mighty god a lot of history if a sparrow does not fall without your knowledge certainly the issues facing our senate concern you your word assures us that in everything you are working for the good of those who love you may that confidence guide the members of this body as they seek equitable and just solutions to complicated problems give wisdom to discern courage to be lead and determination to do your will bless so god of faithful men and women who manage the machinery of the senate without whom this legislative body could not function thank you for their efficient and productive work build this place with your presence we ask in the name of him who in love gave himself for us all o men join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible a communication to the senate washington d c december tenth two thousand and seven to the senate under the provisions of rule one paragraph three of the standing rules of the senate i hereby appoint the honorable jim webb a senator from the commonwealth of virginia to perform the duties of the chair signed robert c byrd president pro tempore mr praed republican leader mr president i don't see the majority leader on the floor at the moment and i know we're not having morning business and going straight to the farm bill which i majority in the house of representatives will soon propose a half a trillion dollar spending bill left it to the senate to make sure the bill includes troop funding and we've got another responsibility keep in mind as we wait for the house to act and that's our responsibility to the taxpayers nearly a quarter of the way into the fiscal year we're still levon appropriation bills short that's out of a total of twelve eleven out of twelve not yet been signed into law w deja and to do so in a fiscally responsible way that ensures that they actually become law as i've said and as we've all seen here there's a way to make a law and there's a way to make a political statement on these appropriation bills the middle class tax hike known as the a m t the farm bill the energy bill and is a way we can get all of these done and we know what that way is the path forward is clear the question now is whether the majority will take it mr president on one other matter related to the issue of issues i just discussed this is international human rights today and i would like to take a moment to call attention to the tragic lack of human rights the world recently witnessed in burma just a few months ago we watched in hope as pro democracy activists took to the streets in quiet protest against the oppressive policies of the state peace and development council then we watch in horror as the burmese regime showed its ugly face by putting down these peaceful protesters killing many and leaving still more unaccounted for sena sounds of gunfire gave way to rumors of tortured prisoners and the rounding up a buddhist monks who had sought nothing more than justice and peace and freedom unfortunately the news cycle also gave way to the news stories and new efforts at quote dialogue and quote with aung sang suu kyi nor the people of burma nor are the people of the world and so it's my hope on this international human rights day that the u n security council will this month turn its  tention to consideration of an arms embargo on burma burma faces no external threats it uses its weapons not to defend itself but to maintain its grip on power and to intimidate its own people several weeks ago senator biden i introduced last twenty five fifty seven the burma democracy promotion act of two thousand and seven which would further tighten u s sanctions on the s p d see a companion measure in the house is expected to be considered it is my hope that in the very or we can move the burma sanctions legislation in so doing we would reaffirm this body's longstanding commitment to freedom and democracy in burma let's not forget the amateurs that sho the world or the people who stood up against their oppressors many of whom still suffer for the bravery they showed in those days on this international human rights day let us show them and the world we remember the previous order the leadership time is reserved for the previous order the senate will resume consideration of h r two for one nine which the clerk will report counter number three thirty nine h r twenty four nineteen an act provides for the continuation of agricultural programs fiscal year two thousand and twelve and for other purposes mr president senator from colorado mr president we will be shortly here on the farm bill and there are several of our colleagues who will be coming to florida forward to having a productive afternoon on the farm bill as we get moving forward to hopefully will be a conclusion of the farm bill later on in this week before moving to the farm bill i would ask unanimous consent that i be allowed to my state of colorado yesterday on a day that many americans devote family and to fate we awoke to news that two of our young people had been shot dead early sunday morning on the grounds of faith bible church arvada colorado definite johnson was only twenty six years old the crowd was twenty four years old they were killed and two of their colleagues were injured as they worked at youth a mission dormitory waiting there to welcome back kids who were returning from a late night youth bowling trip a few hours later seventy miles to the south in colorado springs violence again dared to enter a place of worship on sunday a gun man armed with a high powered rifle stormed into a new life church killing two sisters stephanie works age eighteen and rachel works  sixteen and injuring four others including their father only the quick thinking and bravery of a security guard was able to stop the rampage mr president law enforcement officials throughout the day yesterday last night and today are working at top speed to get to the bottom of what happened they have this full support of governor ritter of colorado federal agencies and numerous state and local law enforcement agencies that are working in this investigation as a former attorney general of colorado i know firsthand the extraordinary capabilities of our local and state law enforcement officials and i have full and complete confidence in their abilities but having overseen investigations including the investigation of the shootings at columbine high school i know that however successful we may be in uncovering what happened and bringing justice to those responsible the transgressions that the nation witnessed yesterday defy reason and comprehension sunday's violence has no place in our society that five people were sho is a terrible well tragedy no matter what city or neighborhood or street that kind of violence occurs but that this barbarity involved involves two places of worship where young people were serving their community and where families were attending a sunday service stirs a particularly a particular outrage and all of us mr president there are certain sanctuaries that we share and that they should never ever see bloodshed schools our sanctuaries our homes our sanctuaries churches mosques synagogues and other houses of worship are sanctuaries and these places come under attack for whatever reason we all suffer for our right to pray in peace should be inviolate when someone undermines us right we are compelled to respond we are compelled to respond not just with a force of law but by mobilizing the force of our shared values and our of our community we must rebuild that sense of security that should all bill up every house of worship in this country americans should never feel fear in a place of faith mr president our thoughts and prayers today are with the victims of yesterday's attacks with their families and friends with those who lost a son a daughter or a friend i know no words can the swift swades of the pain that you feel i can only hope that in time your memories of the service faith and love of those you lost will overcome the senselessness of this terrible tragedy thank you mr president mr president i would now like to return to the pending business to the farm bill which we have now been working on here in the u s senate for a period of and legislation that is truly historic for our country and senator thune who is here on the floor with me this afternoon has also been one of those champions of trying to make sure that we get a good farm bill for the united states of america at the heart of this farm bill we're talking about opening up a whole new chapter for america and it's not just a new chapter for rural america this is really opening up a new chapter for the clean energy future for the united states of america title nine of this legislation which has been supplemented with the resources that are coming from the finance committee under the leadership of senator baucus and and senator grassley will make this farm bill the best farm bill for the clean energy future of america that we  had so little opened up a whole new chapter of opportunity for america as we try to deal with those forces that have kept us addicted to the foreign powers that control the oil of this world goes beyond energy in terms of the new chapter that we open up here it also deals with conservation where the additional four billion dollars or so that are in this legislation that will help us embrace the new ethic forward and conservation will make sure that that seventy percent of america which now houses the farms and ranches of america remain the kind of land and water that we can be very proud of that's a very good bill in terms of conservation it also is a very good bill and making sure that the nutrition programs of this country are fully funded we often remind the people of this country that even though it is called a farm bill and people think about it as a bill that affects only rural america it affects all of america and you see that particularly in the nutrition title as senator conrad has come to the floor and often reminded our colleagues about sixty seven percent of all of the investment that we're making in this farm bill is going into the nutrition title of this legislation that's a significant investment to help those who are most vulnerable and there are significant additions that we're making in this farm bill that will make our nutrition programs even better and that includes the fruits and vegetables program which are very much a heart part of part of this farm bill and mr president one of the things i think it's important for us to do is to remind the people of america that when we talk about the farm bill we really are talking about providing the best food that can be provided to the people of this country you know as this chart shows in countries like indonesia fifty five percent of the dispensable income of the people who live in indonesia goes for food  the philippines it's thirty eight percent in china it's twenty six percent here in america it is only ten percent ten percent of the money that we spend from our personal disposable income goes for food our farmers and ranchers here in america are providing us the best food at the lowest possible cost and at the end of the day that is very much what is at the heart of this farm bill i want to thank senator  mr president with the senators has been to where you can find them and stab now this amendment is an amendment that will strengthen the provisions in the farm bill that came out of the finance committee it's an amendment that deals with the cell biofuels and we all know that cellulosic biofuels come from a different feedstock than the conventional ethanol that is going into our engines today and it offers a great promise for a clean energy future conventional ethanol typically comes from corn or cellulosic biofuels can be produced from a wide variety of feedstocks including agricultural plant way such as corn stover and cereal straws plant waste from industrial processes such as sod dust and energy crops which are grow thanks to the great work of scientists around our country including the national renewable energy lab in golden colorado we are on the verge of putting cellulosic ethanol into widespread use the agriculture tax package that we reported out of the finance committee this may appear to be a semantic difference but it actually has a huge impact as currently proposed specifying that the credit must go only to cellulosic alcohols unnecessarily limits the applicability of this vital incentive in my view congress should now be picking winners from among the cellulosic biofuels and technologies that are out there the fact is that there are an entire new range of fuels technologies being developed in the united states that go beyond  these technologies would make would be able to make renewable blends for diesel's for jet fuel for gasoline for boiler fuels for locomotives and for marine use unfortunately many of these fields would not be eligible for the tax incentives under the current language which specifies that  fuel must be a cellulosic alcohol therefore our amendment makes a simple change it changes sells a lot sick alcohols to cellulosic biofuels i hope my colleagues will support this