Debbie Stabenow

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 470.

Ms. STABENOW. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent it adjourn under the previous order.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements be printed in the Record as if read.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to S. Res. 495, submitted earlier today.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. This evening we reached agreement for consideration of amendments to the farm bill. There will be several rollcall votes beginning at 2:15 tomorrow in relation to the amendments to the farm bill. We will also begin consideration of S.J. Res. 37, a joint resolution of disapproval regarding boiler MACT.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, notwithstanding the adoption of S. Res. 488 and the preamble thereto, I ask unanimous consent that a Snowe amendment to the preamble that is at the desk be agreed to.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that on Tuesday, June 19, at a time to be determined by the majority leader, after consultation with the Republican leader, the Republican leader or his designee be recognized to move to proceed to the consideration of S.J. Res. 37, a joint resolution disapproving a rule promulgated by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency relating to emission standards for certain steam generating units; that there be up to 4 hours of debate on the motion to proceed, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees; further, that 2 hours of debate equally divided occur on Tuesday, June 19, and the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, June 20, for the remaining 2 hours of debate; that at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the Senate proceed to vote on the adoption of the motion to proceed; that if the motion is successful, then the time for debate with respect to the joint resolution be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the joint resolution be read a third time and the Senate proceed to vote on passage of the joint resolution; finally, all other provisions of the statute governing consideration of the joint resolution remain in effect.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, as we wrap up today and the week, I wish to take a few moments to give a status report as to moving forward in our negotiations on the farm bill. We have actually had some very good progress and overcome some obstacles and we are putting together something for the Senate for the beginning of the week that will allow us to move forward. I wish to also thank the junior Senator from North Dakota whom I heard on the floor a little while ago, Mr. Hoeven, about the 250 different amendments we have. Of course, the great thing about the Senate is we can all offer amendments whether they are relevant or not, and the challenge for someone managing a bill is that anyone can offer amendments. So we have worked our way from the 250, we are working our way down from 50 to 40 and putting together an approach that will be fair and balanced and allow us to move forward and have the input of everyone on both sides of the aisle. So I wish to thank Senator Roberts again for being truly a partner with me all the way through this process and a terrific committee. We heard from one of those members, the junior Senator from North Dakota, in laying out what a positive and important bill this is for us. I wish to thank him as our newest member of the committee for all his contributions as well. To briefly recap as we bring the discussion to a close this week, there are 16 million people who work because of agriculture. They may be working in the fields. They may be packaging, processing, making machinery for agriculture. They could be doing a number of things, but 16 million people work because of agriculture. I am not sure we can say any other individual bill that has been brought to the floor of the Senate impacts that many people--16 million people. As I have said so many times, I don't believe we have a middle class in this country unless we make things and grow things. I am proud of Michigan where we do that. We make things and grow things. The State of the Presiding Officer as well makes things and grows things. That is the strength of our economy. One of the bright spots for us, even during the deepest, toughest times in the country, and certainly in Michigan, has been and continues to be agriculture, our major source of a trade surplus, having seen the trades expand 270 percent just over a short period of time, and over 8,000 jobs created for every $1 billion we do in trade exports. So there are multiple facets to this jobs bill, from production agriculture, alternative energy, biomanufacturing, whether it is support for the critical needs of families through nutrition, whether it is conservation, where we have the largest investment in land and water conservation in our country on working lands, done through the farm bill. This is important. It covers many important subjects that touch every single person in rural America and every person across this country as consumers of the safest, most affordable food supply in the world. So we have an obligation to get this right and to take the time to do it, and that is exactly what we are doing. I am so proud this bill came out of committee with a broad, bipartisan vote and that we had such a very strong vote to proceed to the bill and now we are moving through the process of bringing us down the path to a final conclusion. As we do that, I wish to stress again a few points. We could talk a long time because this has many pieces to it, and I am not going to do that this evening. But I do want to say one more time, to my knowledge, this is the one piece of real deficit reduction done on a bipartisan basis--in fact, on a House-Senate basis back in the fall--that we have had before the Senate. There is $23 billion in deficit reduction. So we all have an opportunity to vote to reduce the deficit--something we all care about--and we can do that while passing the farm bill. This repeals direct payments. Four different subsidies, in fact, are repealed. In its place, we put a risk management system. So if there are losses, if there is a disaster from weather, such as we have seen in Michigan, if there are other disasters on price declines, world actions that create a challenge for our farmers or ranchers, we will be there to make sure nobody loses their farm because there are a few days of bad weather or any other risk that is beyond their control. However, if things are going well, we are not going to be giving a government payment. We are going to cover farmers for what they plant and when there are losses. We are strengthening payment limits so we again are focusing precious dollars on those who need it, and we end more than 100 different programs and authorizations. As we have scoured every single page of the farm bill and the USDA responsibilities, we have found areas where there is duplication, redundancy, things that are no longer needed, and we have solidified, made things more flexible, cut duplication. In the process of that, we have actually eliminated 100 different programs and authorizations, cut $23 billion. At the same time, we have continued our commitment to families and children in this Nation who have their own personal disasters and need food assistance help. We continue a strong commitment on conservation. We have 643 different conservation and environmental groups that have come together to support our approach, 125 different agriculture and hunger groups, and other organizations that say yes to this bill. We are anxious to get it done. I would just say, as we conclude a very busy week--and I have to say it has been a very productive week--we began a process. We have had some votes. We have had a number of folks come together. I thank people on both sides of the aisle for their willingness to work with this as we move forward on our path to completion of this very important 5-year bill. I wish to indicate to everyone that we will look forward to having the opportunity next week to present something to the body.

