the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mr. blunt: mr. president, i have eight requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have been approved by the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. blunt: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, this week, we are considering the bipartisan farm

bill. the senator from mississippi that just presided and you and i were all raised on farms, so we have an immediate sense that this must be pretty important because of where we grew up and how we grew up, but i think there is less and less connection that people have now with what it really takes to grow the food and fiber that we need in this country, and the farm bill doesn't have quite the same resonance that it used to have in terms of millions and millions and millions of families watching carefully to see what the congress was going to do. in fact, the families that watch this most closely today may very well be the families that benefit from the nutrition parts of the farm bill. the vast majority of spending is in the nutrition parts of the farm bill. and the truth is that if you don't have what people need to

sustain themselves of nutrition policy really doesn't matter unless what we do in agriculture works. so a lot of the debate here is about that. in my state, in missouri, we have nearly 100,000 farms. the vast majority of those farms are family owned. they cover two-thirds of the real estate, two-thirds of the total land of our state. industry supports 400,000 jobs in a state of six million people, so it's a substantial impact on what we do. we're located, you and i both, mr. president, the mississippi river valley is the biggest piece of contiguous agriculture ground in the world. we're in the middle of that. in terms of production, missouri ranks second in the number of beef cows, fourth in rice, sixth

in turkey, sixth in soybeans, seventh in hogs, ninth in corn, and tenth in cotton. so there are all kinds of places in the farm bill that impact where we are and all of those crops and others that we might not rank quite so high in but still were an important part of our economy. world food demand is expected to double in the next 30 years or so. that's really an easy thing to say. it's an easy thing to hear. it's sort of a hard thing to think about. all the time that people have been trying to develop better and better agriculture, we think about 10,000 years, it took us that long to raise all the food we raise today. we have about 30 years to figure out how to raise twice as much food as we raise today, and we are likely to need to do that on no more land than we're doing it

on now and with fewer inputs. so we need to do that in a way that probably uses not just less water per amount of food grown but just less water totally, and not just less fertilizer but less -- per crop, but less fertilizer totally. so we're going to have to have a lot of science-based work going on to figure out how we meet this incredible opportunity and challenge of doubling all the food that we grow. i saw some f.f.a. students out under a big shade tree looking back at the capitol two different days last week, and both times i said i really can't think of any group i can talk to where i could say with such certainty that no matter what you do, understanding agriculture in the next 30 years is a part of our economy that's going to be twice as big the day you retire from whatever you decide to do than it was the day

you started. it would take some cat corliss particular event for that not to be true. i said a minute ago, world food demand would double in about 30 years. we think world food need will double in about 40 years. what's the difference? in 40, you have to have that much food to feed all the people there are to feed. we think in 30 years, it will have to have doubled to meet people's demand for the kind of food they buy. no matter what, in 40 years, twice as much food will be needed as we have today. this farm bill gives us a chance to really advance the kinds of policies that allow us to meet that challenge. the bill is a bipartisan bill. chairman roberts has worked hard to produce this bill. senator stabenow, the top democrat on the committee, has worked hard to produce this bill. like all pieces of bipartisan

legislation, it's not the bill that either of them would have written on their own, but it is a bill that can and should pass. it makes difficult decisions on how to balance priorities and how to maintain budget discipline at the same time. it's logically connected, of course, with helping our -- those who grow our food, the people who determine whether or not we have an affordable and dependable supply of food and fuel and fiber. all of that is at stake in this legislation. the farm bill we're considering provides certainty for farmers, like the farm bill we did five years ago. it takes a different course. it stays where we were. this is more evolutionary than a big revolutionary change. five years ago, we went much more toward risk management where basically the federal

government helps put an insurance kind of component together where you can insure against the many things that happen in the life of a farm family and the life of growing food. don't control the weather. don't control the prices. don't control much of anything. you have just got to hope that everything works out and allows you to continue to do something that in the case of almost all farm families in america they love to do, and that's why they do it. the bill makes forward-looking investments to help new farmers and beginning farmers. the average age of farmers in america today is almost 60. that means half the farmers are over 60 and half the farmers are under 60. obviously, you have got to be concerned. we're concerned about pilots because we say, well, gee, pilots, we're running out of pilots because the military-trained pilots are not