simple and sensible fix it will further strengthen the the the important part of the farm bill that deals with our clean energy future and i look forward to working with my colleagues on on this amendment farm bill the naming of this bill is not without meaning it is abundantly clear that agriculture and energy production are now inherently related and together will move our nation toward greater food and energy security nearly all the controversy surrounding this farm bill is focused on whether farmers and ranchers should be receiving the assistance this bill would provide with very little discussion of the tanjil this bill carries to propel american agriculture into producing alternative ols to lessen our nation's dependence on foreign energy sources mr president the two thousand and two farm bill was the first farm bill to include an energy title as a member of the house agriculture committee during the two thousand to farm bill debate i can attest that including an energy title in the farm bill was not easy nor was it without controversy however congress had the foresight to realize that renewable energy was an integral part of our agricultural economy in a comprehensive farm bill would be incomplete without including renewable energy incentives the energy title included in the food energy security act of two thousand and seven also includes an energy title that builds on the success of the two thousand two farm bil the incentives in this energy title will greatly benefit american consumers our agricultural producers and our nation's energy independence as president the farm bill before us was crafted in the spirit of bipartisanship in the senate agricultural committee and it was passed out of the committee by unanimous consent we all know mr president the two thousand and seven farm bill expired two thousand to farm bill rather expired earlier this year on september the thirtieth i'm pleased to report that after the agreement that was reach last week both republicans and democrats will be able to offer amendments to this bill mr president more than one hundred twenty republican amendments have been filed on this farm bill more than one hundred forty democrat amendments have been filed on this farm bill not although not all of these amendments will receive a vote on the senate floor i'm pleased that the leadership made an agreement to allow consideration of forty amendments so that we can move a farm bill forward mr president after a several week delay we are now on track to debating this farm bill in an open and fair manner on the floor of the united states senate america's farmers are making planning decisions for next year without knowing what type of farm programs will be available to the time is of the essence we must move quickly and with purpose to finish this farm bill for not only american agriculture but also for the millions of people who receive benefits under the nutrition and other titles of this this bill will give our agriculture producers the additional security that they need to move forward with production decisions that will help meet our food and energy needs for the next five years and beyond mr president i like to just share if i could a couple of facts important facts about the two thousand and seven farm bill the two thousand and seven farm bill is sixteen hundred pages long and it will cost more than two hundred eighty six billion dollars over five years the very first farm bill passed seventy years ago was twenty four pages long mr president the two thousand and seven farm bill also includes the first farm bill tax title since one thousand and thirty three adding an extra degree of difficulty in further reason for open debate during the past thirty years the farm bills average about two weeks of floor time and required as many as thirty recorded votes it is not just america's farmers and ranchers mr president there are waiting for the two thousand and seven farm bill food banks food stamp and other emergency food program recipients are all anxiously awaiting this farm bill to pass their share of the farm bill steak accounts for more than sixty six percent of total farm bill spending and they are pushing hard to get this farm bill passed rural development incentives are also on hold until we pass the two thousand and seven farm bill for example a power plant in rural america is delayed because funding for us g a s rule utilities service is tied up in this farm bill as a present our farmers and ranchers and millions of other americans are watching and waiting anxious for the united states senate to debate this farm bill and move it on to a conference committee with the house of representatives i look forward to engaging my colleagues this week and a fair and open debate on this monumental legislation which will govern programs affecting real america for the next five years and mr president i would also add and i appreciate my colleague from colorado senator salazar being here in managing on the behalf of the democrats today this farm bill legislation because farm bills are not political in their orientation lives they've not been in the past farm bill debates don't end up being normally partisan debates there are regional differences there are differences between different commodity organizations there everybody comes to a farm bill debate with slightly different priorities depending on what part of the country they represent but farm bills have never been a partisan resulted in the kind of partisan gridlock and fights that typically accompany other legislation here in the united states senate and the senator from colorado and i have worked closely on a number of provisions in this farm bill particularly energy title and energy production has become an integral part as i mentioned earlier of the success and prosperity of rule america and in fact this farm bill starts moving us into the next generation of energy policy and renewable energy production in this country we've had great success with corn based ethanol we've seen by the end of this year seven and a half billion gallons of production of corn based ethanol literally growing in the last ten years from zero from ground zero to where we are today a remarkable tribute to the good work the initiative the creativity of our farmers and those who are involved in ethanol production in this country and i give them great credit for where we are today but we also have great promise great potential as we move into the future but we have to lay down and put in place policies that will provide the necessary financial and economic incentives for those who want to invest in this next generation of ethanol production  made from other forms of violence asked we've got to have the right kind of incentives in place mr president or for that to move forward and to continue the momentum that has been so good for many communities across rural america and i would also say that with regard to the issue of energy production that a lot of people look at a farm bill as i mentioned earlier when i began remarks and and look at the amount of money that's spent on production agriculture and and isn't that you know isn't that terrible that we're spending all this money on on food and fiber but we do have in front of us a food fiber an energy security bill mr president and i would argue with anyone based on the statistics that the senator from colorado put up earlier about the cost of food in the united states and what that means to our economy and the safety and the quality of the food that we have in this country that support for production agriculture makes so much sense but if you look at this this bill and it's a totality the overall funding in this bill and how much is spent on production agriculture is really only about fourteen percent of the total funding in the underlying bill if you look at where the cost and where the funding in this bill goes about nine percent of it goes into conservation programs and those are in programs that are very important to america probably the most important conservation policy that we will put in place in terms of environmental stewardship that we have a responsibility for in this country will be found in the conservation title of this farm bill there's a conservation reserve program a wetlands reserve program a grass reserve program and he quit program all programs are utilized extensively by farmers and ranchers to help address the issues of soil erosion water quality winter roads and all those things across this country that are so important not only for us in par in terms of being good stewards of the land but also in many states like mine where wildlife production has become an important part of our economy this year in south dakota we have ten thousand or ten million i should say ten million pheasants estimated that is a record going back to one nine hundred sixty two we've not seen that many pheasants in south dakota largely a result of the good practices that have been put in place through incentives that are included in our farm bill policies in past farm bills and so mr president conservation title nine percent of the money is important but i mention fourteen percent of the money going into production agriculture that leaves about sixty seven percent or about two thirds of the funding in this bill goes toward food assistance programs food stamps wic programs those types of programs that support people in this country mr president who don't have access to good quality food and need that form of assistance and so food pantries food banks all those other organizations across this country that meet those types of needs are awaiting action by the congress to address those needs and get them a bill that will enable them to move forward with the programs that help address the very important concerns and needs that people for food assistance have in this country and so mr president this is a bill that is comprehensive it's a bill that struck a balance as it came out of the agricultural committee it was a bar pyres bipartisan bill want to let the a committee i hope that  can continue to be that as we debate it on the floor a lot of people have different ideas about how to address farm policy in this country a lot of people have very different notions of what ought to be in a farm bill from what those from those that i or the senator from colorado might have but that's why we have the opportunity here for a fair and open debate and a lot of the amendments that are going to be debated will i will probably support many of which i will probably oppose depending upon how i view those amendments affecting the the balance has been struck in this bill in the way that it would impact my particular state of south dakota but i think it's fair to say that it's high time that this debate got underway i also have to say that when you look at the cost of farm bills it's important to keep in mind as we debate this one that much of the cost has been associated with the tooth i was into farm bill in the form of the safety net and by that i mean your loan deficiency payment your countercyclical payments your direct payments if you look at the totality of the bail and its cost over time over the last five years twenty two billion dollars in tax dollars have been saved because of higher prices which is what was the way that that program was designed to work when farm prices went higher than the systems kicked out when prices dropped the assistance kicked back in but we've had now a period a fairly substantial period of good prices for our producers in this country and that has led mr president to savings for the taxpayers twenty two billion dollars in savings over the past five years over the period of the last farm bill and in many respects i attribute that to the success of the ethanol industry because the demand for corn has raised the price of corn in this country as the price of corn has gone up in this country as is typically the case the rising tide lifts boats we've seen wheat prices go up soybean prices go up largely because there's only so much acreage out there that can be put into production and so we have seen sustained prices that have enabled us to save under the farm bill the two thousand two farm bill payments it otherwise would be going out to farmers across this country to the tune of twenty two billion dollars and so when people criticize the effect that the renewable fuel programs have on farm programs and the cost mr president i think it's important to keep that statistic in mind in fact in january two thousand and seven statement the unit u s d a chief economist stated that farm program payments were expected to be reduced by some six billion dollars due to the higher value of a bushel of corn as i said when you multiply that across other commodities whether that sweet soybeans overall savings in the last farm bill twenty two billion dollars attributable in my mind and in many respects at least to the fact that the energy policies that were put in place in the two thousand to farm bill the investment that's been made by those across this country in this growing industry that has enabled us to save money in the farm program