The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“FARM BILL” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Senate section on pages S4717-S4719 on June 28, 2018.
The Department is primarily focused on food nutrition, with assistance programs making up 80 percent of its budget. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, said the Department implements too many regulations and restrictions and impedes the economy.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
FARM BILL
Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, with 171 amendments and a vote of 86 to 11, obviously, getting this farm bill done has been a tremendous team effort. You are only as good as your staff on both sides of the aisle, and they make us look good when we stand up here a little confused trying to get things a little sorted out.
I wish to thank my staff: James Glueck, DaNita Murray, Janae Brady, Fred Clark, Meghan Cline, Haley Donahue, Matt Erickson, Darin Guries, Chance Hunley, Chu Hwang, Chelsie Keys, Sarah Little, Curt Mann, Andy Rezendes, Bob Rosado, Anthony Seiler, Wayne Stoskopf--who, by the way, knows more about farm programs than anybody else on the staff, myself included--Andrew Vlasaty, and Katherine Thomas.
I also want to mention Jackie Cottrell, Amber Kirchhoefer, Will Stafford, Morgan Anderson, and Stacy Daniels in my personal office.
I want to especially thank the ranking member--vice chairman, really--Senator Stabenow, and her team, led by the indomitable Joe Shultz and Jacqlyn Schneider. The efforts of Jessie Williams, Amanda Kelly, Bobby Mehta, Katie Salay, and Micah Wortham have been valuable to the Ag Committee process.
Additionally, I thank the technical support from the Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, and the staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Thank you so much for your help.
I also appreciate the work of the Congressional Budget Office staff, including: Tiffany Arthur, Megan Carroll, Kathleen FitzGerald, Jennifer Gray, Jim Langley, and Robert Reese.
I now yield to my distinguished ranking member, Senator Stabenow.
I say to the Senator, thank you for being such a great partner.
Ms. STABENOW. I thank the Senator.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I thank my partner and friend. This has been a tremendous team effort, and it is a great pleasure to work with the chairman.
Today the Senate has proven that bipartisanship is the way we can get things done, and we all know that is the case. It is not always the easiest path to take. However, when we put our differences aside and focus on the needs of the communities and people we serve, that is how we deliver a good bill. In this case, it is a bill that serves our farmers, our families, and rural America. Over 500 food, agriculture, and conservation leaders agree that this bill will provide certainty to communities and to our farmers across the country.
From the start, we have had a collaborative process. We have built this bill on feedback. We heard from farmers and local leaders at field hearings and in our committee room. We added ideas proposed by Members on both sides of the aisle, both on and off the committee. From our committee markup to today, we have incorporated a total of 171 either bipartisan bills introduced by Members or bipartisan amendments--171.
We were able to get a bill done because we never lost sight of the importance of our agricultural economy and the 16 million jobs it supports. I am proud that we voted in a bipartisan way to move this bill forward. That is the good news for rural America and the men and women who work hard every day to give us the safest, most affordable food supply in the world.
Let me now give some thank-yous. As the chairman indicated, there are many.
I appreciate very much the work of our Democratic leader and his staff for their leadership and support through the process. I thank the majority leader, who knows how important agriculture is to Kentucky. I think we have some things in this bill that are going to make for an even stronger agricultural economy in Kentucky, as well as around the country. I appreciate that he moved this bill quickly on the Senate floor.
Of course, I have to thank my friend and partner Senator Roberts, who is chairman of the committee. He has stayed true to our commitment to deliver a bipartisan bill and has worked extremely hard to get us here today. I say: Congratulations, Mr. Chairman, and to all of our Senate colleagues who supported this important bill.
I thank my incredible staff, as well as Senator Roberts' incredible staff, for working together very hard, very consistently, putting together a bipartisan bill--really, a historic farm bill--and ultimately working as a team to get us over the goal line.
Of course, Joe Shultz and Jacqlyn Schneider, my staff director and deputy staff director and policy director for the committee--true leaders from start to finish. They have both been with me on the committee staff since the very beginning, in 2011, when I chaired the committee.
