Debbie Stabenow

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs' Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 21, 2012, at 2:30 p.m. to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Security Clearance Reform: Sustaining Progress for the Future.''

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Personnel of the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 21, 2012, at 2:30 p.m.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 21, 2012, at 2:30 p.m.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 21, 2012, at 1:30 p.m., in room SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled ``The Universal Music Group/EMI Merger and the Future of Online Music.''

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 21, 2012, at 10 a.m. in room 253 of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 21, 2012.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 21, 2012, at 10 a.m., in SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct an executive business meeting.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 21, 2012, at 10 a.m.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be authorized to meet, during the session of the Senate, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Olmstead Enforcement Update: Using the ADA to Promote Community Integration'' on June 21, 2012, at 10 a.m., in room 430 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 21, 2012, at 10 a.m., to conduct a committee hearing entitled ``Perspectives on Money Market Mutual Fund Reforms.''

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 21, 2012, at 9:45 a.m., in room SD-215 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Russia's WTO Accession--Administration's Views on the Implications for the United States.''

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, I yield back all time.

Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, if I might indicate to colleagues, we have one final amendment, the Rubio amendment, and Senator Rubio will be coming to the floor shortly. Following his amendment, we will then be going to final passage. I do want to take a moment to thank the leader. In the midst of an extremely demanding schedule, with things that need to get done in the Senate, he has given us this opportunity to complete this work. We will talk more about who has been involved in it later, but with all the demands of the Senate--whether it be flood insurance or addressing the concerns of student loan interest rates, the issues of small business and jobs and a whole range of issues that are very important for us to get done--our leader, with the support of the Republican leader, has been willing to allow us to move through 73 amendments. Now, I would note that we started with the possibility of 300, so 73 is certainly better than 300, but we know it was a major piece of work, and we very much appreciate our colleagues coming together to get this done. Let me remind everyone that 16 million people work in jobs related to agriculture and our food systems, and they are watching us to see if we do the right thing and to see us work together to get this done and to create economic certainty for them and food security for our Nation. So I just would like to thank our leaders for their patience and willingness to stand with us.

Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, I thank my colleagues for their patience and for supporting this bipartisan effort on the agriculture reform, food, and jobs bill. I thank Senator Reid for his incredible patience and willingness to give us this time, and the Republican leader for joining in that effort as well. I especially thank my ranking member Senator Roberts for long hours and hard work on this bill to get to this point. It has been truly a partnership. Senator Roberts is my friend and my partner in this effort, and I am very grateful. I have said all along in this debate that there are 16 million people in this country whose jobs depend on the strength of the American agricultural economy and our food systems. The agriculture reform bill is about standing up for our Nation's farmers, our small businesses, our manufacturers, our exporters, and others whose livelihood depends on us getting the policy right. This represents significant reform. It cuts subsidies, it cuts the deficit, and it creates jobs. We are ending direct payments and three other subsidy programs that pay farmers regardless of losses or whether they are even planting a particular crop. We are putting in place the most significant payment reforms ever. I thank Senator Grassley for his tenacity and Senator Johnson for his partnership in that effort as well. We are cutting Federal spending by $23 billion by streamlining and consolidating programs. Therefore, we are going to have an opportunity to vote on $23 billion in deficit reduction--probably the only opportunity to vote on debt reduction in a bipartisan way on the floor of the Senate in the next number of months. We are eliminating more than 100 authorization programs and streamlining others, strengthening crop insurance, consolidating conservation programs and innovative energy programs, and we are continuing the critical work around nutrition to give temporary help to families who have fallen on hard times. We are also creating more opportunities for families to buy healthy, local food and the opportunity to put fresh fruits and vegetables in our schools and on our tables. Agriculture is one of the few parts of our economy where we are running a trade surplus, and we need to recognize it is also a job creator. The men and women who work hard from sunrise to sunset to give us the bounty of safe, nutritious food that we put on our tables deserve the certainty of this bill. I urge my colleagues to vote yes on a very important bipartisan effort and yes to the 16 million men and women who bring us the safest, most affordable, most reliable food system in the world.

Ms. STABENOW. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, given the work that has been done, I wish to thank Senators Murray and McCain for their efforts. Senator McCain will not be offering his amendment, just for the information of the Senate. So we will move on now to the Rubio amendment, when Senator Rubio is prepared.

Ms. STABENOW. I want to begin by thanking the Senator from New Mexico for his thoughtful work on this issue. This is an important program, and I commend the Senator for offering his amendment. As we move forward, I am happy to work with the Senator to engage the Appropriations Committee to provide adequate annual funding for the program in the coming years.

Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, first I want to thank the Senator from Vermont for his wonderful leadership on so many issues in this bill. I must, reluctantly, ask for a ``no'' vote. Consumers certainly need to have available information. We need to make sure it is accurate, according to the FDA, after they determine that. I would make one other point: American farmers are feeding the world, with 7 billion mouths to feed. This is harder every day. Science and innovation are very important to that. Recently, I talked with Bill Gates, with the Gates Foundation, for example, which is doing incredible work around the globe: with drought- resistant crops in Africa, with innovative rice in the Philippines and Bangladesh, and so on. This is an issue that needs to be thoroughly studied to make sure we are not hurting those efforts. I know the chairman of the HELP Committee has asked that we not do this. It is within his jurisdiction. Madam President, I yield time now to Senator Roberts.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, before reading our order of amendments, I wish, one more time, to say thank you to everyone. We have had two very productive, hard-working days. I thank my ranking member for his incredible leadership and all our staffs. Today, we have an opportunity to show that the Senate can come together--and we have been doing that--to pass a significant piece of public policy for Americans. I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the previous order, the amendment votes occur in the following order and that all other provisions of the previous order remain in effect: Boxer amendment No. 2456; Johanns No. 2372; Toomey No. 2247; Sanders No. 2310; Coburn No. 2214; Murray No. 2455; McCain No. 2162; Rubio No. 2166.

Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, I see Senator Rubio is on the floor, and I will now defer to him to offer his amendment.