form a farm program payments but just as importantly as enabled us to lessen our dependence upon foreign sources of energy seven and a half billion gallons of ethanol by the end of this year what does that mean in terms of our dependence upon foreign oil in two thousand and six the production and use of ethanol the united states reduced oil imports by a hundred and seventy million barrels saving eleven billion dollars and being sent to foreign and often hostile countries by the end of two thousand and nine ethanol production is expected to increase to twelve and a half billion gallons displacing even more of our nation's petroleum use mr president promoting clean homegrown fuels and reducing our dependence on oil imports from dangerous parts of the world is more than just good policy it is a matter of national security and so this farm bill with its strong energy policy moves us in a direction that not only builds upon the gains in the success that we've seen in the form of corn based ethanol and the seven and a half billion gallons that have all day already been produced in the form of corn based ethanol but opens the door whole new generation of ethanol production this country that's based upon other forms of biomass whether that's corn stover or corn cobs or switch grass or woodchips or other types of biomass that we have an abun across this country it is just flat necessary and important an imperative for us mr president to continue to diversify our energy in this country away from our dependence upon foreign petroleum so that the american consumer  access the energy the fuel that they need to get to their jobs to to work to recreate all those things in a less expensive way but more importantly mr president so that we aren't dependent upon countries around the world whose intentions toward the united states can be described as nothing less than hostile and so with that we kick off debate mr president there are amendments i think that are that will be offered by some of our colleagues some of which are already pending at the desk others of which will be offered thank my friend from south dakota for his leadership on this bill and as he said this really has been a bipartisan effort this bill came out of the agriculture committee on a voice vote and the finance provisions that have now been included in this farm bill also came to this floor with a very huge bipartisan voice of support and so i'm hopeful that we can move forward quickly to get to a point where we do have final passage of this bill i want to congratulate and thank senator reid our majority leader for having worked with the republican leader with senator mcconnell having brought us together last week so that we are able to finally move forward with a set of amendments that will get us moving in a direction where we can finally bring about a penality to this very important bill for for america i appreciate my friend from south dakota and his leadership as well on all the energy issues because we have worked a lot on these energy issues not only in this farm bill but it in other other aspects of our work here and at the end of the day how we can have rural america help us grow our way to energy independence is one of the great opportunities that we have here is the nation and i look forward to working with both my democratic and republican colleagues as we try to do this effort on this bill through the energy provisions of this bill as well as we try to deal with the energy bill hopefully later on in the week mr president i understand that for their leadership in getting this very important new policy to the floor i like they have been frustrated the last month that we could not get on the bill and cause it to work its will that's where we are today we are on the bill ready for it to work its will and i do appreciate the comments of center from south dakota and his leadership as it relates to the biofuels issue to ethanol because of energy policy act of two thousand and five we've expanded and accelerated along with agricultural policy this issue and as you know if we can pass the energy bill with the renewable fuels standard  ethanol based fuel and if the energy bill cannot work its will then the senate in south dakota and i and senator domenici from new mexico who just passed through will attempt to put on the farm bill the renewable fuel standard which is phenomenally important to the continuation and the growth of the biofuels that will make us increasingly independent of those rogue nations and of what i call around right by its nose if you will simply by pricing the oil that you know is so safe grid to the developed world having said that with the phenomenal run up in commodity prices the last several years in part because of what the senator from south dakota has said the high value of corn as corn moved out of feedstock if you will into a new kind of feedstock to ethanol production farmland and farm land values has gone up tremendously and the farm that had been second and third generation farms that a decade ago a farmer or his son or daughter might say we can no longer afford to farm and we're going to sell it into development all of a sudden that land as a part of our energy base and our food base is becoming increasingly important and so with that i would  at this time call up amendment thirty six forty and ask for its immediate consideration you mr president this bill talks about land it talks about valuable farmland and it talks about valuable grazing land and the issue mr president is eminent domain as we all know the issue of eminent domain was elevated greatly as an issue following a highly controversial two thousand five supreme court decision known as kilo versus the city of new london sense that decision we as a nation have allowed state governments and local municipalities to utilize eminent domain to forest landowners to yield their property to private development and that's a new phenomenon in our country that is has not been and was not the historic use of eminent domain we're talking land that maybe generationally has served america's farmers and ranchers for the purpose of food and fiber here is an example of a beautiful piece of pasture land in camis county idaho that one day the county and or a city in the area could decide oh gee we just like it for open space it's open space today and as i would suggest the economics of the day would suggest that it will remain open space for a long time but since the supreme court's key low ruling farmers and ranchers in particular have become vulnerable to state and local municipalities taking their property for economic development open space designation for other purposes the recent most vivid happening happened in the state of pennsylvania where over a three year period in pennsylvania a county government has been in a struggle with a local family over an attempt on the county's part to purchase a section of their farm land when the negotiations failed the county moved to seize the land to using eminent domain with the goal of turning the land into a park or an open space along i believe it was the soft core hanna river very recently after two years of dispute over the value of the land the county with the request leaving the county without any kind of deal and having and the farmers and rent the farmer in this instance having spent thousands of dollars and years and in those amounts of litigation and court cost no winners but the family that had the farm still owns the far in the words of american farm bureau is president bob stallman he says it this way and i think he says it accurately no one's home or ranch or ranch land is safe from governments easier because of the key low ruling we are now increasingly hearing of incidents in which states and local government may be pushing the boundaries of what our constable constitutional power was designed to accomplish i read often of farmers and ranchers being forced to fight to pay to save their land from local governments looking to take them and the pennsylvania decision of course is a great example of that i believe that we in congress need to bring back common sense in determining when we use the power and what is it appropriately used for and of course i'm talking about the power of our constitution in respect to eminent domain what are we talking about when we talk about common sense and state and local governments and what they should or should not do does it make sense to take open space out of the private sector and make it open space in the public sector by simply taking if you will by the power of eminent domain there are plenty of ways to assure that farmland and grazing land stay is open space if the county or the government wish to reward the land owner and establish a relationship with that alone land owner for the purpose of keeping that space open and available but just to use the power of government for the purpose of crushing that private property owners right is simply wrong america farm trust reports that every minute of every day m r america loses two or more acres of farmland and the rate is increasing as our population grows and expands and this farm bill and what it in bodies now will tell you that farmland will probably become increasingly more valuable for the production of food and fiber in many instances we really don't have an acre to spare and when our county governments decide they want to take it for the purpose of simply changing its ownership that's greatly frustrating additionally many of our parks in this country are facing major budgetary shortfalls to unnecessarily add more parks using eminent domain makes the problem worse and to take private land simply makes no sense if the city wants to create a park go find a willing seller and a willing buyer that's the way it has been done historically not to use the power of eminent domain given them if you will by the kilo decision my amendment is very simple for this reason in offering it the amendment will determine state and local deters state and local governments from taking working agricultural land against the will of the landowner only to designate the same land as open space for parks and similar purposes it is a very targeted amendment it addresses only cases in which private working agricultural land is taken and turned into open space a park or a preservation or a conservation area less than fellow senators it does not prevent states and local governments from exercising their right of eminent domain and what we're talking about here is that it does not prevent nor deter the use of eminent domain such as taking for what we have always viewed as a legitimate public purpose powerlines schools and similar projects of public value rights of ways when necessary for roads and all of that type of thing it does not even tackle the issue of paving taking private land for private economic development that's the key low decision that i have to say is probably for another day and i do hope my colleagues of the judiciary committee would grab the value of private land ownership in this country and change us to work our will on the law and not give us apologies and local governments the right of imminent domain over economic development for a private purpose but as i say that's for another day in another purpose what does this amendment do it creates a strong but targeted financial disincentive for the local governments to get involved this will cause state and local governments to stop and think when considering forcibly taking the working land of a farmer or rancher in order to keep that property as open space every farmer and rancher reserves the right to voluntarily of course enter into an agreement as i've mentioned earlier willing seller willing buyer or into a land trust for the value of keeping the land private and all of those types of thing but to allow it to remain as it is for the purpose of openness that's already going on that already has well established law as it relates to how that land gets yield i believe land preservation is a worthy cause however farmers and ranchers should not be forcibly removed from their land simply to prevent them from making a personal decision about their private property some time out into the future let me end by saying that it is necessary for congress to discourage the illogical and unwarranted use of eminent domain i think that's very clear many of us were surprised by the kilo decision and we a new precedent being set as it relates to government's use of eminent domain i believe it is both illogical and unwarranted to forcibly take working agricultural land only to designate it as a land as an open space or for a similar purpose a farm bill is an appropriate vehicle to accomplish this goal to protect our private property rights and our nation's farmers and ranchers and i would urge my colleagues to support this amendment let me thank the cory went on my staff for working this issue i would also note that the american farm bureau the national cattle beef association cattlemen's beef association the public lands council and many others are recognizing the risks and the threat to private operating agricultural