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

Ms. STABENOW

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 14, 2012, at 10 a.m., in room SD 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct an executive business meeting.

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 14, 2012, at 2:30 p.m.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs' Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 14, 2012, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled, ``Saving Taxpayer Dollars by Curbing Waste and Fraud in Medicaid.''

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Indian Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 14, 2012, in room SD 628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, at 2:15 p.m. to conduct a hearing entitled ``New Tax Burdens on Tribal Self-Determination.''

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 14, 2012, at 2:30 p.m., to hold a hearing entitled, ``The Law of the Sea Convention (Treaty Doc. 103 39).''

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 14, 2012, at 9:30 a.m., in room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

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 14, 2012, at 10 a.m., in room SD 215 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a roundtable entitled ``Medicare Physician Payment Policy: Lessons from the Private Sector.''

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on June 14, 2012, at 10 a.m., to hold a hearing entitled, ``The Law of the Sea Convention (Treaty Doc. 103 39): Perspectives from the U.S. Military.''

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be rescinded.

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I want to spend a few moments talking about one of our job-creating titles in the farm bill, but first I want to thank colleagues who are continuing to work on this bill. As we continue to do the business of the Senate, they are working through the amendment process and coming together with what I am optimistic will be an agreement for us to be able to move forward so we can complete our task on the farm bill. I thank the ranking member of the committee, Senator Roberts, for his leadership and his staff and my staff for working so hard together. There has been a lot of coffee involved for folks to be able to stay awake on some late nights right now. They are doing a great job, and we are very optimistic as we move forward in this process. One of the reasons we need to get this done, as I have stressed many times but it bears repeating, is this is a jobs bill. As the distinguished Presiding Officer from Ohio knows--as well as myself, coming from Michigan--jobs are a big deal. Jobs are a big deal across the country, but we have been in the middle of it in terms of the recession. We are now seeing optimism because we are recommitting ourselves to making things and growing things in this country. We make a lot of great things in Michigan, not the least of which is automobiles, but a lot of other things also. I know Ohio, as well, is a great State for making things. Both of our States are also States where we grow things, and I appreciate the leadership of the Presiding Officer who is on our Agriculture Committee and has played a very significant role in getting us to this point. The distinguished Presiding Officer, Senator Brown, has helped with major reforms in this bill. He has put forward a bipartisan proposal that relates to moving a risk-based system to support our farmers. I appreciate very much the Senator's leadership on that as well as a number of other things. But this is about growing things. Almost one out of four people in Michigan has a job because we grow things. We have more diversity of crops than any State, with the exception of California, and so that means every page of the farm bill matters to Michigan, which is why over the years I have paid attention to every single page of the farm bill. Overall in our country 16 million people work because of agriculture. They may be involved in production, they may be involved in packaging, they may be involved in processing, they may make the farm equipment, or they may be involved in a variety of things, but they work because we grow things in America. Our one area of huge trade surplus, and where we have grown in the last 2 years by 270 percent, is in agriculture. We are creating jobs here and exporting, and so this is a jobs bill. I want to talk specifically about a very important piece where we bring together making things and growing things in our economy, and that is the energy title of the farm bill. The energy title reflects the important work being done by America's farmers, ranchers, forest managers, and rural small businesses to help improve our energy security. Since we added this title in the 2002 farm bill--I was pleased to be a strong supporter in doing that--the Rural Energy for America Program has helped put in place nearly 8,000 projects and jobs that have helped farmers lower their energy bills and actually produce electricity that goes back to the electric grid. In the last 10 years, we have seen incredible advances in advanced biofuels and biobased manufacturing, which is the ultimate way to bring together making things and growing things, both of which are supported and strengthened in this bill. The farm bill is also an energy bill and it is a jobs bill. There are more than 3,000 companies doing innovative, biobased manufacturing, and using agricultural products instead of petroleum to manufacture finished products. Those companies have already created over 100,000 jobs and are growing every day. Many of these businesses are in rural communities, and supporting those businesses is one of the best ways we can create jobs and economic growth