Ms. STABENOW. I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Ms. STABENOW. I, too, am concerned by the recent administration of the program, and I thank the Senator for addressing some of those issues in his amendment. I am hopeful that the positive steps already taken by the Office of Advocacy and Outreach will ensure the 2501 Program's continued success. I know that the Senator will continue to monitor this situation closely, and I look forward to working with him to ensure that the office fully complies with the recommendations of the OIG report and that the most qualified applicants are awarded grants.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, we have been looking forward to this day to be able to have the opportunity to celebrate a successful conclusion in the Senate. We have more work to do, but for 1 day we can pause and celebrate what is an important and great day after a tremendous amount of hard work that has gone on by our staffs, my ranking member, myself, along with our colleagues on the committee. We are so grateful for the wonderful effort that has gotten us to this point. I have said this before and I will say it again: 16 million people count on us. They work in agriculture or food-related industries. That is a lot of people. I am not sure we have had a jobs bill that has come before the Senate that we can say addresses 16 million people's jobs, but certainly this is one. It affects every corner of every State. I thank everyone in the Senate for their patience with us. I thank the majority leader for his incredible patience and leadership. I thank Senator McConnell for working with us and I thank all those who voted on 73 amendments and everybody who was involved in putting those together and making sure we could move through this process. Of course, I thank Senator Roberts again. Kansas is lucky to have him as a champion in the Senate. I have been very lucky to have him at my side throughout this debate and work, starting in the fall with our deficit reduction proposal up until today. We have come together on a bipartisan basis. I hope we can do that more. I have heard so many comments from colleagues in the last few days, saying it feels good to work through issues, debating issues, having votes, working together, and actually accomplishing something. It feels good and we need to continue to do more of it. Frankly, the American people want us to do more of it. So I am hopeful this will be a sign, as other things have been, frankly, in the Senate moving forward. I am proud we have been the ones doing a bipartisan transportation bill and the ones passing other bipartisan bills. This is a significant milestone in that process of working together. I am also very proud of the reforms in the bill we have done on a bipartisan basis. This is $23 billion in spending cuts for deficit reduction. It is true that if every committee within their jurisdiction were to focus on analyzing and reviewing the programs under their jurisdiction and making tough decisions, ending paperwork duplication, and so on, actually it would end up to be a pretty big deficit reduction plan--if we all did it in those areas we control. That is the way we looked at the process. We have come up with $23 billion in deficit reduction. We have done that by ending four different subsidies that folks have talked about changing for a long time--direct payments and other subsidies that are paid out regardless of losses. We passed a bill that continues support for healthy local food systems, farmers markets, and local food hubs. We have passed a bill that strengthens conservation and continues protections that maintain healthy soil, clean water, and fresh air. We passed a bill that supports America's rural communities. Every State has small rural communities, towns, villages, and counties that are counting on us to continue to have their economic development tools--which is the rural development title of the farm bill--as robust as possible. American energy independence is addressed in this bill. We passed the bill in a bipartisan way. This is an incredibly important step. Now our bill goes to the House of Representatives. I have great confidence in the chairman and ranking member of the committee. I know they will be successful in moving a bill out of committee, and I am sure they are going to do everything humanly possible to pass it in the House. I believe, ultimately, they will because every American is counting on them in order to maintain food security for our country and the ability for us to have a strong, successful, safe food supply, as well as all the jobs connected to that. I wish to thank my extraordinary staff. They worked from sunrise to sunset and then another few hours. I think we added hours--I think we changed from 24 hours to 30 a couple of times. It has been an incredible experience, and I am very grateful, truly, to all of them. No team does it without a great captain. I thank Chris Adamo, who was with me on the last farm bill and is now our staff director. He has provided incredible leadership. He has deep knowledge of agriculture, and he brings a tremendous leadership to this process. He put together a tremendous team. I would not be here, and we would not be here in the Senate without his leadership and hard work and the team effort involved. I also thank Jonathan Coppess, my great chief counsel, who actually helped bring a baby into the world last August, as we were saying, ``Why don't we do deficit reduction.'' When the supercommittee was put into place, he was helping bring a new baby into the world. So we thank Jonathan for his leadership. I have to say this as a point of personal privilege: Even though he is from Ohio, we still welcomed him into the fold--despite the rivalry between Michigan and Ohio. I thank all our teams as well. I thank our commodities and dairy teams. It is tough work. We changed the commodity title. I think this is the most reform, probably--I don't know ever but in a long time. Moving from subsidy systems to a risk management system is easy to say, but it is hard to put into place in a way that makes sense. It is fair with commodities and will work in a simple way across the country. I thank our Joe Shultz, who has been amazing. So many times we said: I don't know how we are going to do this, and he pulled another rabbit out of his hat. We thank Joe for all his wonderful work as our chief economist. Cory Claussen is on dairy. It is not an easy thing to do--focus on dairy. There are large farms and small dairies. It is an incredible job. Marcus Graham, as well, did amazing work, as did Chelsea Render. There was great teamwork on commodities and the dairy issues. Thank you so very much. We had a great team on title II. Thanks to the ``T2 warriors'', Tina May, an amazing person, who reminded me every other day that we had 643 conservation groups from every one of the 50 States. I have it in my memory because Tina said it every time I saw her. The truth is we did have 643 different conservation and environmental groups supporting this bill. It is because of Tina May, Catie Lee and Kevin Norton and the incredible work they brought to what I believe is an extraordinary reform in conservation. We are placing conservation as a priority in a way that has not been in other farm bills. We will see our country provide better opportunities around land and water and air quality and quantity issues as a result of their hard work. Jacqlyn Schneider and Jesseca Taylor deserve a tremendous amount of credit for their work on the nutrition and healthy food issues. A major area of debate that will be going forward, as we address nutrition and healthy foods issues, is specialty crops, which are so important to me. I know in New Hampshire and other parts of the country it is very important. They did incredible work. We had some hard issues to