Debbie Stabenow Promotes The Rural Prosperity & Food Security Act On The Senate Floor
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) promotes the Rural Prosperity & Food Security Act on the Senate floor.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Senator from Michigan. Thank you, Mr. President. Yesterday, I announced the Rural Prosperity
00:11and Food Security Act, put together by distinguished colleagues on the Agriculture Committee,
00:18including the presiding officer. We thank you so much for all of your leadership on
00:22so many provisions here that both affect Georgia and our entire country. So thank you for that.
00:29This is a serious bill that reflects bipartisan priorities to keep farmers farming, to keep
00:39families fed, and to keep rural communities strong. I hope those are values and priorities
00:49that we all share together. The foundation of every successful farm bill is built on
00:57a broad, bipartisan coalition. That's how we get it done, as Mr. President, as you know.
01:03We get it done because we bring everybody together. We don't put forward things that
01:08lose votes. We put forward things that gain votes, so that we can do what we did in the
01:14last five-year farm bill, 2018, where we had 87 members of the United States Senate come
01:19together, which was extraordinary at that time, because we built the coalition. We respected
01:25each other, and we did not look for policies that would divide. So it's important that
01:33farmers and ranchers, rural communities, foresters, nutrition and hunger advocates, conservationists,
01:43bioenergy advocates, local governments, and climate advocates come together. That's a
01:52broad coalition. So many more I could list on and on that come together to be able to
01:58address a five-year bill that addresses rural America, our economy, feeding Americans, being
02:05there when they need some help, protecting our land and water and air resources that
02:12are so important, and investing in a rural quality of life, like where I grew up in northern
02:18Michigan and Claire. The Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act is a bill that holds the coalition
02:25together. Now it is a bill that I put together with my Democratic colleagues on the committee,
02:32but it includes a hundred, actually over a hundred, bipartisan bills. Over a hundred bipartisan bills
02:42introduced this Congress through the hard work of Republicans and Democrats on the committee,
02:49as well as off the committee, and the input of a broad farm bill coalition. I would hope at this
02:57point I would be in a situation where we would be bringing forward a bipartisan bill, but we are
03:02not there yet. But it's my responsibility as the leader of the committee to put forward, I believe,
03:09is the vision and the policies that can get us there, and that's what this is talking about.
03:17There are many things in here I will not go through, all of them, Mr. President, there are too
03:22many. But I will say this, we are strengthening the important farm safety net by making meaningful
03:33investments that focus our tax dollars, our American resources, on American farmers with
03:40dirt under their fingernails, not billionaire Wall Street or foreign investors, who, by the way, we
03:47ban from receiving commodity payments in this bill. This bill makes support for beginning farmers a
03:57priority. We need more people that want to go into farming, either starting from scratch or going
04:03home to the family farm. We need them. We need the people being willing to do the critical work, and
04:10they need to be a priority, and they are a priority in this farm bill. Our bill will provide farmers
04:17and ranchers with more choices that provide timely and flexible assistance that meets their needs.
04:25Lower-cost crop insurance, a more effective commodity title, more opportunities for affordable
04:34credit to operate the farm as input costs go up, and the list goes on and on. We, importantly,
04:44permanently authorize the Agriculture Disaster Assistance Program, which unfortunately is having
04:51to be used more and more and more, and I want that to be clear, that that's a permanent part of
04:58agricultural policy. And this bill makes it a priority to help our farmers and ranchers address
05:04the emerging risks that we know they all face. We also ensure that farmers are planting to meet
05:11market demand, not to receive a government payment. We made major reforms in the 2014 bill to emphasize
05:23that, and then again in 2018, and it's important to keep it going. Farming has always been one of the
05:32riskiest ways to make a living. I've said it's the riskiest business around. Nobody else has to monitor
05:39the weather all day and night to figure out what's going on as to whether or not their business is
05:44going to be okay, and the climate crisis is making it even tougher. Think about the Michigan cherry
05:54farmer who loses an entire crop due to an early warming and then a cold snap, and this has happened
06:02in Michigan. Or the wheat farmer whose hard work is leveled when a violent summer storm pummels their
06:09fields with hail. Conservation programs are a vital part of our risk management for farmers today. I'm
06:19proud that they are voluntary, that they are popular, that they are used, that farmers think they make a
06:25difference, and it's important that we continue to invest and protect those dollars. This bill builds on our
06:35historic investment in those popular voluntary conservation programs by making the title, the
06:44conservation title, a permanent investment, a permanent part of the farm bill, permanent authorization, and we
06:51invest to make sure we are confronting the climate crisis today and in the future by taking the dollars that
06:58we have allocated for climate smart agriculture, putting it into the farm bill, and supporting these
07:06important voluntary climate smart efforts. This will put resources into farmers' pockets to continue the
07:14practices they are already doing and that they want to do more of on the farm and the ranches around the
07:21country. And while the farm bill is the backbone of the Farm Safety Net, it's also the backbone of the
07:33Family Safety Net through our nutrition title. And I want to thank our subcommittee chair, who's presiding
07:42now, who chairs our subcommittee on nutrition for your leadership. Thank you very much. The Rural Prosperity and
07:52Food Security Act reflects our shared belief, Republicans and Democrats, that no American parent should have to
07:59worry about whether or not they will be able to feed their children. No American senior should have to choose between
08:08buying food and paying for their medications. No American service member should experience hunger while serving
08:19their country. This bill will help millions of hardworking Americans make ends meet in a time when they really
08:30needed it, a time of crisis, by continuing the five-year update to the SNAP Thrifty Food Plan, included in the
08:40bipartisan 2018 Farm Bill, to ensure that SNAP reflects the realities of how Americans buy food and prepare food. It
08:52improves security measures and cracks down on bad actors to strengthen the integrity of nutrition assistance. The
09:00bill invests in SNAP employment and training to help people improve their job skills and excludes subsidized income
09:10earned through employment and training and counting as income for SNAP so that people will participate in these
09:18services and they can finish their training. In rural development, this is such an important part of the Farm Bill.