going to be available to us. we're also about to run out of farmers. if half the farmers in the country today are over 60, we need to be looking for things that allow beginning farmers to farm. to meet the needs as well as the opportunity of a -- of a growing world where with fewer resources and the same amount of land as i said before we're going to have this great opportunity. and by the way, nobody in the world is better at this than we are, and nobody in the world is better positioned than we are to get ag products all over the world. this is a huge opportunity for our country. again, in my state, the one i know more about than i know about in any other state, we're the home of really world-class animal and plant scientists. there are more plant scientists within 100 miles of st. louis, missouri, than there are

anywhere else in the world in that same amount of space. the farm bill will continue to allow those things to move forward and try to, again, do more with less, produce a better quality product with less inputs as farmers deal with the unpredictability of the weather and the market, this is designed to help provide stability as that market grows. now, let's go back to where i was just a minute ago. if you're thinking about this, if the -- what i believe is the biggest economic transactional group in america any given day, people buying food, fuel, and fiber that relates to agriculture, and that's all going to double in less than one working lifetime, that is almost never going to work out exactly right. the weather won't be right. the world crops won't be what

you thought they were going to be. we want to be sure people don't give up on this opportunity because it's also such a big challenge. and how do you communicate in a world environment with this kind of challenge? so the bill also makes investments in rural america to expand high-speed broadband and improve rural infrastructure, something that the president in every discussion i have heard on infrastructure. talk about 25% of this needs to go to rural infrastructure, but part of that infrastructure is wireless technology, wireless infrastructure. if you're going to have precision farming, if you're going to be in the -- not putting more of the cost into parts of your field than you should be, you and your equipment need to know exactly where you are. and i mean precisely where you are. you can't do that if you are not connected to broadband in some

way. the g.p.s. systems, the data centers, the automation systems just don't work without that. if you don't have high-speed internet, you don't have high-speed commodity trading capacity. while somebody else maybe ten miles down the road from you has instantaneous ability to take advantage of a market to buy or sell, yours may be just slow enough that you miss the moment. and so the ability to live in rural america, the ability to thrive in rural america, the ability to farm like you're going to need to farm for the world we're about to get into is really important. this farm bill isn't just about economic security. that's a big part of it, but it's also about what it takes daily to sustain yourself and those you care about. the nutrition programs, as i said to start, are now a

significant majority of farm bill spending. we're going to debate how some of that money should be spent. but, mr. president, we're entering into a time of great opportunity here, a time where americans are really good and particularly in the middle of the country americans are really good when you have an economy that's production oriented, that's based on growing things and making things, and that growing things economy is a lot bigger than just production agriculture. it's production agriculture. it's food processing. it's ensuring what happens on the farm. it's transportation. we're one incident away from it being identifying where all that food has been all the time and so i think the farm bill -- i'm glad we're getting to it as quickly as we are. i hope we can pass our bill, come to conference with the

house and put a bill on the president's desk as soon as possible so that all the other things that farmers and their families have to deal with, the one thing they'll know with some certainty is what the federal farm bill and what federal nutrition programs are going to look like over the next handful of years. and with that, mr. president, i would yield back and notice the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, just a few moments ago justice anthony kennedy announced that he is retiring as an associate justice of the u.s. supreme court and taking senior status effective july 31. first and foremost, i want to pause and express our gratitude for the extraordinary service that justice kennedy has offered our nation. he served on the federal bench for 43 years. in particular, we owe him a debt of thanks for his ardent defense of the first amendment and the first amendment's right to political speech. as justice kennedy concludes his tenure on the court, we wish

him, his wife mary and their family every happiness in the years ahead. the senate stands ready to fulfill its constitutional role by offering advice and consent on president trump's nominee to fill this vacancy. we will vote to confirm justice kennedy's successor this fall. as in the case of justice gorsuch, senators will have the opportunity to meet with president trump's nominee, examine his or her qualifications, and debate the nomination. i have every confidence in chairman grassley's conduct in the process of the judiciary committee. it's imperative that the president's nominee be considered fairly and not subjected to personal attacks. thus far president trump's judicial nominations have reflected a keen understanding

of the vital roles that justices play in our constitutional order. justices must apply the law fairly and apply it evenhandedly. judicial decisions should not flow from a justice's philosophies or preferences but from the words and actual meaning of the law. this bedrock principle has clearly defined the president's excellent choices to date. so we'll look forward to yet another outstanding selection, but today the senate and the nation thank justice kennedy for his years of service on the bench and his many years of contribution to jurisprudence and to our nation. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: are we in a quorum? the presiding officer: we are. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, we recently received news that justice anthony kennedy will be retiring, leaving a vacancy on the nation's highest court. this is the most important supreme court vacancy for this

