economy annually. Stability and certainty for our farmers, which this farm bill helps to provide, is crucial as they do their part to feed and fuel a growing global population. I would like to thank Chairman Pat Roberts, Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow, and all of the other members of the Senate Ag Committee and their staff, who worked tirelessly to get this marketed-oriented bill to the floor for consideration by the full Senate body. This bipartisan bill will provide much needed certainty to our ag community at a pivotal time, when the ag economy is facing significant challenges. The ag economy is down more than 50 percent over the past 5 years, and the numbers don't look much better for 2018. According to the Department of Agriculture's own Economic Research Service, net farm income is projected to fall an additional 7 percent this year to $58 billion. A 5-year farm bill is necessary to give South Dakota producers the certainty they need to help weather times of economic downturn, such as the one we are experiencing right now in ag country. Additionally, the uncertainty surrounding trade and tariffs has created instability in the market, which is having a significant effect on our commodity prices. For example, in my home State of South Dakota, soybeans are one of the top commodities, and we rely heavily on exports to sell our soybean crop each year. A significant importer of U.S. soybeans is China, which accounts for about 25 percent of all of the U.S. soybean sales and 60 percent of all soybean exports. While the tariffs on soybeans have not taken effect yet, they are already having a real impact on the market prices. Since the tariffs on Chinese goods were announced in early March, soybeans are down $1.86 per bushel on the cash market, representing a $449 million loss in South Dakota alone when we look at farmers' balance sheets. The USDA had projected ag exports to be flat in 2018 before tariffs were levied on the ag industry--or at least before those tariffs were suggested to be added to the ag industry. With so much uncertainty surrounding trade deals since tariffs were announced, reauthorizing programs like the Market Access Program, or MAP, and the Foreign Market Development Program, FMD, are vital to help gain access to new markets for U.S. products. This bill does exactly that. These programs help encourage the development, maintenance, and expansion of the ag export market to foreign customers. I am pleased that this legislation also strengthens the crop insurance program with outlays projected to be approximately $7.6 billion annually. Crop insurance is a highly effective public-private safety net that helps farmers customize protection for their individual operations. Sometimes I don't think we emphasize that this is one of those safety net items for which farmers and ranchers actually pay premiums to participate. Crops in my home State of South Dakota contribute roughly $10.3 billion to our economy. Last year, in South Dakota alone, more than 50,000 crop insurance policies were written to provide $4.8 billion in protection for over 17.5 million acres of cropland. Nationwide, more than 310 million acres were enrolled in crop insurance, backing more than $106 billion of crop value. It is vital as a risk management tool for farmers across the entire country. By maintaining strong crop insurance provisions, this bill will help our producers weather these very tough times in ag country. Additionally, this legislation provides a modest increase in the cap of the Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP, to 25 million acres. That would be up from 24 million acres currently in the existing farm bill. While we would have preferred a more significant increase in CRP acres, to the tune of perhaps 30 million acres or more, a strong CRP program is an important tool to assist farmers and ranchers during these adverse times, such as during a drought like we experienced in South Dakota last year, or possible flood damage, which I fear we will be experiencing this year. This legislation also gives the Secretary of Ag the necessary authority to reorganize the USDA. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue recently introduced a plan to reorganize the agency, including combining the Natural Resources Conservation Service with the Farm Service Agency and the Risk Management Agency, creating a new farm production and conservation mission, which would be under the Under Secretary, Bill Northey. Streamlining these programs will help sharpen the agency's focus on domestic agricultural issues, providing farmers and ranchers with a one-stop shop so that USDA can better meet their needs. Last year, as the Senate Ag Committee discussions on this farm bill took shape, I wrote to the chairman and ranking member of the committee to ask them to establish a foot-and-mouth disease vaccination bank to combat economic, food, and national security concerns. A major outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, or FMD, would be financially devastating to our producers, and I am pleased this bill highlights an FMD disease bank as a priority at USDA. The final thing I will mention about the Ag Improvement Act of 2018 is that it increases the cap for individuals seeking loans under the Farm Service Agency loan guarantee program. This program provides financial assistance to farmers and ranchers who want to expand and improve their operations. Under this legislation, the FSA direct loan program cap will go from $300,000 to $600,000 for direct ownership loans, $400,000 for direct operating loans, and from $1.39 million to $1.75 million for guaranteed ownership and operating loans. Increasing both the individual cap for these loans and the total amount of money available for lending will allow a greater number of producers to utilize the program. Farming and ranching have become increasingly costly, and increasing these limits will more accurately reflect inflation and increasing costs of ag production today and make sure that lenders have flexibility during times of hardship. South Dakota producers work hard every day to feed and fuel a growing global population. As in all businesses, some years are simply better than others. During those more difficult times, it is important that our farmers and ranchers have access to tools that can help them keep their operations vital. The certainty and stability of this farm bill will do that by allowing them to work to weather this current economic downturn, as well as strengthen the agricultural economy. I support the Senate's efforts to provide certainty to our farmers, and I will continue to work with my colleagues to see this bill across the finish line so that we can provide our ag economy with much needed certainty and help get our ag economy back on track. Let me also add that I believe we may very well see some very well- meaning amendments today that make good sense, but these amendments might very well not be supported by enough of our Members to where the actual bill itself would survive if the amendments were included. My interest is in making certain that this farm bill is allowed to continue forward, to be reconciled with the House, and become law as quickly as possible. I would ask the other Members to seriously consider the impacts; while we may very well have some great ideas on how to make improvements, unless we have enough to maintain that 60- vote margin in the U.S. Senate on a bipartisan basis, then we will have failed in providing that stability to the ag community in this time when they desperately need that reassurance. With that, Madam President, I thank you for the opportunity to visit and talk about this very important piece of legislation. I yield the floor.

Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. ROUNDS

Mr. ROUNDS. Madam President, I rise today to discuss H.R. 5895, the Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2019. I couldn't help but listen to my colleague Senator Rubio and the very fine way in which he has expressed the same thing that many Americans feel, and that is a compassion for those individuals who find themselves at our border and who simply want a better way of life for their families, while at the same time expressing the frustration that our laws are very, very clear that if you want to come into our country, you have to follow the law. At the same time, there is the compassion that has been shown by people across this entire country with regard to these children who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in this serious predicament in many communities along the border. I also want to express my appreciation to the President for the Executive order he has put in place in an effort to at least in a very short period of time address the situation for these young people and try to unite--as many of us want--those families once again. The compassion of the American people continues to shine through with regard to assisting and recognizing those who simply are not in a position to take care of themselves, regardless of which country they are a citizen of today. Madam President, I would like to refer to and discuss the appropriations bill that is in front of us today. This appropriations minibus combines three separate appropriations bills, each of which was voted nearly unanimously out of the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this year. It expends about $147 billion, or they propose to spend about $147 billion. This is significant because since coming to the Senate 3\1/2\ years ago, this is only the second time we are actually bringing smaller, separate appropriations bills to the floor months before the deadline and also having a healthy, robust debate on amendments to this legislation. It is a long-overdue step that is getting us back to what we call regular order, which is the traditional way of working appropriations bills through the Senate. It lets everybody see what is in the bill. It is truly long overdue. Let me go over some highlights of this particular appropriations package of three bills, starting with the Energy and Water Development section. This section authorizes funding for the Department of the Interior, the Department of Energy, and the Army Corps of Engineers, just to name a few. It appropriates $42.8 billion to these agencies to improve our water infrastructure and invests in critical national security needs concerning nuclear energy. It also provides additional resources to invest in science and energy, including providing full funding for the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, which, at $145 million, is up from $95 million last year. This funding will allow the scientists at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, SD--a world-renown research facility in my home State--to continue their important research on neutrinos and dark matter. The report language of this section also encourages the Army Corps of Engineers to finally implement the snowpack monitoring program in the Upper Missouri River Basin. It does this by recommending that the snowpack monitoring equipment be eligible for funding under the operation and maintenance account. This is significant because the implementation of the Upper Missouri River Basin snowpack monitoring system will help mitigate the possibility of a major flood event for those living or working along the Missouri River and the Mississippi River. It is time for the Army Corps to step up and finally implement this much needed program, which was originally authorized under the 2014 water resources bill 4 years ago. This was in direct response to the flood that occurred on the Missouri River and the Mississippi River in 2011. It is time to implement this monitoring process now. The Military Construction and Veterans Affairs section of this bill, which was supported unanimously when it was reported out of committee, supports infrastructure investments to help ensure maximum readiness for our troops, providing a total of $10.3 billion in funding for military construction. This includes report language that appropriates $15 million for a new National Guard readiness center in Rapid City, SD. This section will also provide funding for needed improvements and renovations at the VA, including funding to prevent veteran suicide, increase rural veterans' access to healthcare, and support mental health care programs for our veterans. In total, this bill provides $78.3 billion for the VA to help them care for the approximately 9.3 million veterans enrolled for fiscal year 2019. Finally, the Legislative Branch and related agencies portion of this omnibus includes funding and policy provisions