proper days and are supporting this amendment to become policy in the new  policy embodied in this bill i thank my colleagues for listening i hope to gain their support as we work this bill through the amendment or this amendment through the process over the balance of this week and i yield the to there are a number of amendments that a number of the people that want to co sponsor this amendment but i'll handle those later except for the two senators that are here i'd ask maybe original co sponsors at this time without objection talk about the need to keep only relevant amendments in order on this farm bill there was much left to interpretation of what exactly relevant amendments mean there can be no question that the senate should the vote and vote on my and then president this farm bill is called a crude and energy security act of two thousand and seven and i cannot think up and have an amendment more relevant to the economic security of the american farmer and energy security of american people than the amendment to increase the renewable fuel standard since we passed the first ever renewable fuel standard and the energy policy act of two thousand and five of which i was proud to be the floor manager and the leader we have seen a surge in athens all jobs in a surge and the construction  plants in two thousand and six alone the united states ethanol industry supported the creation of one hundred and sixty thousand new jobs while producing five billion gallons of  these are american farm jobs which helped produce american fuels and helped reduce our dependence on foreign oil and we're not aware of this happening because we have a gigantic country and four hundred sixty thousand new jobs and five billion dollars five billion gallons of ethanol being added to the american workplace you know that's happening because  gigantic disparity that has occurred in the cost of oil now versus a year and a half or two ago and that's why there's so much activity in foreign countries where you've seen a whole country saying we're going to build up a brand new country from top up full of hotels motels banks and the like oh that's all money that's the disparity between the price of oil that they're charging us now and what it was worse some time ago and have it they're buying up our bonds well i believe it is hard and as i believe it's part of the crisis with the dollar problem with the dollar not crisis yet it's also part of the problem in the gross domestic product of the united states and that it's not going to be as buoyant in the future because so much of our basic wealth is going out of our country and the price of oil that we are paying to at whatever country produces it and sends it to us now what is changes it sets a manual requirement for the amount of renewable fuels used in motor vehicles homes and boilers it will require that our nation use eight point five billion gallons of renewable fuels in two thousand and eight and progressively increasing to thirty six billion gallons by twenty twenty two now you understand wherever we use the word here renewable fuel that means something else other than that crude oil that i've just been talking about and that means it's getting produce here or under our control beginning in two thousand and sixteen and increasing portion of renewable fuel strikes a balance that will allow america to begin diversifying our fuel supply both in the short term and the long term that is why when supporting these same provisions in the energy bill the renewable fuels association said that they quote strike the right chord close quote noting that quote such an investment in our nation's energy future promises to spur the creation of new good paying jobs across our land mr president in men meant that i seek to offer and that i've offered consist of the very same provisions that passed the senate in june and during consideration of the energy bill that then energy bill that was not the energy policy act that was the next major pill some may ask then why do i seek to offer the amendment on the farm bill my answer is threefold one it is clear that the energy bill has slowed down largely because the house has passed two major provisions a tax increase in the renewable fuel standard that are untenable to many in the senate and they have slowed the bill down and they have brought forth a discussion from the president of the united states that is unequivocal that if those two provisions are in the bail he will veto the bill that is the renewable fuel standard and that tax in tax increases that are in the house bill they're not only untenable to the senate we've got to make the point over and over there on tenable to the president so what good is that to have that deal and say we're going to do it or else we'll watch the or else we're going to do nothing we're going to pass something that will never become law i wish we could do something different so that we won't have to adopt this domenici amendment here because it be adopted on the other bill where it already lies and languishes second the house energy bill in many respects weakens the renewable fuel standard in the senate energy bill besides if the senate makes progress in passing the energy bill and getting it signed into law there would be nothing to prevent a conference from simply removing and thus removing this then unnecessary pr third this amendment is relevant to the farm bill a necessary now to reinvigorate an ethanol industry that is looking to congress to extend this mandate as soon as possible mr president in one sense we have been a victim of our own success thanks to the twenty zero zero five energy bill rural america has answered the call for increased ethanol production in fact we have now exceeded the original mandated fuel in and in our fuel mix for example in twenty two thousand and six the ethanol standard was four billion gallons and i think the two senators on the floor both played an active role are fully aware that in fact our domestic production of ethanol is not forbidden it's five that far exceeding the gallons billions of gallons that we directed we can do more a lot more on the american farmers looking for congress to do more over the last year the price of ethanol has dropped nearly forty percent the reason is simple economics we have an increased supply and a diminished demand in the marketplace as a result of the construction of new plants and has been delaying meaning new job growth has been diminished and rural communities are looking to watch to take action we cannot wait for the energy bill while rural communities are losing their for their opportunities this amendment is not simply relevant to the farm bill mr president it is necessary i ask my colleagues to support this  it does not do justice to the few biofuels for energy the on a fix that and at the same time take the taxes out and take the fifteen percent electric the electricity mandate for alternative fuels i ask sincerely asked as a leader to lead or our distinguished leader take the lead in that and see that that gets done quickly i yield the floor and thank the senators for letting me it does fit well in the farm bill last thursday afternoon i spoke to that again or last friday i guess but clearly this is an opportunity we cannot pass go i would like to see it in the energy bill that's where we put it as a co author of this concept to expand and grow to twenty twenty two and get us to thirty six billion gallons of production both in corn based and cellulosic is absolutely critical this is the mark that we create by public policy and by public support there is no question about it and this is a market that can continue to grow and develop as long as government at vance's it and stays out of its way so i thank the senator of new mexico for bringing up the amendment it is appropriate on the farm bill and i hope our colleagues will consider it as a plus to the overall growth of domestic american want to urge my colleagues to figure out a way for us to move forward with the renewable fuel standard that we here in the senate embrace because it is the right way to move forward with an r f s  when you look at many of the concepts that we have been dealing with here in terms of growing our way to energy independence the fact is that the renewable fuel standard is at the key as in terms of how we get there with our renewable energy efforts we worked long and hard in the energy committee to come up with a concept the are included in the energy bill in my mind when i look at the energy bill that is now being discussed in its final forms in the in the negotiations between the house and the senate there are five key pieces to to that energy bill and i believe that we can work together to get to a point where we have an energy bill that does become a final and good energy bill that passes the congress and gets signed by the president i think we are close as i understand it on moving forward with cafe standards and legislation that makes sense to the people of who are leading this effort in both chambers the  which at its heart the r f s amendment that senator domenici was just talking about is something that is very essential it's a key component to us having a good energy package the carbon sequestration provisions that were included in the bill which we passed out of the senate i understand have been accepted by the house of representatives as well it's important we move forward with that and i know there are conversations going on with respect to the renewable portfolio standard the r d s as well as as a tax provisions i want to make just a quick comment  on the renewable fuel standard that senator domenici talked about we spent a tremendous amount of time dealing with that issue in the energy committee because it was so important to how we move forward that was a recognition among the witnesses that we brought before the committee that there was a limitation as to how far we could go with corn based start based ethanol and at the end of the day the scientists are all telling us the experts from the national renewable energy lab are all telling us that we can get to about fifteen billion gallons of production with corn based ethanol but we know that the future for america in the future for us being able to produce ethanol all across this country is based on the next generation of advanced biofuels and that is cell ethanol and that's why this r f s here makes so much sense that we adopted and that we somehow move forward with that whether it be in the farm bill or whether it be in the energy bill the r f s which we passed out of the senate energy committee  with the leadership of senator bingaman who was a great advocate and and then and a proponent of the r f s in the energy bill contemplates that we will produce twenty one billion gallons of advanced biofuels that's twenty one billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol the alcohol based ethanol that i was i was speaking about earlier today and so i am hopeful that as these discussions move forward in the week ahead and we look at crafting a good energy bill for this country that there nubile fuel standard which senator domenici just spoke about in this amendment is something that is included in that energy legislation and if not it seems to me that we may want to take a look at including in this farm bill because it is so important to the future of rural america and to us being in a position where we can help grow our way to energy independence mr president yield the floor and i know my friend from the south dakota has some additional comments mr president so the result to go to i to want to acknowledge the good work of our colleague from new mexico senator domenici on on this issue largely as a result of his good work in two thousand and five and senator salazar is on the energy committee i'm on the environment public was at the time not currently but on the environment public works committee when we worked together to get the first ever renewable fuel standard put into law and that  was a monumental i think breakthrough in terms of renewable energy production this country and if you look at the way that the market has responded to that the story has been nothing less than remarkable we have in the in two thousand and five we set a goal of reaching seven and a half billion gallons of renewable fuel production by the year two thousand and twelve as i said earlier we will achieve that by the end of this calendar year two thousand and seven my state of south dakota will have on its all a billion gallons of ethanol production achieved or reached by the end of two thousand and eight this is a great success story not only for agriculture and for the farmers in the real economy is a benefit from it but it's a great success story for our environment because it's read reduces greenhouse gases it's also a great success story in terms of lessening our reliance upon foreign sources of energy and i mentioned this to to stick earlier but one hundred seventy million barrels of oil displaced by the amount of ethanol production in this country breakthrough it was a milestone piece of legislation in terms of really