in small towns all across our country. This kind of manufacturing is also a win-win for the farmers. They get new markets for their products and, in some cases, markets for their waste products. We have also seen tremendous growth in biofuels. This farm bill shifts our focus to the next generation of advanced biofuels, such as cellulosic ethanol, to continue lowering prices for families at the pump. According to a study by the University of Wisconsin and the University of Iowa, ethanol has already helped keep gas prices more than $1 lower than they otherwise would be. It is the only competition we have at the moment at the pump. As a consumer, what we need is more choice and more competition so that depending on foreign oil is not the only choice. Many of our colleagues have different feelings about our energy policies, and the great thing about the farm bill is that it doesn't matter what we believe or where we come from, it is a winner because it creates choices. If we want to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, this bill is a winner. If we want to make America more energy independent so we are not relying so much on foreign oil, this bill is a winner. If we want farmers to pay lower energy bills so they have more money to hire workers and improve their business, this bill is a winner. And if we want Americans to pay lower prices at the gas pump, as we all do, this bill is a winner for every American. I especially want to thank Senators Conrad, Lugar, Harkin, Ben Nelson, Bennet, Brown, Klobuchar, Thune, Casey, and Hoeven, who worked very hard at putting together the energy title and the necessary funding to continue supporting these innovative farmers and businesses all across our country. I appreciate their leadership in working with us and being able to get this done. I want to talk about some of the specific areas we have in the energy title. There is something called the Rural Energy for America Program, also known as REAP. It is one of the most successful programs in the energy title, and one we hear about most often from farmers and ranchers across the country. This program helps farmers with loan guarantees and grants to purchase and install renewable energy systems and make energy efficiency upgrades. Farmers have been able to put solar panels, wind turbines, as well as biomass energy and geothermal and hydroelectric and other forms of renewable energy technology on the farm. Since 2003, REAP has supported 7,997 different energy-efficient projects that have generated or saved 6.5 million megawatt hours, which is enough power to meet the annual needs of nearly 600,000 households. As a caveat, I also want to say that when we talk about all of these alternatives, I also see this from the standpoint of making things. When we look at a big wind turbine, a lot of folks see energy use. I see 8,000 parts. We can make every one of them in Michigan and probably an awful lot of them in Ohio. So when we talk about creating energy efficiency opportunities, we are also talking about creating manufacturing jobs in the process. REAP is a big success story, which is why we continued the program and streamlined the application process for farmers and small businesses applying for small and medium-sized projects. Each project funded by REAP can make a significant impact, as I said, on utility costs incurred by the businesses. For example, one company in Georgia created an on-farm solar system that will produce about 60,000 kilowatt hours per year to lower the company's power bills. Another Kentucky company used an energy efficiency grant to improve lighting and support a refrigeration/freezer project that would give them 63 percent energy savings--63 percent. That is a pretty big deal when we are paying the bills. The next part I want to talk about is something called biobased markets and part of a larger biobased manufacturing effort that I am very enthused about. Biobased manufacturing is rapidly becoming a critical component of our new economy. According to USDA, there are 3,118 registered biobased companies in the United States that have so far created about 100,000 jobs, and growing. With customers demanding more choices, oil prices rising, these innovative companies are taking new approaches, turning agricultural products into manufactured products. So as we can see, all across the country there are 3,000 companies. This is a huge area that is growing, the innovation process, where we are literally taking agricultural products and replacing chemicals, replacing petroleum and plastics, and doing a variety of things that allow us to create new markets for farmers, get us off of foreign oil, and create jobs. I would argue that in the next 5 years we will see many, many, many more dots on this map as a result of the farm bill and private sector efforts that are going on across the country. In the 2008 farm bill, we created the biobased program to develop and expand markets for these biobased products. Here are a few examples: Papermate makes a biodegradable, retractable grip pen manufactured by Sanford Newell Rubbermaid in Georgia. This pen is made from biodegradable components that include an exclusive corn-based material to produce less waste and more compost. Purell Advanced Green Certified Instant Hand Sanitizer is a green- certified product made by a company in Ohio, containing ingredients from renewable resources. It kills more than 99.9 percent of most germs. It is a product that is biodegradable. Greenware Cold Portion Cups made by Fabri-Kal Corporation in Michigan are made from materials such as plant-based and post-consumer recycled resins. My colleagues will note that this looks familiar because it is the same kind of cup we use in the Senate. This is something we are using and