09:27This is about jobs. It's about quality of life. We have such an exciting bioeconomy today. In the Farm Bill, a number of
09:41years ago, I put in a whole program called Make It Here, Grow It Here, where we focused on biomanufacturing, as well as
09:53our biofuels and what we can do to add opportunities for farmers and income and jobs. And we build on that in this bill,
10:04whether it's biofuels, sustainable aviation fuel, biomanufacturing, lifting up bio-preferred labels so people know and can feel
10:14confident in looking for those labels, American labels. We lift this up. We also strengthen our efforts with farmers and ranchers on
10:24clean energy, both clean energy efforts to lower costs for citizens in rural America to bring down their utility costs, but also to help
10:34our farmers through the Rural Energy Assistance Program, which we strengthen. And for the first time, we put not just authorizations, but
10:46actually mandatory Farm Bill resources, money into the Rural Development Title to lift up really important quality of life issues that
10:58determine whether or not people can actually stay and live in rural communities. For instance, child care, access to mental health and
11:10addiction treatment facilities, rural housing, which is such a challenge. So many things we need to be doing to create opportunities. Now, I'm
11:21proud that we have already made rural communities a priority through high-speed Internet in rural communities and what we did in the
11:29Infrastructure Bill. And we also have made wastewater treatment and other infrastructure issues in rural communities a part of what we have done in
11:41other areas. But we need to do more as it relates to the quality of life for families in rural communities. And the Farm Bill puts forward a vision to do that.
11:56The Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act is the product of a lot of work. And, you know, Senator Bozeman and I, my ranking member, started this process two
12:06years ago at my alma mater, Michigan State University, with our first field hearing to hear from all those impacted. And we have both, as well as other
12:18colleagues, traveled the country to hear ideas and to hear what is important to do. But we're beyond that now. It's time to get it done. It's time to get it
12:28done. You know, I, Mr. President, have been around here long enough to have participated in six Farm Bills. It's the third one I've had the honor to
12:42lead. I know what it takes. I'm so honored and proud to have, I may be biased, but I believe I have the smartest Farm Bill team. There is talented people who
12:54have put this together. But we know how to do it. We know how to do it. And I know that the only path forward is to hold together a broad, bipartisan Farm Bill
13:07coalition. When you break the coalition up, it never works. It never works. It fails time after time. In some ways, the discussion, the attacks right now on
13:22nutrition make me feel like it's Groundhog Day. We saw this in 2012, when the House could not pass a bill because of the fights on nutrition.
13:52Couldn't pass a bill. Voted down again because of a fight on nutrition. Breaking up the coalition, pitting the farmer safety net against the family safety net will not get us a Farm
14:21Bill. It just won't. I'm so grateful that in doing our past Farm Bills, we've been able to come together and understand it's about recognizing broadly the needs of
14:37farmers and food and jobs and all the other issues that are so important to our rural communities and frankly urban communities as well. And that's what I'm committed to do now. Because that's the way we get a bill. Our farmers, our families, our rural communities deserve the certainty of a five year Farm Bill. There's no reason we can't do this. There's no reason that we can't do this.
15:07If we take the lessons of the past, if we creatively work together to meet the needs that we know need to be addressed, as more and more volatility affects our farmers and ranchers across the country, we can do that. We can do that. And I'm committed to doing everything in my power, Mr. President, as chair of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee to make that happen.
15:37Thank you. I yield the floor.