Debbie Stabenow

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I support the amendment by the Senator from Vermont and yield back time. It is my understanding that we will proceed to a voice vote.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I would support the yeas and nays and just strongly urge a ``yes'' vote on the Thune amendment.

Ms. STABENOW. It has. Like New Hampshire and Vermont, Michigan is heavily forested and this NRCS rule has impacted the ability of agricultural producers to purchase on their working lands. I would like to clarify that it is not the intent of Congress to limit eligibility for critical easement programs based on the forested acreage of otherwise eligible land.

Ms. STABENOW. I commend Senator Carper. I have to say he has mentioned to me many times there are 300 chickens for every person in Delaware. I think I have that in my memory now. I commend him for his work. We are yielding back time, and we have agreed to a voice vote.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I strongly support Senator Klobuchar's amendment and appreciate her great work. I yield back the remaining time, and it is my understanding we can proceed to a voice vote.

Ms. STABENOW. I thank my friend, the senior Senator from New Hampshire, for bringing attention to this important matter and for her incredible leadership on forestry issues. Since she was first sworn into the Senate, we have worked together on forest conservation efforts, which are so important for the Granite State and the Great Lakes State. As my friend knows, development and sprawl are certainly pressuring our productive agricultural lands. One critical component of the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012, the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, provides continued funding to allow farmers and ranchers to voluntarily purchase easements on their land to keep it in agricultural use.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise to reluctantly oppose the amendment of my colleague. I appreciate what he is trying to do. I couldn't agree more about the needs of food banks. That is why in this legislation we increase food bank funding by $174 million. The problem is the way the Senator wants to do this, which is by reducing the funding available to stop food stamp fraud efforts. It would reduce the SNAP error rates efforts. Right now, what has been done to tackle waste, fraud, and abuse has actually reduced error rates dramatically--by 43 percent. We want to keep that going. So I certainly support what he is trying to do but not by taking money away from waste, fraud, and abuse efforts within the food assistance program. So I have to ask for a ``no'' vote.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, first, I commend Senator Leahy, who, as a former chairman of the Agriculture Committee, is a tremendous champion not only for Vermont but for the entire country on these issues. I yield back the time. I believe we have agreement for a voice vote.

Ms. STABENOW.--to get us off of foreign oil. I urge a ``no'' vote.

Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, let me take just 1 second to say that this bill turns us in a different direction--$23 billion-plus in deficit reduction. It may be the only bipartisan deficit reduction proposal we will pass in the Senate before the election. I urge a ``no'' vote.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I would just simply say that I strongly support the amendment.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I would indicate that the conservation program is a very strong, effective program, but I am not objecting, nor is the ranking member, to moving forward with the vote. I believe the Member wishes to have a record rollcall, is that correct? So we would yield back time and ask for a record rollcall vote.

Ms. STABENOW. I yield back all time.

Ms. STABENOW. I am not yielding time in opposition. I commend Senator Warner and everyone on this amendment for their tremendous amount of work. It makes a tremendous amount of sense. It is real reform. I believe we have an understanding to proceed with a voice vote on this amendment.

Mrs. STABENOW

Mrs. STABENOW. Madam President, we have been hard at work to pull together some amendments we need to do in a vote. I ask unanimous consent the following amendments that are in order under the unanimous consent agreement be agreed to: Ayotte No. 2195, Blunt No. 2246, Moran No. 2403, Moran No. 2443, and Vitter No. 2363, as modified with the changes at the desk.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask that we take this as a voice vote. We have an agreement to proceed to do that.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise to oppose my colleague's amendment. The reality for us is that American agricultural exports is one of the few places where we have a trade surplus right now, and we want to continue that. The current program the Senator is speaking about is all about exports. It is all about jobs. For every $1 invested in this particular market access program, $35 is generated back into economic activity. I think that is a pretty good investment. We know it is a very important part of the future not only for our traditional production agricultural parts of the country but for smaller value-added food products which really is in exports, and this supports that. Mr. President, I reserve the remainder of my time.

Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, I yield back all time. It is my understanding that we can proceed with a voice vote on this amendment.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, let me say again--and I am not familiar with this. I know we are trying to redevelop an American denim industry. I had a chance to actually visit a denim factory in Texas. We are trying to support our cotton industry. I am not familiar with this, but I urge a ``no'' vote.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I strongly support this amendment, as does my ranking member. I wish to congratulate Senator Boozman on great work on this amendment. I believe we can proceed with a voice vote.

Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, just for the information of the Senate, Senator DeMint's amendment was next, but we have not seen him on the floor yet. So we moved to this amendment. As soon as he arrives, we will return to the DeMint amendment. It is my understanding that we can proceed to a voice vote in the meantime.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I yield back all time, and we do have an agreement on a voice vote.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, before moving to Senator Wyden's amendment, we want to go back to an agreed-upon amendment, which is Schumer amendment No. 2427, to increase research, education, and promotion of maple products. I call up amendment No. 2427, and I ask unanimous consent that we move forward with a voice vote.

Ms. STABENOW. This amendment simply addresses what has happened with severe and devastating freezes across the country for those who have food crops and don't have access to crop insurance. This Farm Bill makes great strides in expanding crop insurance for fruit and vegetable growers in the United States. However, these new programs will not be available to producers who suffered substantial--and in some cases complete--losses this year. This amendment would simply allow those in the States that are affected to buy into a program we have, called the Non-Insured Disaster Program, that allows them to get some kind of help for the freezes. This provides them the same coverage they will have in the years going forward--this is the same kind of extension for 2012 losses that is available for livestock producers. 29 States in every part of the country have reported major crop losses for 2012 due to frost or freeze. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment so these farmers aren't losing their business because of bad weather. I believe we can move forward with a voice vote.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I appreciate Senator Wyden allowing us to go out of order. I will now turn it over to Senator Wyden for his amendment.