thereby supporting the biobased economy. By including biobased manufacturing in the Biorefinery Assistance Program within the energy title, we are expanding economic opportunities for farmers by giving them new markets for crops to grow and we are supporting cutting-edge manufacturing businesses that are making these products and creating these jobs. We also have done other pieces that will strengthen this effort. I might mention, though we don't have a picture of it with us on a chart, one of the exciting things I am seeing in Michigan, as we bring together making things and growing things, is the extent to which our automakers are using biobased products in the making of automobiles. So for anyone who is buying a new Ford vehicle today--I sound like an advertisement--but a new Ford vehicle or a great new Chevy Volt or a number of new great American-made vehicles we have today, we are sitting on seats made from soy-based foam. We have soybean in the seats. Soy-based foam was actually started over 80 years ago with Henry Ford and has been something we have focused on, on and off, for 80 years. But now it has become a major effort. A major company in Michigan called Lear is making these seats. They are biodegradable. They are lightweight. We get better fuel economy. And as I often tell my friends, if you get hungry, you get something to munch on. So the truth is we are seeing huge advances. One may very well have cupholders in their car that have a corn-based or wheat-based or other kind of agricultural-based product in the plastic, rather than petroleum--another way to get off of foreign oil. They are experimenting with tires, rather than using petroleum in tires. I think there is an explosion here of opportunity for innovation with our farmers and our manufacturers, with our universities, our scientists. It is very exciting, and it is part of the next generation for us of a new economy and new jobs. This farm bill strengthens that effort, working with the private sector, to help us rapidly move forward on jobs. One of the other ways we support efforts to create and then the commercialization of products, to be able to move forward as it relates to creating, producing more products and so on, is to give consumers a way to find these products. So we have something called the USDA Certified Biobased Product label. The mission of the BioPreferred Program is to develop and expand markets for biobased products through preferred Federal purchases of biobased products across the Federal Government and a voluntary labeling program to raise consumers' awareness and to help make sure we know that what we are buying is, in fact, a biobased product. Since the program was created in the last farm bill in 2008, there are now 64 different categories of biobased products and almost 9,000 products-- 9,000 products--approved for preferred Federal purchases. It is in everybody's best interests for us to be encouraging these new markets, encouraging innovation, and at the same time addressing other critical needs for our country, including getting off of foreign oil. In addition, another 430 products from 150 companies have been certified to carry the USDA Certified Biobased Product label. So this is important. And there are new efforts happening. The President, the Secretary of Agriculture, and I have come together to urge, in fact, that we increase the amount of biobased labeling that is going on and make sure that consumers are looking for this label. We then have the Biorefinery Assistance Program which is a very important piece of all of this. The Biorefinery Assistance Program was originally created in the 2002 farm bill to support the development and construction of demonstration-scale biorefineries to determine the commercial viability of some of the processes that are involved in converting renewable biomass to advanced biofuels. It also guarantees loans for companies that are developing, constructing, or retrofitting commercial-scale biorefineries using these new technologies. In the last 2 years, companies participating in this effort have created nearly 300 direct jobs, and it is estimated that as this program is written into the 2012 farm bill, it will help these innovative businesses hire another 450 people as well. We also expand eligibility for the program to include biobased manufacturing. This is a very important piece of this bill. We are now going from refineries, talking about advanced biofuels, to expanding the opportunity for tools for our biobased manufacturers within the rubric of the energy title and the focus on jobs. We are talking about loan guarantees for companies to leverage private dollars. So for just over $400 million in loan guarantees, we have leveraged $1.5 billion in private dollars to help companies with the cost of retrofitting and building new commercial biofuels plants. When operational, these facilities are expected to produce 113 million gallons of advanced biofuels and generate almost 25 million kilowatt hours of renewable energy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 600,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide which, by the way, is the equivalent of taking 11,000 cars off the road. I have a little bit of a mixed feeling about that. Actually, we would much prefer to do it this way and keep great new advanced vehicles on the road. In 2011, the USDA awarded $6.9 million in grants and $13.1 million in loan guarantees to 17 anaerobic digester projects--here we are talking about waste on the farm and turning it into energy--which will create enough energy to power 10,000 homes. There are so many opportunities for us, whether it is animal waste, food waste. We have a facility in Michigan that will be opening in the fall that is up by Gerber Baby Food. We