launching this industry but what's remarkable again about that is we are up against the lid that was set on that in that two thousand five  bill seven a half billion gallons will reach that by the end of this year so what's happening now is you've got a lot of those who would invest in ethanol production this country who are pulling back not knowing what the future of the industry is and the amendment that's offered by the senator from new mexico of which se salazar and i are co sponsors would increase the renewable fuel standard in the year two thousand and eight date a half billion gallons which gives us a billion gallons of headroom to work with in the year twenty zero eight and then it ramps it up to twenty twenty two t six billion gallons and so it is a an amendment that i believe is is desperately desperately needed we had hoped that it would be included in the energy bill there is a version of it in the energy bill it would be better than what we have today but we believe the amendment offered by the senator from new hampshire from new mexico is a far better solution superior solution to what is proposed right now in the energy bill and i would hope that we could at least get the language that the senator from new mexico has put forward included in the energy bill or adapted to the farm bill it's under consideration right now it is that important to the real economy it's that important agriculture and frankly there isn't anything that we do next to the production ethanol to help us get there those are all important things to have one comment with regard to the energy bill it's moving right now there is a renewable fuel standard included in that there are a couple of provisions in there that are troublesome to many of us who support this industry one of which allows the e p a administrator to essentially modify and grant waivers to the renewable fuel standard dependent upon and i quote significant renewable feedstock disruption or other market circumstances and quote in other words the e p a administrator has total discretion when it comes to a waiver of this renewable fuel standard in the energy bill that's currently pending and so the language as proposed by the senator from texas new mexico of which i am a co sponsor would be far superior in terms of what this industry needs in terms of market signals and certainty going forward and so whether that's included in the energy bill or whether that's included in this farm bill seems to me at least that that ought to be the direction that we that we move to move this industry and the other thing i'll mention by way of importance in terms of renewable energy is not only the new level fuel standard which is critical to to those who invest invest in this industry that that congress is going to send a message that the policy incentives that were put in place in two thousand and five are going to be continued extended in fact expanded but secondly that we begin to look at increasing the blend right now about fifty percent of the gasoline in this country is blended with ten percent ethanol because of infrastructure constraints it is it's difficult to see us getting any further than about eleven to twelve billion gallons of ethanol produced in use in this country marketed at the ten percent level if we were to increase the blends to twenty percent or thirty percent it would dramatically increase the market for ethanol in this country there are studies that are currently underway by the e p a by the department of energy that i believe will in time demonstrate that not only does ethanol not impact materials compatibility drive a bill already not only does it does it not affect in any any way the disadvantages emissions current relative or relative to ten percent ethanol but i think a lot of the studies that are being performed already are actually finding that ironically the mileage is is better at twenty than even traditional gasoline so those studies are and they're in the works right now my hope would be that when those studies are completed that we will be able to move quickly to implement higher blends because that too is a critical component in the solution to the renewable fuel industry in this country and the solution to lessening our dependence upon foreign sources of energy every gallon of ethanol every bushel of corn that we are buying from an american farmer means that those are that many fewer dollars that we are sending to some petrol nationalist economy somewhere else in the world whose intentions for the united states as i said very well could be could be hostile so i think this is an important moment and i hope that as the farm bill debate continues this week in these amendments that are currently pending before the doubts are disposed of in one way form or another that is if we don't get a vote on this amendment that we can get it accepted so that we have this marker in the farm bill in the event something should happen that would not permit the energy bill to pas s and just as importantly getting language in the renewable fuel standard that is better than what we see currently in the energy bill with regard to the waiver authorities that exist the u p a in the in the current energy bill in the r f s that's included in that so i don't see any other speakers at this moment mr president so i would suggest the absence of  president sort of results good i ask unanimous consent a quorum call be dispensed with without judgment and i would ask unanimous consent on behalf of senator gregg to call up amendments number three six seven four number three six seven three number three six seven one number three six seven two number three eight two two with first has to do with rural america which is a part of what i have called the forgotten america since i first came here to the united states senate now nearly three years ago the second is to speak briefly about the importance of the conservation provisions which are included in this historic legislation and finally speak generally about some of the renewable energy provisions that are laid out in this bill first with respect to what we see happening in rural america you will see in the chart behind me you see a lot of red and a lot of yellow those are the counties there are some seventeen hundred counties in the united states of america which have actually declined in population between the years two thousand to two thousand and six and so sometimes what happens around this country is we look at the macro economic statistics that affect the united states of america and everybody says it all is hunky dory and things are going very well but the fact of matter is that for a long time when you look at places in rural america there are counties and communities that continue to decline in their economic well being and the very vitality of rural america is threatened when the vitality of rural america is threatened the food security of this nation is also threatened and i guess why when we have legislation like the legislation that we have before us here on the farm bill see democrats and republicans coming together many of us from rural states many of us wanting to be champions of the rural america which we believe is so important coming together to say this is a bill which is critical for our future  have and when you look at those red parts of the united states of america that are on this map they are counties and the people who live there are people who are suffering some of them are small counties some of them are huge counties from a geographic point of view but what you'll find in those counties will be people who are hard workers and who on average make less than ten thousand dollars per capita than their counterparts who happen to live in the bigger cities that's ten thousand dollar differential in terms of their per capita income well you will find in those counties if you also find a disparity in health care there is less health care that's available to people who live in those counties and people who happen to live in the larger metropolitan areas you also find a higher cost of living with respect to the prices that are paid for fuel and for a whole host of other things and in many of these rural communities so i would hope that one of the things that we can do is we work here before the christmas break is that we can understand that this legislation is very very important to the forgotten america for me one of the things that i like to do is when i travel around through the sixty four counties of my state like to go into many of these places out in rural colorado where i know that communities and  suffering we have sixty four counties in my state of colorado it's a large town a large state not much different than north dakota in many ways or south dakota many ways but there are many places where you can drive down the main streets of these communities that we thriving communities just a few years ago and now you see half of the main street boarded up and you see the pains of an economy that is that is suffering and this next picture that i'm putting up here it is  a picture of marino colorado marino colorado as you can see here is a town in my state which is not having the best of economic times i would say that at least half perhaps three fourths of the main street in marino colorado today is either for sale or has many of its commercial establishments boarded up in the way that is depicted in this picture behind me but it's not only marina lots of other places you get out into the mr plane right on one of our major interstate corridors and the town of brush colorado is a town of brush colorado again main street rush colorado with one of its important buildings for sale out this was the this was the only building on the main street of brush colorado that was for sale it's a well that happens all the time you will you often see real estate for sale  but what happens is when you go into the main street of brush colorado is you have a huge percentage of the buildings on that main street that today are for sale and this is a typical picture of community after community after community across nearly a thousand counties of the united states of america so i hope that one of the statements that we can make together here is democrats led by senator reid republicans led by senator m that we do care about this forgotten america and they were willing to invest in this pro gun america through the passage of this farm bill secondly mispresent i want to speak just a little bit about the conservation provisions of this  bill we know all of us who have followed the history of farm programs and the history of current conservation in the united states of america that there is no greater champion for conservation than senator harkin he has been a champion of the conservation programs in this farm bill from from day one and this farm bill that is on the floor of the u s senate today reflects very significant additional investments in conservation and as my friend from south dakota earlier in his comments was talking generally about the farm bill and what it's done for hunters in his state where i think he said there were ten million pheasants in the state of south dakota that is an incredible contribution to those  people in our country who love to hans diving officer is a great hunter himself and i'm sure that he would love to go into south dakota and get some of those ten million pheasant so the conservation programs contribute greatly to the quality of life that we have here in america for my life much of it which has been spent as a farmer and as a rancher i have always said that farmers and ranchers are some of the best environmentalist that we know because they truly understand the importance of fighting for land and for water they know they know that at the end of the day unless they take care of the land and water that they depend on that next year their livelihood is going to be taken away from them and so they know that they have to take care of their soil they know they have to take care of their water they know they have to take care of that place which is the very essence of their livelihood this farm bill is a historic farm bill in terms of conservation because it invest more in conservation in all the traditional programs like the conservation reserve program the grass and reserve programs and a whole host of other programs that will help us make sure that we continue to protect the land and water of water is not being wasted in the arid part of my state for those of us from the western part of the united states of america we know that water truly is the lifeblood of our community they say in colorado that  whiskey is for drinking and and water is for fighting and that's because we know how precious the commodity of water is in the arid west or programs like this conservation program under the equip program make sure that we are being as efficient as possible in how we use water in our communities goes beyond just how we use water for irrigation which is what was depicted in that picture we also make sure that we are helping  ranchers with water cross with with water tanks and with cross fencing so that we can make the