Joe has led our amazing team and has been living and breathing the farm bill for the past year. You can sleep tonight, Joe.
Jacqlyn has done so as well. Jacqlyn is the heart and soul of our Ag Committee, whose tremendous work over the past two farm bills has made sure that we were protecting our families and supporting our specialty crop producers. She led our efforts to develop groundbreaking new initiatives on food access, like Double Up Food Bucks.
Mary Beth Schultz, our chief counsel, had no idea what she was getting herself into when she came to the Ag Committee this last year. In no time, she became a farm bill expert who kept track of every page and every amendment to make sure this process was successful.
Mike Schmidt and Kyle Varner, our amazing commodities and livestock team, understand the ins and outs of farm policy like nobody else. They have done so much to improve our dairy programs, expand risk management tools to specialty crops, and support new and beginning farmers.
Ashley McKeon led our work on the conservation title to expand our partnership programs. She brings her warmth, personality, and expertise to the job every day.
Sean Babington, our forestry and environmental expert, has impeccable judgment and negotiating skills that we rely on daily, and he helped get us to this point of there being a final farm bill as well.
Thanks to both Ashley and Sean, our country will have healthy forests, more wildlife habitat, and clean waters for generations to come.
Katie Naessens' hard work led to the major advances in this bill for urban agriculture, organics, beginning farmers, and veterans who want to go into agriculture. I am so proud of the Farmer Veterans Programs in Michigan.
Kevin Bailey led our efforts on expanding high-speed internet for rural communities and on the rural development and energy titles so we can continue to grow the bio-based economy in rural America.
Katie Bergh led our work on international trade and fought to preserve markets for Michigan producers from cherries to dairy, and she helped improve our food aid policies in the United States and abroad.
Rosalyn Brummette is the glue that keeps our team together. She kept the trains running on time and made sure we were all prepared to do what needed to be done. I thank her so much.
We also had fantastic help from farm bill veteran Susan Keith, who provided invaluable wisdom and counsel to our commodity and livestock team.
Ward Griffin, our CFTC detail to the committee, is not only an expert on financial issues, but he has become a full-fledged member of the team, jumping in to help wherever needed. We are grateful.
Jason Sherman, a lawyer and fellow from the Department of Energy, has a keen eye and legal mind. Both were invaluable on environmental and conservation issues.
Now to my personal Senate staff, who were a very important part of the team as well: I thank Matt VanKuiken, my chief of staff, who leads my personal office team, and my legislative director, Emily Carwell, who followed the floor procedure, was involved in negotiations, and made sure everything was happening the way it should have been. I thank them and all of our team in the personal office for being a part of this effort.
Of course, I thank Krystal Lattany, who always makes sure that I am getting where I need to be, so I am in the right place for negotiations.
I thank Anne Stanski, my deputy chief of staff, Matt Williams, my communications director, and Jess McCarron, our ag press secretary, who made sure we were telling the story of the farmers and families who are affected by the farm bill.
We couldn't have done it without the help of the rest of our communications team: Miranda Margowsky, Nirmeen Fahmy, and Amy Phillips Bursch. I also thank my State team, which is led by Teresa Plachetka, and Kali Fox, who leads our agriculture work in Michigan.
I also thank Senator Roberts' team. It was truly wonderful working with James Glueck and DaNita Murray, who are true pros. I thank them for their hard work, creativity, and tenacity in helping to get us to this point. Our team spent many long hours together, and I am grateful that even our staffs worked together in a wonderful, bipartisan way just as the chairman and I did.
Of course, I thank Jessie Williams, Amanda Kelly, Bobby Mehta, and everyone who works behind the scenes on the Ag Committee.
Nothing would get done around here without the excellent floor staff, led by Gary Myrick and his team, including Tricia Engle and Ryan McConaghy.
The insights of Sean Byrne, with Senator Schumer's staff, and Reema Dodin, with Senator Durbin, have been incredibly helpful.