are the international home of Gerber Baby Food in Fremont, MI. There is a new biobased facility opening that will use all the food waste to generate energy-- electricity--for the northwestern area of Michigan. There are so many opportunities for us right now, using, again, food waste, byproducts from agriculture, and so on, where we can blend those together and create jobs and get us off of foreign oil. The Biorefinery Assistance Program has helped build seven first-of- their-kind biorefineries to produce advanced biofuels in States from Florida to Oregon, Michigan to New Mexico. One of the companies, called INEOS New Plant Bioenergy, has just begun commissioning their plant in Indian River County, FL, which will use citrus and other municipal solid waste to produce 8 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol every year and 6 megawatts of renewable electricity. They have over 100 people working on the job, completing this first-of-a-kind plant, using 85 percent U.S.-manufactured equipment, by the way, for the facility. There is so much. I could spend a long time going through all of the exciting efforts going on, literally from the east coast to the west coast, North and South, where creative entrepreneurs are coming forward, with support from the USDA to be able to get them through what is often called the valley of death, as they have a great idea but are trying to get it to commercialization, and efforts that are leveraging private dollars and public dollars to be able to have these companies move forward into full commercialization. Then they can create jobs, create renewable energy, get us off of foreign oil or create other kinds of products--all kinds of opportunities for us around products. That leads me to another important piece, which is R&D, which is always a very important part of what needs to be done as we are looking at these new ideas. Entrepreneurs, companies large and small, many small businesses--in fact, most of them start as small businesses with a great idea, and they are looking for how to turn that into a great business, and hiring people, and so on. The Biomass Research and Development Initiative is an integral component to bridging the gap between technology development and commercialization. As I said, this is often called the valley of death. If you are somebody out there who is an entrepreneur with a great idea, how do you actually convince somebody to invest in it so you can move forward? Nearly $133 million in grants was provided through the research and development effort from 2003 to 2010 and they helped leverage $61 million in private investment. One of the great success stories among many comes out of Wisconsin. We heard about this during one of our farm bill hearings when Lee Edwards, CEO of Virent Energy, came in to tell us about the great work his company is doing. They were awarded a grant as seed money to develop their technology with the University of Wisconsin. Virent now has over 120 employees and plans to expand again after receiving a contract from Coca-Cola to develop a 100-percent plant-based bottle for its carbonated beverages. Virent's technology is feedstock-neutral and produces drop-in jet fuel and renewable chemicals. Their corporate partners include Cargill, Coca-Cola, and Shell. We also have the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, which helps farmers and ranchers who want to plant energy crops for biomass that would be converted to biofuels or bioenergy. In 2011, this program supported between 3,000 and 4,000 jobs. Our investment in the BCAP could result in companies hiring--in this farm bill, we are told--between 2,000 and 2,600 additional new employees. We have also addressed issues around collection, harvest, storage, and transport to address problems that had occurred in the last farm bill. This program provides financial assistance to owners and operators of agricultural and nonindustrial private forest land as well. I have not talked a lot about forest land, but certainly biomass efforts--what has been done around forest by-products--are very important as well. Steve Flick of Show Me Energy received the first BCAP project area, covering approximately 50,000 acres in 38 counties in Missouri and Kansas. Individual farmers within the boundaries of the project area can now sign contracts with the USDA to grow dedicated energy crops. This is another provision we have in the bill. Show Me's plant in Centerview currently pelletizes crops into biomass fuel for space heat and electric power. This technology will eventually provide liquid fuels that can replace gasoline and diesel. Steve Flick also testified at our hearing in February. I could go on and on with examples. We have a very exciting project I visited not long ago in Alpena, MI, in the northeastern part of the State, which is a plant working with a paneling company that makes decorative panels, doing beautiful paneling work with 100-percent wood paneling. They are now taking what used to be waste that they sent to a waste treatment facility and pumping it right next door to a new company that is creating cellulosic ethanol. And they are now looking for other products. One of them will be a new green biodegradable effort to de-ice runways. So there are all kinds of possibilities. What I am excited about is that this farm bill is focused on small businesses, farmers, ranchers, working with the forestry industry. How do we grow the economy by taking the two great strengths that have created the middle class of this country--growing things and making things? That is what this title is about; that is what this bill is about. I am anxious to get us through this process so we can complete this bill and get on to the next generation of jobs. Thank you, Mr. President.