most use of our resources here is a picture of an equip project which has put in live stock water tanks and also has put in cross fences in the northern part of my state it's another example of one of our conservation programs and the next picture is a picture of a wetlands reserve program near birth that colorado  this is a a wetland which was restored under the w r p program that has been included in this farm bill and which has been significantly enhanced we know the importance of wetlands  only to wildlife but also to the water quality this wetland which shows the rocky mountains with their snow in the background is one of those wetlands that has been made possible through the investments that we're making in the farm bill  and mr president finally in the conservation area there is also a tremendous amount of training that takes place this this picture which is behind me is a picture of farmers getting together going through a training seminar in colorado where they're learning more about how they take care of their farms it's a very successful program which is not only program underway in my state but also  in many other states around the country i want to spend just a few minutes talking a little bit more about the energy part of this program and want to talk just a little bit about how important it is to my state that when we look at what's happened with the energy challenges that we face in this country i do believe that that is one of those areas where this congress has made significant positive action over the last several years we started it through the passage of the two thousand  bill two thousand and five energy bill which was led by senator domenici and senator bingaman i had the privilege of sitting on that committee through many hearings that ended up in the two thousand and five energy policy act that we passed here last year we passed another energy policy act which dealt with opening up leigh sales one eighty one in the gulf coast and which created a conservation program for the land and water conservation fund which is a very very very important program and this year we have an additional opportunity to move forward with the passage of new energy legislation we which we are all hope hoping happens maybe as early as this week well in my state a lot has happened just in the last two years when you look at all of the different aspects of renewable energy we are doing more in colorado in a very short period of time than i have seen happen with almost anything else that has come to my state all of us probably in this chamber would like to claim that our respective states are becoming the renewable energy capital of the united states of america well in my state of colorado it's happening in a lot of different ways in part through the national legislation that we passed here in the congress and in part through the initiative of the voters of the state of colorado through the passage of an r p s which was adopted by the voters there in two thousand and four there is a picture of a wind farm which is located out and power scouting in lamar colorado and it is only won several went farmers which has sprouted up all across my state in the last several years some people may say these when farms are important but how much are they doing well in my state by the end of the year two thousand and eight hope is that we will have about a thousand megawat power being produced from these wind farms that have sprouted up throughout the eastern flames and northern colorado out thousand megawatts of power for those who happen to be watching us today if you want to put that into layman's terms  approximately the amount of electricity that would be generated from three coal fired power plants well my state of colorado two and a half three years ago it was almost zero electrical generation coming from wind today we're on the verge of approaching a thousand megawatts of electrical power from wind and so we are just beginning to tap that potential and it's not just limited to colorado i know in the plains of both the code as well as  in wyoming and a whole host of other states the state of texas and others we see wind energy becoming a very integral part of the portfolio for renewable energy for our future this farm bill creates significant incentives for us to continue to enhance our efforts with respect to to wind power here's another quick example of a smaller set of wind turbines that  being that are that are now up and functioning in the state of colorado we have included into this legislation amendments that will allow for a credit to be provided for what we call small window micro turbans those are micro turb produce less than fifty megawatts of power actually that's less than fifty kilowatts of power and with those small micro turbans they will be enough electricity generated from these small wind generators to be able to provide the energy that's needed to get a farm or a small industrial park or those kind of those kinds of smaller uses uses so as a whole future which is a very positive future on wind energy which is being embraced in this legislation as we have spoken about energy here on the floor this afternoon we also have spoken about ethanol and cellulosic ethanol and mr president several years ago right after it was three years ago i spent three years ago after having been sworn in with my colleague from south dakota here i went back to colorado and i said there's a lot of excitement from many of my colleagues about ethanol and about the future of biofuels in america i want to go and visit an ethanol plant somewhere in my state of colorado i was told at the time that we did not have ethanol plants in my state of significant size well that has changed dramatically just in the last two years in part because of the ethanol plant in sterling colorado when i went there two years ago it was nothing but an empty field outside of the town of sterling town of sterling is located in the place of sparta that america that struggles to keep going forward i went the farmers because what they do is they have an alternative market for their corn and they bring it to this ethanol plant it's been good for the cattle feeders because they take the feedstock after the ethanol has been taken out of that and then they feed it to the plants we will actually see in construction as we know through the money that we had in the energy committee that the testimony to that we've had in front of the agriculture committee as well there are limitations to how ethanol we can actually produce with these kinds of plants where that ethanol is derived from corn and that's why these advanced biofuels and how we move forward with this renewable fuel standard is so essential and that's why  that we had included in our energy legislation we recognize that there was a fifteen billion gallon limitation that would be coming from these kinds of ethanol plants and therefore what we were talking about the add vast biofuels meant that we would get twenty one billion gallons of  and that truly is where the future for america is in my view mr president relative to making sure that we are able to grow our way to energy independence for our country mr president  are at a point where we are asking our colleagues to come and offer amendments we've had a number of amendments that were offered and are pending from last week we've also had a number of amendments which have been offered and are pending here today and we would invite our colleagues to come down and speak about the farm bill and talk for any amendments that they might have as president i will the floor sixty nine to amendment number thirty five hundred mr president i think we're almost up to our twenty amendments i don't know of anybody else coming down on our side i know there are a couple of minutes that are out there that we may have to get offered but the the twenty is gotten very clear very close to meeting the allocution that that we have under the agreement and so i suspect that if there are others who want to have their members called up they could they could get them down here we're going to be called up and put in q and made pending so that when everybody is back here tomorrow we can hopefully move proceed to consideration debate of some of these moments and start getting them voted on  disposed of and hopefully get to a final vote on the the bill before the end of the week at least that would be my hope and then certainly the hope of senator from colorado and i would hope that's a view that shared by our respective leaders as well and i would  mr president just say to again by way of general observation on the bill as my colleague from colorado has talked about many of the different titles in the bill we've both covered a lot of the energy provisions he's spoken at some length about the conservation title the commodity title and as i was we were discussing earlier today really sixty seven percent of the funding in the bill is in nutrition programs food assistance other types of programs about nine plus percent in conservation about fourteen percent actually in the commodity title which supports production agriculture and then there is a rule developed development title but in any event it is a fairly balanced bill much of the emphasis on this bill i think is new emphasis at least has to do with what the senator from colorado talked about earlier and that the renewable energy industry and i don't believe there are a lot of differences  between this bill if we can get it through the senate and what is already passed the house there are some things that are different in the two bills but i think these are very reconcilable bills and i guess my hope is been all along that we would be able to get a bill to conference and on the president's desk before the end of the year that may be a little bit optimistic but i think it's important that we at least here in the senate act on our version of this bill get it passed clear that hurdle and put us on hopefully a glide path to to get a bill sign if not by the end of the year then sometime early next year so that producers can begin to make decisions about next year that we don't have to go through the exercise of passing an extension of the two thousand and two bill and i think we've got a good bill before us and  now we finally have a a an agreement to to move forward with amendments i would hope that we can get this bill through the process and perhaps pass by the senate if not this week certainly early next week and that would put us on a pathway to get a bill signed into law by by early next year and as i said before in addition to the farmers who are looking and dissipating the passage of this and those who depend upon other titles in the bill the renewable energy industry really does need some action on some of the provisions and not only in this bill but that are pending in the energy bill a renewable fuel standard needs to be enacted either as a part of the energy bill or of the farm bill the senate passed earlier this year as part of its energy bill thirty six billion gallons nubile fuel standard by the year two thousand and twenty two the house did not have that provision i rule the fuel standard in its version of the energy bill when the two sides got together and worked out their differences the energy bill now contains a renewable fuel standard altho to the farm bill but to the point that my colleague from colorado made about other forms of renewable energy we too in south dakota have enormous potential i think to benefit from wind energy we have wind energy i've seen studies in fact the national renewable energy laboratory in golden colorado has suggested that south dakota is the windiest state in the nation other words we have the best win for wind energy development that exceeds that of other states in the country many of our constituents would probably argue that exceeded by the amount of wind and hot air that comes out of washington d c but if you look where the end wind in this country is generated it is in that middle middle section of the united states and that two holds enormous potential for us to get away from depending upon foreign sources of energy many of our constituents in the midwest rely on fuel oil for their winter heating you've got course a lot of energy that is generated  from sources that are less environmentally friendly than is when energy and so i would hope that the provisions in this farm bill that provide incentives for small wind and then there are some provisions in the energy bill that include incentives for larger wind farms and types of projects production tax credit clean renewable energy bond program that those two could get enacted and we could continue to move forward toward development of more renewable energy in this country less dependence upon foreign sources of energy from countries that would do us harm and so i would again come in to my colleagues and we get to a final vote on this that the energy title of this farm bill is critically important  to just those who are investors in ethanol plants but i would argue to our energy security and to our national security as well and i don't see anybody