work through on how we could create savings in our bill in nutrition, while maintaining the strong commitment to families. So I would like to thank them for an extraordinary effort as well. And then each of our team members--let me go through them because there are so many people who did so many wonderful things. Jonathan Cordone, who kept me out of trouble at most moments, in his work as general counsel, counseled me well and gave me wonderful words of wisdom as we moved along, both on procedure as well as policy. Brandon McBride on rural development--we worked through many issues on the floor with Members, many issues that Members who were not on the committee had and wanted to work on and develop further, and Brandon's patience and creativity and hard work really created a rural development title that is extraordinary. One of the things we worked on, which may sound easy but was not easy at all, was the differing definitions of what rural is. The Secretary of Agriculture told me one time we had 11 different definitions of what rural was. He said: You know, you ought to fix that. We heard from part-time mayors and village presidents and county commissioners and others who said: We would like to figure this out, how we might use these programs to support our communities, but we don't know whether we fit or under which definition we fit. Well, we have one definition now, and that may sound simple, but, no, it was very hard. And Brandon deserves a tremendous amount of credit, along with our team, for getting us to that point. Karla Thieman, who is not here at the moment, did a tremendous job on livestock, livestock disaster assistance, and efforts on the energy title. We thank her and wish she were able to be here to actually celebrate. I don't think she is, is she? No, she is not here, but we thank her so much. Ben Becker made sure that we were communicating effectively with those in the media, that we were communicating what we were doing. He worked extremely hard to make sure that was happening. Russ Behnam. We thank Russ so much for all his incredible work as we moved through these amendments and moved through this process. He was absolutely invaluable in his work as well. We thank Hanna Abou-El-Seoud, who was a terrific part of our team, and Maureen James, Alexis Stanczuk, Ryan Hocker, and Jesse Williams, our chief clerk, Nicole Hertenstein, Jacob Chaney, Seth Buchsbaum, and Alvaro Zarco. They are a terrific team, each one of them playing a very important role in getting us to this point and helping me have the information I needed, making sure things were getting done and the team was able to come together. We had two great fellows, Lauren Reid and Matt Eldred, whom we thank as well. Also, we thank all of the great interns we have had with us since we began this process: Ryan Smoes, Jasmine Macies, Dawn Lucas, and Seth Collins. This really is a team effort, with an extraordinary breadth of jurisdiction under this bill that created the need to really make sure we had the smartest people in the room, and I really believe we achieved that with this great team. Also, I couldn't have gotten it done without my great chief of staff, Amanda Renteria, and the great role she played with Chris Adamo putting together our great agriculture team, and Todd Wooten, legislative director, who was on the phone counting votes every moment right up until the final vote. He did such a great job in bringing that together. Bill Sweeney, my deputy chief of staff, made sure we were communicating in the right way, being able to tell the story of what it means to have a farm bill, what it means to people back home, to every family, every business, and every farmer. He did an extraordinary job of helping me do that. Cullen Schwarz, who is a terrific communications director, made sure we were communicating effectively what we were doing and why we were doing it. I also wish to thank our team in Michigan, led by Teresa Plachetka, a wonderful team that made sure we were focused, as I always am, on Michigan. Our great team consists of Mary Judnich, Kali Fox, and Brandon Fewins, who have done terrific work and outreach around the State, and Korey Hall in urban agriculture. All of our team made sure we were communicating at home with our growers. We are proud to say we have more diversity of crops than any State but California, so I have always had to pay attention to every page. I have always kind of been jealous of folks who had to only pay attention to one title. We have had to pay attention to everything. The good news is that prepared me well for assuming the chair of the committee. But I do want to thank our Michigan staff because they are terrific as well. This really is a bipartisan effort. It really, really is. And I have such respect and admiration for the staff of Senator Roberts on the committee, led by Mike Seyfert, Joel Leftwich, and Anne Hazlett. I thank them all so much for their terrific work and partnership. Everyone involved whom Senator Roberts spoke of is professional, smart, and dedicated. We had some tough things we had to work through, both policy-wise and procedurally, and they were terrific, just absolutely magnificent, and I am very grateful for the wonderful way in which we really have a team. It is not a Democratic team or a Republican team-- we have a team. I also wish to briefly mention our CBO farm team, whom we kept up late at night many times as we tried to get scores and work through how we fit this all together and maintain over $23 billion in deficit reduction. So Doug Elmendorf and his terrific team--Jim Langley, Greg Hitz, Dave Hull, Kathleen FitzGerald, Emily Holcombe, Ann Futrell, Dan Hoople, and Jeff LaFave--we call them the farm team--have been magnificent and worked weekends, have gone above and beyond for us, and I thank them, with a shout-out to everybody at CBO who has helped us. I thank Michelle Johnson-Wieder and Gary Endicott from Legislative Counsel for their invaluable assistance. And on Senator Reid's staff, I thank Kasey Gillette and Nathan Engle. I claim Kasey as my former staff person, so I told Senator Reid that I trained her well. But we are very grateful for the incredible team effort there. All our floor staff, Gary Myrick, Tim Mitchell, David Krone, Bill Dauster, Reema Dodin, Stacy Rich, Meredith Mellody, and everyone involved on the majority team who was so absolutely essential to us, putting in very long days and getting this done--everybody hung in there with us, and we are grateful. Finally, let me mention the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, and the USDA Office of General Counsel. We had a lot of technical needs as we worked through this bill, a tremendous need for technical assistance and support, so that when we were done, as we completed the bill, it actually worked for farmers and ranchers, it worked from a Department standpoint to support farmers and ranchers and those involved in every part of this bill, and we received tremendous help and encouragement and support. So I thank them for their leadership. To all the members of the Agriculture Committee, Democrats and Republicans, and their staffs, I wish to say how very lucky I am to have such a tremendous team who is so knowledgeable and has so much experience and a committee that has so much experience. It has been quite amazing. So as I conclude, Madam President, I would just say this is a proud day for those who care about having the Senate work together well, for producing a product that is one that has real reforms in it and something that we can look to the American people with pride and say: We worked hard, we worked together, and we got the job done. I thank everyone, and now we look forward to working with our House colleagues as they move this measure forward. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, what is the pending business?