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, first of all, I strongly oppose this amendment and urge my colleagues to vote to table it. I would agree with the Senator from Kentucky that nobody who wins the lottery should get food assistance, and we outright ban it in this bill. We outright ban a number of areas where there has been waste, fraud, and abuse. This bill does more on accountability on food assistance than we have seen in many years. But it also doesn't do what this amendment does, which is block grant funding, cut it, send it back to the States with no requirement it be used for people who truly need it. I can tell you, coming from Michigan, I have people who have never before in their lives needed help with food assistance. They are mortified; they have paid taxes their whole life and they have never asked for help, but now that the plant has closed, they need some temporary help. Those folks are, on average, getting help for 10 months or less, and they deserve every dollar we can help them with. I want to make sure that every single dollar goes where it should go. Waste, fraud, and abuse we tackle. But for somebody in this great country who has paid their taxes all their lives and worked all their lives and now needs help to put food on the table for the balance of the month, they need to know we are going to provide a little bit of temporary help. This amendment is outrageous and would go completely against the commitment we as a country have made to help those who truly need it. I urge we vote yes to table this amendment.

Ms. STABENOW. Would the leader be willing to yield for a question?

Ms. STABENOW. Thank you very much. To emphasize what the leader indicated earlier, isn't it true that while we are moving forward step by step--before we get a larger universal agreement--as he has said, the leader is open to work with me, Senator Roberts, and Members on both sides of the aisle to get a larger list in the range in which the distinguished Senator from Oklahoma has talked about and certainly a list which we would begin to move through? But while we are doing that, rather than just biding time on the floor, this gives Members an opportunity to debate on issues they care deeply about and continue to move forward. In fact, is it the leader's desire that we do this and that we are in the process of putting together that larger universe of amendments?