to improve operations and address heightened security requirements for those working in Congress and those visiting the U.S. Capitol Complex. It is important to point out that this is just 3 of basically 12 appropriations bills. This was also approved--this particular portion of this legislation, this three-appropriations-bills package-- unanimously by the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this year. By tackling our appropriations bills in this fashion and by allowing Members to offer and actually vote on these amendments to make these bills better, we are taking a monumental step toward getting our appropriations process back on track. Staying committed to a regular appropriations process allows the American people, through their elected representatives, to have a true, meaningful voice in how their tax dollars are spent. It also prevents us from having to rely on a series of continuing resolutions that have a significant, harmful impact on our military readiness. Military leaders have repeatedly warned of the dangers of these short-term, stopgap spending bills and what they do to our ability to adequately train, equip, and maintain a force. In particular, under continuing resolutions, the Defense Department is restricted from starting new programs, which is deeply concerning in today's rapidly changing threat environment. Since coming to the Senate, I have expressed my frustration with our broken appropriations system, which really hasn't worked in 40 of the last 44 years that the current budget process has been in place. While our appropriations process is still in need of significant reforms to truly get a handle on our budget crisis and begin to tackle our $21 trillion debt, taking accountability and actually managing the 31- percent of the budget that we can vote on is a significant step toward becoming more accountable to American taxpayers. Let me say that again. We are talking about 3 of approximately 12 appropriations bills. We are talking in this particular case about 11 percent of what we are actually going to be talking about spending. As an example, if you take the total amount of dollars in defense and nondefense discretionary spending, we will propose to spend for this coming year about $1.3 trillion. Of that $1.3 trillion, this group of bills amounts to about $147 billion. It is about 11 percent. But at the same time, if you look at the $1.3 trillion that we are going to be voting on--if we do this all successfully under the existing appropriations plan, the way the laws are set out--we will be voting on $1.3 trillion, but the Federal Government will actually spend about $4.2 trillion. The rest of it is mandatory spending: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and $316 billion in interest on our Federal debt. We don't vote on that. That is simply on autopilot. But in order to get to that part of the budget, we have to show that we can actually manage and vote on the smaller part of the budget, the $1.3 trillion that is before us in the next series of appropriations bills. Today we take up three of them, for $147 billion in spending. We are spending this entire week doing it. Hopefully, as all of our colleagues have the opportunity to look at, review, and make modifications by amendments to them, we begin to have the confidence to understand that we really should take responsibility for and, on the longer term, actually start managing and voting on the entire Federal budget, which today is, as I say, about $4.2 trillion. I want to take this opportunity to thank Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby, Ranking Member Leahy, Leader McConnell, and all the others who worked to get this legislation to the full Senate floor. Responsible spending starts with a responsible appropriations process. We owe it to every American to be responsible stewards of their hard-earned dollars. I believe this is best achieved through a regular appropriations process that brings about serious, thoughtful debate as to how and where the money is spent. This bill allows that debate to happen. It is a good bill that invests in energy and infrastructure, provides our troops with additional tools for maximum readiness, and funds the VA so they can do a better job of taking care of our veterans. I urge my colleagues not only to support these appropriations but future appropriations bills that may come to the floor later this summer, avoiding the last-minute continuing resolution or the usual 2,000-page omnibus bill in September or, unfortunately, even later. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ROUNDS

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

Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw amendment No. 2273.

Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the votes following the first vote in this series be 10 minutes in length.

Mr. ROUNDS

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