country in at least a generation. nothing less than the fate of our health care system, reproductive rights for women, and countless other protections for middle-class americans are at stake. will republicans and president trump nominate and vote for someone who will preserve protections for people with preexisting conditions, or will they support a justice who will put health insurance companies over patients or put the federal government between a woman and her doctor? the senate should reject on a bipartisan basis any justice who would overturn roe v. wade or undermine key health care protections. the senate should reject anyone who will instinctively side with powerful special interests over the interests of average americans. our republican colleagues in the

senate should follow the rule they set in 2016, not to consider a supreme court justice in an election year. senator mcconnell would tell anyone who listened that the senate had the right to advise and consent, and that was every bit as important as the president's right to nominate. millions of people are just months away from determining the senators who should vote to confirm or reject the president's nominee, and their voices deserve to be heard now as leader mcconnell thought they should deserve to be heard then. anything but that would be the absolute height of hypocrisy. people from all across america should realize that their rights and opportunities are threatened. americans should make their voices heard loudly, clearly,

and consistently. americans should make it clear that they will not tolerate a nominee chosen from president trump's preordained list, selected by powerful special interests who will reverse the progress we've made over the decades. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. donnelly: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i'm here to talk about the bipartisan commonsense farm bill that we're working on in the senate this week. agriculture is an essential part of the fabric that defines my home state of indiana. hoosier farmers are growing the food that feeds our families. biofuel producers are making the ethanol and biodiesel that drives our economy.

students and researchers are developing the technologies of tomorrow. together they represent the best of hoosier values, and right now hoosier families in our communities are navigating significant challenges. they need us to work together to help provide solutions. our farmers are dealing with turmoil on the international marketplace, uncertainty in federal policies like the r.f.s., and low commodity prices that in many cases are below the cost of production. this farm bill can provide our ag community with some stability, and we need to ensure we do our part to get it across the finish line. here's how indiana farm bureau president randy crone described the situation. farmers are relying on the senate to pass a farm bill that allows them to plan for their

operations with some level of certainty for the next five years and to provide a safety net in case extreme weather or natural disaster damages their crops. indiana's farmers are facing a lot of uncertainties right now. the dairy industry is facing low prices and lost contracts. there are fears over potential retaliatory tariffs and their impacts. there is a grain surplus that has brought commodity prices down drastically as well as the uncertainty of the renewable fuel standard or r.f.s. net farm income, it's down more than 50% compared to just five years ago. the ag community is depending on the passage of this farm bill. if our nation's farmers have the programs and assurances they need, all u.s. citizens will

reap the benefit of quality, affordable food in our grocery stores. phil ramsey, a corn and soybean farmer from shelbyville, indiana, and the chairman of membership in policy for the indiana soybean alliance, described the challenges farmers are facing by saying, after spring that has challenged our farms from nearly every angle, hoosiers and rural americans need a farm bill now more than ever. with farm income down, input costs skyrocketing, the ethanol industry constantly under attack, and disrupted trade relations sharply driving down prices, the stability and safety net provided by the farm bill are critical to our farmers and ranchers across the nation. randy and phil write now more

than ever farmers need us to do our job, to put together a farm bill that makes sense and gives them the opportunity to succeed. a farm bill that gives us the best opportunities to be successful will help farmers manage the risks outside of their control. but it's about much more than that. it's also about helping rural communities thrive and also about fighting food insecurity. it's about investing in tomorrow's farmers and the most advanced technologies. it's about ensuring that hoosiers have the resources and the tools to develop new markets for their products anywhere in the world and it's about promoting conversation so that farms and natural habitats remain healthy generation after generation and doing the

conservation work to make that possible. because there's more wisdom in indiana than in washington, d.c., i firmly believe a good farm bill is one that's written with input directly from hoosiers that addresses issues important to our state. from wayne county to evansville to washington, indiana, to dekalb county, to jasper county, to rensolier, across our state there's great ideas, great leadership, great entrepreneurial skills that can help us build the best farm bill possible. that's why i took every opportunity to listen to the priorities and concerns of hoosiers who are involved in nearly every segment of our state's agriculture community during my farm bill listening tour. and in meetings over the past years plus.