Ms. STABENOW

Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, first, let me thank all of our colleagues who are working with us as we move forward in putting together a package of amendments to be voted on here in the Senate. I want to thank everyone--of course my ranking member, Senator Roberts, but also people on both sides who are working together in good faith as we move through this process. This morning, we did have two votes, and in the next little while we will have two more. And I do want to speak to one of those but also to just indicate again to all of our colleagues how important it is to farmers and ranchers, families, and rural communities across America that we come together and pass this farm bill. Sixteen million people have jobs related to agriculture. I am not sure there is any one single piece of legislation we have had in front of us that actually impacted 16 million people like this one. Of course, we are very proud of the way we have come together in a bipartisan way to propose something that actually cuts the deficit by over $23 billion and creates real reforms that taxpayers and farmers have asked for, while strengthening our risk-management tools for agriculture, conservation, other jobs efforts, certainly rural development, alternative energy, and certainly our support for families with their own personal disaster when it comes to putting food on the table during an economic downturn for them. I want to specifically take a moment, though, to speak and urge my colleagues to vote yes on a motion to table Coburn amendment No. 2353, which would repeal two of the most successful conservation programs in the history of our country, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which we all call EQIP, and the Conservation Stewardship Program. EQIP is on the front lines of production agriculture, helping farmers comply with regulatory pressures, and it has been very effective. It is the cornerstone of our country's commitment to voluntary, incentive- based conservation--voluntary--working with farmers, working with ranchers in a voluntary way, to partner with them to be able to provide ways to tackle environmental issues we all care about. I would underscore the fact that what we call the farm bill is actually the largest investment we as a country make in conservation of land, air, and water on working lands--lands that are owned by the private sector, partnering, because we all have a stake in runoff and clean water issues and erosion issues and all of the other things that relate to protecting our wildlife and our wetlands for not only habitats but also for our hunters and fishermen and all of the other issues around which we celebrate what we have been able to do around conservation in this country. EQIP really is a cornerstone of our commitment to a voluntary incentive-based conservation program. It provides a cost share to farmers to implement practices that have been absolutely proven to work to benefit our country's soil, air, and water resources. This last year the Environmental Quality Incentive Program entered into 38,000 contracts with farmers and ranchers all across America, covering 13 million acres of land. EQIP has a number of incredible stories across the country--in Louisiana, helping farmers recover from Hurricane Katrina; in Oklahoma, helping producers implement best management practices to reduce sediment in the Mission Creek, improving water quality, helping restore fish populations. In Michigan, they have helped farmers struggling with bovine TB protect their herds and livelihoods. So this is one of two critical conservation programs that would be repealed by this amendment. The other one is the Conservation Stewardship Program. This encourages higher levels of conservation across agricultural operations as well as the adoption of new and emerging conservation practices. CSP encourages producers to address resource concerns by undertaking additional conservation activities and improving and maintaining their current activities. And they focus on seven resource concerns as well as energy--soil quality, soil erosion, water quality, water quantity, air quality, plant resources, and animal resources--all things important not only for our farmers and ranchers but to all of us--every community, every State, all of us in the country. This program is extremely popular. It has been very successful. This year producers enrolled 12 million acres in the program, and this brings the total to 49 million acres across the country that now have conservation practices as a result of the CSP. It provides conservation bankers with more acres than any other conservation program in the country. I strongly urge we table this amendment. I ask for a ``yes'' vote in tabling the amendment. I would like to talk a little bit more about what we have done in a positive way in the conservation title. One of the areas of this bill I am most proud of is the work that has been done with conservation and environmental groups all across the country--in fact, we have 643 conservation and environmental groups that have said this is the right approach. In tough economic times, when we know we do not have additional dollars, we took a look at every single page, every single program. There are 23 different programs in conservation. Every time somebody had a good idea, a program got added rather than looking at duplication, redundancy, how we can streamline and make it better for farmers, communities, better for ranchers, make it simpler and more understandable. So we decided to go back and do what every taxpayer and every citizen has asked us to do; that is, streamline, make more accountability, cut the paperwork, make things work better. We do support flexibility. We support locally led ground-up voluntary efforts. We increase transparency and accountability, we streamline, consolidate programs, help farmers comply with regulatory pressures, and we basically have come together. We have taken 23 different programs down to 13 and put them in three different areas and created a lot of flexibility. We want to stretch the dollars even further in four areas: working lands, easements, conservation reserve programs, and regional partnerships, which are so important to so many of us. All across the country family farms are passed down to children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Our rapidly growing population demands our farmers and ranchers double their production over the next few decades and use fewer acres to do it, so innovation in farming is absolutely critical. But no amount of technology can make up for degraded soil or polluted water. The farm bill's conservation programs help our producers meet their challenges and the country's challenges, ensuring that we have a safe, abundant food supply, clean water, and thriving wildlife populations for many generations to come. It is wonderful to see the partnerships that are going on all across Michigan, all across the country. Many farmers take advantage of these voluntary, incentive-based conservation programs. In our Great Lakes region alone--I would say not only Michigan but our Presiding Officer from Minnesota certainly cares as well. We championed together so many times on the Great Lakes initiative. But in the Great Lakes region alone farmers use one form of conservation on 95 percent of the acres. On 95 percent of the acres we have conservation going on. As we look at streamlining from 23 to 13 