I should really thank the folks at the CBO, who had late nights at the Senate Office of the Legislative Counsel. They worked on weekends and had late nights to make sure we had what we needed to get the bill done.
Finally, of course, I thank all of the members of the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee and their staffs. We have so much talent and experience. It is a real privilege to serve as its ranking member.
This farm bill is the product of a year and a half of hard work by a long list of very talented people. I cannot thank every single one of them individually, but we wouldn't be here today without their help.
We passed a farm bill today that supports the 16 million jobs in America that depend on agriculture. We passed a bill that helps our farmers stay resilient, that protects our land and water, that helps families keep food on their tables, that invests in our small towns all across America, that recognizes the diversity of American agriculture, and that strengthens local food economies.
We should all be very proud of the work we have done today, and I thank my colleagues for joining us in such a strong ``yes'' vote in passing this bill.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.
Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, I am very glad my Senate colleagues joined me in supporting the Senate farm bill, in fact, with a very strong vote of 86 to 11.
This farm bill is good news for Montana farmers and for Montana ranchers, and it is going to help to provide certainty for Montana agriculture in these most difficult times because agriculture is Montana's No. 1 industry, and it supports tens of thousands of jobs in our State. Yet, with more than 25,000 family farms and ranches in Montana alone, it is clear that ag is more than just an economic driver in our State; it is very much a way of life.
That is why, as Montana's Representative on the U.S. Senate Ag Committee, I fought to ensure that this farm bill reflects the priorities that Montana farmers and Montana ranchers have shared directly with me. Some of these priorities are the crop insurance and the sugar program; ag research funding at Montana State University, as well as ag research stations all across Montana; and prioritizing rural broadband for Montana's underserved communities, as well as supporting and maintaining conservation programs that are important to our farmers, to our ranchers, and to our sportsmen.
This farm bill is also critically important to the health of our national forests. Last year in Montana, catastrophic wildfires harmed numerous communities, and it cost our State millions of dollars. I am glad to have secured important forest reforms that are critical to healthy forests, to Montana timber jobs, and to wildlife habitat, such as encouraging the coordination among the Forest Service and State forestry agencies to restore our forests to reduce the risk of wildfire and allowing the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to enter into agreements with counties, as well as with States and Tribes, to implement forest management projects on national forests and public lands. Additionally, there is a provision that will support more innovation, as well as to develop new markets for Montana's timber industry.
These are important wins, but I want to make something very clear that there is still so much more we can do to help improve the health of our forests and support Montana's farmers and ranchers. In fact, in Montana, as well as across the West, we are seeing extensive collaboration. Groups are collaborating--conservation groups, wildlife groups, wood products stakeholders, along with our counties--and they are working together to determine responsible forest management practices.
These partners know very well that active management is critical to restoring a healthy forest and that it helps to reduce wildfire risks. It is important that we don't allow extremists to hinder this most important work because, today, it takes 18 to 24 months to do many of these environmental reviews. After that is done, many projects in Montana are litigated, and this can add years of delay.
In fact, listen to this: There are 29 timber sales in Montana that are currently impacted by fringe litigation. Just today, we were informed that another timber project in Montana has been delayed by a restraining order because of litigation. That makes 30. This project was scheduled to start this coming Monday, July 2, and now those folks will be out of work. Reducing redtape and combating chronic litigation doesn't erode public trust. In fact, it safeguards it. It does so by ensuring that the public feedback of the majority isn't obstructed by a few extreme dissenters.
This disastrous Ninth Circuit Cottonwood ruling must also be addressed because it imposed unnecessary paperwork that even the Obama administration has said had the ``potential to cripple'' Federal land management without conservation benefit.
My amendments would address this excessive redtape while continuing to ensure that robust, science-driven environmental review and public engagement would remain. Many similar provisions are found in the House bill as well.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the inclusion of these amendments as we work together now, with the House, in a conference of the final farm bill.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
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