from student groups and researchers, to antihunger advocates, to soybean and corn growers, to pork and drayry farmers -- dairy farmers and to just about everyone in between. i wanted to hear from all of them about what this farm bill should do. i'm the hired help for the people of indiana. i work for all of our citizens, and i took what i heard from hoosiers and i worked with my colleagues to develop this bill, to work this bill, to successfully secure provisions that would improve risk management tools for our farmers while still ensuring full planting flexibility. to expand market opportunities for hoosier products, to promote impactful voluntary conservation activities, to help fight the opioid epidemic, which is a

scourge on our state and our country, to support rural communities with investments in high-speed internet and waste and drinking water infrastructure, to fight against food insecurity, and to invest in the research necessary for tomorrow's technologies. i'd like to highlight a few of the hoosier priorities in this bill. one of my top priorities was helping to fight the opioid epidemic in rural communities. we know it will take all of us working together to confront this opioid epidemic, this horrible nightmare that we have. we have more work to do to stem the tide of this public health crisis in our rural communities. i'm pleased that this bill includes three of my bipartisan provisions that combat the opioid epidemic by targeting

telemedicine and community facility investments for substance abuse treatment and also by investing in prevention and education programs. we want all of our family to be safe. we want all of our citizens across this country to are avoid this scourge. we lost over 60,000 of our fellow brothers and sisters across this country to drug abuse last year. we do not want to lose one more, and we want this farm bill to help end this. these provisions i told you about were developed from a bipartisan rural opioids package i introduced with my friend, chairman pat roberts, then-senator strange and with senator john hoeven from north dakota in 2017. i want to thank all of them for partnering with me on these efforts.

i've also advocated for efforts to ensure farms are provided the tools they need to be good stewards for our environment, to hand off to our children and grandchildren an even safer, betters, stronger planet. this bill would eliminate potential disincentives for voluntary conservation practices like cover crops and support soil health improvement programs. it also allows states to increase cost-sharing for the most impactful conservation practices. soil health and clean water are a passion for many hoosiers, for many hoosier farmers, and this bill helps in those efforts. you need to -- the need to expand market opportunities has also come up with my conversations with farmers. i am fully committed to expanding market opportunities for our ag products. this farm bill would increase

opportunities for hoosier farmers through export-promotion programs. i work with my colleagues on proposals to open up more markets for american exports, including my bipartisan bill that increases investments in two important export-promotion programs -- the foreign market development program and the market assistance program. this legislation i introduced in september of 2017 with my friends and senators joni ernst of iowa, angus king of maine, and susan collins of maine. i've also worked to ensure full planting flexibility for our farmers who want to plant fruits and vegetables. this ensures farmers can diversify their farms without worrying about losing access to commodity support programs in the future. it may sound a little bit technical, but it is critically

important, and we have to make sure it gets done. ensuring planting flexibility is a strong passion of mine. it builds on a bipartisan bill i introduced with senator todd young, my colleague from our home state, in december of 2017, and it also builds on my work in the 20 in the 2014 and the 2008 farm bill. another important issue i care deeply about is helping those struggling with food insecurity. i am really proud that this bipartisan bill strengthens the oversight of the snap program and helps to fight food insecurity by reforming food assistance programs while protecting access to benefits and maintaining the integrity of the programs. it makes it easier for seniors to access food assistance by reducing burdensome paperwork. this is based on legislation i worked with my friend bob casey

from pennsylvania with. providing for the future of agriculture by making the investments in vital research and extension activities is another priority. this bill contains a provision of mine that reauthorizes and revamps the new era rural technology program to help our community colleges fund efforts to develop a workforce trained in the precision agriculture technologies that are expected to continue to improve the efficiency of modern farming. i have a few more amendments i'm hoping we can get adopted this week. including one that increases funding for the emergency food assistance program. this helps food banks and pantries respond to the needs of their local communities. i've also introduced a bipartisan amendment with senators smith and fischer. it allows community colleges serving rural areas to receive

funding through usda's essential community facilities program. this helps ensure rural communities have the local educational opportunities that can help our children thrive. that can help our friends and neighbors thrive, that can help create success in every county in my state and across our country. finally, i want to thank all my colleagues on the senate agriculture committee for their efforts to ensure we had strong bipartisan support for getting the farm bill to this point. everybody worked incredibly hard. everybody focused on doing what was right for america. and not worrying about politics. and everybody focused on getting how we can help our ag community be stronger, have more success, and do even better in the future. our farmers need us to continue working together as advocates