else here to offer amendments senator from colorado  the republican side and twenty amendments from the democratic side i understand that we are almost at the number twenty on the republican side of amendments that have been offered and called up on the democratic side there that have been offered and called up and so if any of our colleagues are here and want to come down and help us with this process along we would urge them to come to the floor and to offer and to call up their amendment you know the fact that we are down to twenty amendments on the republican side and twenty amendments on the democratic side is a very good step in the right direction but there were approximately three hundred amendments that were filed on this bill there's no way in which we are going to work our way through those three hundred amendments and so narrowing down that universe in the way that we have has been very helpful and hopefully will get us to where we all want to get and that is to get a farm bill that can be finalized in this chamber so that we can start working towards i getting a farm bil without objection the corporal called the rol thank everyone that has been involved in getting us to this point it's been challenging but we we have a product as you know that came out of committee unanimously and i want to thank senator harkin and for their leadership in bringing us to this point i also want to thank senator conrad for his budget expertise that helped get us to this point and so many other people that have worked very hard to create a product that we all can be very very proud of we don't only support traditional agriculture which is very important people in my state think of automobiles particularly as we talk about the energy debate now but our second largest industry is agriculture and so this is a very important bill from the standpoint of the economy of michigan and we have traditional agricultural programs that are supported in this legislation which i'm very pleased about but we also do something very important we take a step towards the future in this bill in a number of ways also very important to me in michigan and i appreciate my colleagues in supporting the effort to have the half of the crops grown by farmers in united states fruit and vegetable growers called specially cops included in a very real way for the first time in this farm balance really historic we're talking about many many family farmers many folks who are growing the the apples in this paragraph in the cherries and the blueberries and the oranges and all of the things that we want our children to eat we tell our children eat your fruits and vegetables well this farm go for the first time makes a permanent place a permanent home for those growers and i appreciate my colleagues that have worked with me in order to be able to make that happen we also take a turn to the few each year without turnitin or g and i want to thank distinguished presiding officer from colorado for his passion around the issue of alternative energy as well as a distinguished colleague from south dakota for i know his interest and leadership around these issues as well we all join together in understanding that we really want to be able to say by your fuel from middle america of seven middle east and that would create energy independence it would be great for our farmers it is great for new technologies we are also very proud to be making the automobiles that will use that new fuel and so this farm bill really food in energy security bill is an effort in a very major way to turn us to that future  various kinds of incentives and supports and research and the cellulosic ethanol that we know is the future so we naturally want to make ethanol from corn and we grow a lot of corn in michigan but we also grow a lot of sugar beets and we have a lot wood by products and we have a lot of switch grass available and other things that we can use the technology being developed and supported through this farm bill to be able to create energy so that's important this is about the future i believe it's part of reform when we talk about reforming the farm go we talk about more focus on our fruits and vegetable growers more focused on energy cops more focus on nutrition and the importance of being able to support our farmers markets and community gardens and the ability for people to have access to true nutritious food in the united states this is also an important bill for conservation chairman as well for including language that addresses the great lakes water roge and lotto soil one off run off into the great lakes into our waters is a very critical issue and i preceded him including language from a broad strategic effort that was put together with all eight states and our friends from canada and the administration others to put together a strategy to  protect our great lakes waters and part of that is reflected as it relates to our conservation and a portion of the farm bill so there are numerous ways in which this particular legislation as comprehensive as it is makes sense i would also be remiss if i didn't mention rural development i don't think there's a town mr president and northern michigan southern michigan up in the upper peninsula that has not benefited by some help with water and sewer or housing development or small business loans or the ability to buy or to buy a needed fire truck to be able to meet rural needs and i'm very proud of the fact that we have expanded it included broadband access we know that just as the the telephone system was made more valuable by making sure the farmer at the end of the road was able to be connected by telephone we now know that we need to make sure that every person in every corner of the country is connected and has access to broadband and this legislation does that as well so there are numerous things in this legislation that relate to support owning and developing rural rural america supporting new technologies supporting him unities protecting our natural resources and conservation focusing on alternative fuels and energy independence at a time when we have never needed it more and also the wonderful partnership that we've established between our nutrition programs schools seniors community programs and fruits and vegetable growers who are growing that nutritious food that we want to make sure gets to our families so i hope that will come together  it's very positive we finally broke through the log room and we are here together on the floor to moving forward this bipartisan bill and it's my hope that we will be able to move through those amendments  d do it in a in a way that allows us to complete this bill this week and have the senate vision for future of rural america and energy and nutrition conservation of food products our support for traditional agriculture have all of those visions out there together before we leave for the end of the year this is very important what we have done together is an important piece of work all relevant in everybody is as i've noted before has a very unique interest in this many people come to a farm bill representing agricultural states and therefore have a keen interest in the commodity title of the bill that part of the bil affects production agriculture many are involved food assistance programs and therefore interested in that aspect of the bill you've heard me speak at some length today as as has my colleague from colorado senator salazar about the energy title a bill which we also believe to be critically important to the future of agricultural and real economies but i do want to speak to one other aspect of the bill that senator salazar also spoke to earlier today and that's the conservation title because i think madam president one of the aspects of this bill that is just as critical almost of production agriculture as the commodity title is the conservation title the conservation title the farm bill comprises only about nine percent of its total cost yet  affects more than three hundred fifty million acres of land in the united states and i want to this is a photo of a piece of ground in south dakota picture was taken in two thousand and seven but it's a great example madam president of the role played by the farm bill's conservation title the best land in this photo that you see is planted to corn with the low lying land area being enrolled in conservation reserve program but you've got an example of croc production and conservation working hand in hand you've got c r p in the foreground wetland as i said the corn ground in the background the c r p on this farm and on the million and a half acres that are rolled in c r p in south dakota add ten million thousands in one hundred fifty three million dollars to south dakota's economy every single year this year's record corn crop in south dakota at one at five hundred fifty six million bushels is worth an additional one point eight billion dollars to south dakota's farmers now want to contrast that madam president focus on another picture that was taken in south dakota in two thousand and seven this was actually believe or not was taken in march earlier this year and if you look at that at first glance you would believe that that was a picture that was taken during the dirty thirty's during the time of the great depression actually it's the result of native sod in south dakota that was crop because crop insurance provided an unintended incentive to convert marginal pasture land or native sod to crop land of this picture sends a stronger message than any words could about the inherent need to take care of our land the topsoil that you see in the fence line and did so long the south dakota fields took literally millions of years to create in one dust storm to remove the damage that you hear see here simply cannot be undone madam president assad save a provision in the farm bill that we are considering will not prohibit anyone from converting native sod to crop plant what this odd favor provision will do is eliminate the incentives found in current federal farm policy that encourages unwise farming practices which result in the consequences that are shown here in this particular photo the next photo mr president is a picture of that as an example of some of the native sod that is being converted to crop land in my state of south dakota for the past hundred years millions of acres of prairie have been converted to productive farmland and i would like to add that most native sod that can be productively farm in south dakota and other prairie states has already been converted to cropland we faced a shortage of money to write this farm bill and i don't believe it's wise to use federal funds to pay for crop insurance and disaster programs on this type of land i farmer who owns this land wants to crop it wants to farm it he or she is free to do so but let's not subsidize it the next picture comes from south dakota as well and this was a couple of years ago in two thousand and five  madam president dust storms obviously are are not limited were not limited to the one nine hundred thirty s this picture was taken as i said in south dakota in two thousand and five and once again the consequences of unwise land stewardship practices are disturbingly eviden during the one nine hundred thirty s south dakota received billions of tons of kansas and oklahoma topsoil much of it still in place in fence lines and fields present madam president the programs that we've drafted in the conservation title of this farm bill if funded adequately will ensure that kansas and oklahoma farmers no longer see their topsoil blow to south dakota and the south dakota farmers will keep their topsoil in their fields and not in a ditch in fence lines as we saw as we see in this picture madam president as i have stated many times before and i want to emphasize this just one more time and that is that production agriculture and conservation should not compete rather they should complement each other every agricultural area in this country is blessed with productive land and also land that needs help to keep from polluting the water we drink in the air that we breathe and i would ask those who are so critical of this farm bill to take a close look at the conservation title and what it does for all americans in spite of the budget cuts that have made drafting this farm bill more difficult than writing any other farm bill has been i'm pleased that my colleagues and i have been able to come up with a farm bill with a sound conservation title and i want to point out once more as an example of the benefits of the conservation title in this farm bill first off it protects and enhances our soil inland secondly it helps provide an alternative to placing costly fertilizer seed and chemicals on unproductive cropland it also enhances recreation and boosts local economies as is true in south dakota with a very  recreation industry that's created by the the abundance of pheasants that we've had the past few years and one hundred fifty three million dollars that it contributes to south dakota's economy i believe madam president important that we take a breather from some of the controversy that