programs, making them more flexible and so on, we actually have been able to achieve savings of $6 billion while maintaining conservation functions, and I would argue strengthening their effectiveness as well while cutting the dollars. Nationally, there are 357 million acres of cropland, 406 million acres of forest land, 119 million acres of pasture land, and 409 million acres of rangeland under private ownership in the United States. That is a lot of land, and all of that is impacted by what we do in the conservation title of the farm bill. We also know the challenges my farmers face in Michigan are different than those in Kansas or Oklahoma or Minnesota or Montana. We have built in enough flexibility in this new title, modernizing it, reforming it, creating flexibility to be able to meet very different needs across the country. I will briefly go through each area. We are focusing, as I said, on four different areas. Working lands, where we have two programs that are proposed to be eliminated right now, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which I spoke about, and CSP is in the working lands title. We also include the conservation innovation grants, which are geared to projects that offer new approaches to providing producers environmental and production benefits. Again, we look for ways to support efforts that have not been receiving ongoing funding through the past bill to be able to continue and have greater flexibility in a number of different programs. One is critical, I believe, for America's sportsmen and sportswomen; that is, access to good recreational land. I know that is very important to my State of Michigan, very important to my family. The Voluntary Public Access and Wildlife Incentives Program encourages farmers to open their land for recreational uses--hunting, fishing, bird-watching. Right now, 26 States are taking advantage of the program, and we continue that in the bill, which is very important. Our second area is on easements. There are three existing conservation easement programs. We are putting them into one to protect our lands from development and keep them devoted to agricultural use as well as to keep the land for grazing. Wetland easements restore, protect, and enhance wetlands which are important to water quality, quantity, and wildlife habitat in many areas also. We are focusing on long-term land protection. Over the last 20 years the Wetlands Reserve Program helped more than 11,000 private landowners voluntarily restore, protect, and enhance wetlands and wildlife habitat. So we are very pleased all of this is in the bill as well. The Conservation Reserve Program has been very successful. From 2006 to 2010 the USDA estimates the Conservation Reserve Program was responsible for reducing 1.09 billion tons of sediment, 3.1 billion metric tons of nitrogen, and 613 million pounds of phosphorus from going into our waters--that is an accomplishment--from going into our Great Lakes, into our oceans, into our rivers, into our streams. These are the main contributors to many of the water quality issues we face as a country. During the same time period, USDA estimates the Conservation Reserve Program contributed 284 million metric tons of greenhouse gas reduction. It is reducing CO2. I would say it is equivalent to taking 55 million cars off the road for a year. Coming from the car State, I appreciate CRP doing that. We want to be able to continue to drive our automobiles, and we are proud of what we are doing around automobiles, but can you imagine that this program alone has taken enough CO2 out of the atmosphere to equate to 55 million cars being taken off the roads? As of 2011, CRP was enrolling just under the acreage cap of 32 million. Over the next couple of years, over 15 million acres are set to expire. We recognize not all of those will be reenrolled, but we want to make sure there is adequate room to reenroll the most sensitive acres. As an example of the effectiveness of CRP, last year parts of Oklahoma--I have a special affinity for Oklahoma. My mother was born in Oklahoma. My grandparents' family has lived there all their lives. I am very familiar with that State. Parts of Oklahoma experienced drought worse than the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s. But we did not see dust storms like the 1930s because the voluntary conservation efforts--of the CRP in particular--worked to reduce soil erosion and keep the soil where it was supposed to be, which is on the ground. There are huge successes we have seen because our country has made an investment in protecting our precious land and water and air. We also have established a new program called the Regional Conservation Partnerships Program which consolidates four very effective regional partnerships into one. I am very pleased we have been able to do this. There is great significance for Members in all parts of the country. We consolidate the Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative, the Agricultural Water Enhancement Program, the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative, and the Great Lakes Water Erosion Sediment Program. This exemplifies many of the principles of this title. We focus on conservation efforts that are locally led, that are voluntary, and we create more flexibility and transparency for reporting as well as making sure we have adequate resources. When we were talking to producers and a variety of partner organizations, nonprofits--again, hunters, fishermen, other organizations--they were very excited about this new regional partnership title as a section. We appreciate all of the input and the support we have received to be able to make this effective. Let me just say in conclusion that we have a conservation title that is supported in terms of its approach by almost 650 different conservation and environmental groups all across America in every 1 of the 50 States. They have sent a strong message. They worked with us. They know times are tight. They knew we had to create savings, we had to reduce dollars, but we had to make sure we had enough flexibility to do the job people across our country want to see done in protecting our lands, our water, and our air. This has been achieved with a tremendous amount of hard work on the part of many people. I am grateful for the work of our committee and many others. I appreciate our subcommittee chairman Michael Bennet, who has been deeply involved in this as well, and the Presiding Officer from Minnesota as well. We have many people who feel very strongly. Our chairman of the Finance Committee who was on the Senate floor earlier speaking about this is another true champion around conservation. There were so many people in our committee. I could go on and on about this, and on both sides of the aisle I might add, but if I start naming people I will probably get in trouble for missing someone. But we have strong people, strong advocates on both sides of the aisle. I thank everybody for their wonderful work on this conservation title. I think it is an example of the great work that has been done in putting the bill together. Again, I urge colleagues to vote yes to table the Coburn amendment and the additional amendment I will talk about at another point that will be coming before us, and continue to work with us as we bring together the path forward to completing this very important bill that affects 16 million American jobs. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.