for agriculture and for a farm bill that supports their hard work. the ag community gets up in the dark, works all day, and goes home in the dark. they are an incredible example for everybody in our country about dedication to family and faith and community and country p. i know the farmers of indiana in hoosier world communities are tired of being pawns to partisan politics. they've been dealing with depressed commodity prices, chaotic trade markets, and the uncertainty of federal policies. whether it was the previous administration's expansion of the wotus rule or this administration's efforts to undermine the r.f.s. it's time for us to do our part

to make sure that this is a strong bipartisan bill and that it's an example of us working together, not as democrats or as republicans but as americans, to do good things for our economy and our people. i urge the senate to promptly pass this bill so we can conference with the house and get this to the president's desk as quickly as possible. farmers and rural communities in indiana and across our country are counting on us. it's an incredible privilege to represent our ag community on the agriculture committee and to work on the farm bill to make the lives of everybody in our farming communities better, stronger, and even more successful. mr. president, i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. roberts: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. roberts: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that it be in order to call up the following amendments to the substitute amendment number 3224. amendment by senator lee, 3074, the amendment by senator durbin 3103. the presiding officer: is there objection? the senator from florida. mr. rubio: mr. president, reserve the right to object in this farm bill when it was considered in committee, there

was an amendment added and it allows for american agricultural interests to promote american agriculture on the enslaved island of cuba. and so in an effort to be accommodating, i have said, that's fine. if they can't -- it's not a very large market, frankly, as long as we're not lending them money because they're never going to pay us back. i'm not going to object to the ability for american farmers to market our products to a market. in the end it's food. what i do think we should not allow, however, is the ability to spend american taxpayer money in properties and in other places on the island that are owned and controlled by the cuban military. president trump last year issued an executive order that prohibited american citizens who travel to cuba from staying at hotels or frequenting businesses or anything of this nature that is controlled by a holding company controlled by the cuban military, guyesa.

what i have proposed as a way forward on this is to basically say that's fine you can promote american agriculture in cuba but while you're there and doing your activities you can promote it. you just can't spend any of these taxpayer dollars at any of the facilities or businesses owned or controlled by the cuban military, the list of which is detailed and provided by the state department via executive order. that is the amendment i have offered. to date we have not been able to get it considered by any of these vehicles that are moving and, therefore, procedurally wanting to protect my right to ensure this gets included as something that is equivalent and important, i think, from my perspective, i will object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. ms. stabenow: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: mr. president, i just want to indicate, i certainly understand the senator from florida's concerns. we've been working in the last two days to find a resolution. there are multiple interests on various sides of this issue

alone on cuba that we're trying to work through so we can move forward on this as well as other amendments. as the chairman indicated, there are two amendments we're trying to get pending so that we can move forward and take the next steps to be able to come to a resolution, to be able to get to a final vote on the farm bill, which our farmers and ranchers and families in rural communities are very anxious to have us do. so we'll continue to work as we have all day, and as we did yesterday, at looking for ways to resolve this, to be able to move forward. hopefully we can do that because there is, there are a lot of folks really counting on us to be able to come together and get this done. mr. roberts: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. roberts: i would only add at this point that i think probably members who have paid attention to this debate at all,

or this particular issue are probably a little tired of hearing this, but maybe there are some that haven't really grasped the issue. we have to get a farm bill. we are the agriculture committee. agriculture is in dire need of this farm bill. the farmers, ranchers, growers, lenders, everybody up the food chain, more especially with our trade situation being what it is. i certainly hope that that approves. many people, of course, are interested in opening up any bill to amendments and having regular order and voting on their amendments. i understand that. i think we're about 146 amendments that we have agreed to, reaching out to people and urging them to come forward, and on a bipartisan basis agree on these amendments or modifying them and then agreeing to them. so it isn't as if we have not done that.

but at some point, at some point, mr. president, we have to pass this bill. and the issue is so paramount, the situation is so dire in behalf of the folks who produce the food and fiber for this country and the troubled and hungry world to at least go on for another year that it is paramount over any other issue despite the fact that some people want to come in either under reform that they believe would be very salutary, and i understand that. but again, we have to pass this bill. so with that, that observation, i hope that people can understand and we can get some agreement with regard to some of these issues. none of my remarks are intended to be impugning in any way the interest of the distinguished senator from florida. i yield back.