surrounds the farm bill debates and take a few minutes to focus on the farm bill's proven capabilities to enhance real america and to improve our nation's water and soil the conservation title of this farm bill will do just that this is one of many of the reasons one of many reasons that this farm bill deserves the support of our colleagues and madam president i would also say what i mentioned earlier today and that is i don't think there is much that we do around here in terms of  public policy that is impactful as what we do in this farm bill in the conservation title when it comes to environmental stewardship the conservation title in the farm bill is so important as i've said that the programs that have been  conservation reserve program the wetlands reserve program the grasslands reserve program in call environmentalists quality improvement program required which is used by livestock producers all these programs are designed to to lessen the impact of us soil erosion wind erosion improve the quality of our water and the sod buster provision in this farm bill also moves us toward policy that discourages those from cropping areas that shouldn't be crops simply to take advantage of programs like crop insurance and so the conservation title of this farm bill is a critically important component of the overall farm bill and one that i hope that people as will take a very good hard look at nationwide without a conservation title we would have thirteen and a half million fewer pheasants four hundred fifty million tons of topsoil disappearing every single year two point two million fewer docks in additional one hundred seventy thousand miles of unprotected streams and forty million fewer acres of wildlife habitat and again madam president you look at what can happen when  conservation programs and production are used to compliment each other another example of a field in the background of c r p or grasslands in the foreground but that's the kind of balance that we achieve or try to achieve in this farm bill that we try to strike and the conservation title in this farm bill is important only nine percent of the money but it impacts three hundred fifty million acres of land in this country and adds so much  to our economy and to the concerns that we have about protecting and preserving our environment madam president  or business for much time as i may consume abjection president and so that for most of the day today we have been speaking about the importance of the two thousand and seven which is really about food about fiber and about full about our fuel security is a very important piece of legislation and we are very hopeful that we will be able to get a farm bill completed here very soon that  can then go to the president for his signature i want to spend a few minutes here talking about another piece of legislation which many of us have spent a great deal of time working on over the last year under the leadership of senator bingaman and that is the energy bill which came through this chamber with a very significant bipartisan vote and which is a very good bill that moves us forward in to the new era of a clean energy economy for the united states of america and that will help us lead the world on how we can embrace the clean energy economy for our country from my point of view when i look at the reasons why we need to move forward with this clean energy economy it comes down to three very simple reasons the first is our national security the second are environmental security and the third are the economic opportunities for our country on the first of those principles when we think about what's happened to america since the one nine hundred seventy s and beyond is that america has slept america has slept while we put our heads and our necks in the noose of the powers from foreign countries that are the petro powers that essentially control the oil resources of our country many of us will remember when president richard nixon stood before the country and coined the term energy independence his view was that because of the formation of opec that we in the united states of america or in a position where we we're doing was abandoning the possibility of our independence because of the formation of this very powerful cartel called opec and so he said we have to be energy independent and many of us in my generation will remember the night time from prime time speech that president carter gave where he spoke about the moral imperative of energy independence he called it the more he called it the equivalent of a war that had the same kind of moral equivalency in terms of us moving forward with energy independence and yet what's happened from the one nine hundred seventy s to the one nine hundred eighty s the one nine hundred ninety s and here as we began this new twenty first century the fact is we've gone from a point where we were importing thirty percent of our oil from foreign countries to the point where today in march of this year two thousand and seven we imported sixty seven percent of our oil from foreign countries that's sixty seven percent of our oil from foreign countries sold when you think about what's happened those warnings and the visions that were set out by president carter and president nixon simply have not materialized the united states of america has had a failed policy on energy and it's high time that we in washington d c in our nation's capital take the bull by the horn and put us in a position where we can move forward with a new ethic and a new set of programs that will get us to energy independence yes this president with whom i disagree on a number of different issues came to the joint session of congress in his last two state of the unions and he talked about the addiction of the united states to oil and it was time for us to get rid of our addiction to foreign oil well he's right in that concept and now what we need to do is to have a set of programs that gets us rid of that addiction to foreign oil our farm bill does that my friend from south dakota spoke about and i spoke about earlier because we have a very robust energy title in this  but the energy legislation which was passed out of this body a few months ago also is a very good step in that direction because of the significant compliments that are included in there now when i look at the foreign policy issues  like most of my colleagues here in the senate have traveled to the middle east i've traveled to iraq three times in the last three years i've been on the border between lebanon and israel looking down it has blanquette months and for all of us  are concerned about what's going to happen to the united states and its future i think we all recognize the foreign policy implications of our addiction to foreign oil you know i asked i asked myself when i look down it has belonged cap months when i see hamas activities where is that money coming from that is fueling these armies to be able to be created and where is the money coming from that is giving them the kinds of armaments that they have today that money is coming from us here in america as we pay three and four dollars a gallon for gas for gasoline or for diesel eighty nine hundred dollars now the for for every barrel of oil that is imported into this country we are creating a wealth transfer from america to those petro nations that don't have the interests of the western world and certainly not the interest of the united states the heart and so we are compromising our foreign policy by this addiction to foreign oil and that in forces innes capable force should bring together progressives and conservatives democrats and republicans to work together on a real agenda for energy independence it was only a short few days after i arrived here in washington that i received a call from a conservative and a progressive in my office who asked me if i would join a number of my colleagues here on an agenda called the set america three agenda those friends who came talking to me that day were my former senator and a good friend from colorado kenworth along with see goys and gray who was one of the best known conservatives here in this country and they said that it was time for us to start working together progressives and conservatives republicans and democrats on an agenda to set america free so the inescapable force of our own foreign policy and our need to be an independent america that's independent from these  forces of the middle east and venezuela it's important for us to make sure that we move forward with a strong program on energy independence the second principle at stake in the energy legislation which is now under discussion has to do with our environmental security and the time for us to argue about whether or not what will warming is here i think has passed i think the scientific community concluded long ago that the issue of global warming was a real issue and yes we'll have debates here on the floor the senate there are debates i know that were conducted in the p w committee in the senate just last week about how is the best way to move forward and i think that everyone has concluded that we do need to deal with this issue and we need to somehow formulate the best approach in how we're going to move forward to deal with the reality of global warming because to do otherwise otherwise what's the planet and puts civilization very much in jeopardy so we have foreign policy in our national security we have environmental security which compels us to act and then we have the economic security of our nation and the economic opportunities that a clean energy economy also embrace we've spoken about some of those opportunities here on the floor of the u s senate today  some of those opportunities which i have seen blossom in my own state of colorado in the last two years in a way that i'm very proud of and i'm also proud of the fact that there blossoming and other places around the country the national arena overall energy lab in golden colorado is truly one of the crown jewels on renewable energy and efficiency it's a place which has been visited by democrats and republicans alike senator harkin as the chairman of our committee actually in the formation of a farm bill spent some time at the national renewable energy lab in golden colorado and there are those who visit as president bush did a year and a half or two ago will find the best research and technology in terms of energy and they will tell you that the only limitation that we have in terms of how far we can go with the renewable energy revolution revolution is limitations that we impose upon ourselves when you ask them to tell you candidly whether we can be in a position where we can develop thirty percent of our energy from renewable energy resources by the year twenty twenty it will tell you that if we want to we can in fact do it so the scientists have to have the best knowledge on the research and the technology tell us that a lot is possible in the renewable energy equation now because we've developed these technologies we're also seeing a lot of economic activity throughout our country and my state again in colorado when you go to the land of the turquoise skies my native son was valley where the sun shines about three hundred fifty days out of the year we have the largest solar electrical generating plant now in existence in the world and there are other efforts that are underway in places such as bakersfield california where a company there within the next two years will be able to have completed the construction of a solar electrical power plant that will generate one hundred seventy five megawat from one power plant there's tremendous capacity underway that is being built all around the country is we harness the power of the sun and we're also harnessing the power of the wind i said in my state on the verge of getting to a point where we generate a thousand megawatts of power from the power of the wind and we're not stopping with the power of the wind we are moving forward with ethanol and a whole host of other things that are happening and happening in my state there's tremendous economic opportunity  for america as we embrace the new energy future for this country so i believe that the forces that drive the new clean energy economy for america again our national security and yron mental security and economic opportunity very simple but very fundamental principles that should guide our actions here in the u s senate and when you talk to experts who are involved in this field they can get very excited about it because in their eyes what they see is a salvation not only for our country but also for civilization in terms of how we handle this very important signature issue for the twenty first century and i spent a few minutes just speaking about the energy bill which in the energy committee which was amended with the finance committee provisions here on the floor of the u s senate from my point of view there were five key aspects to that legislation the first was the increase in efficiency standards to  the increase in cafe standards which have net not been revised for now thirty years in this country the second was a renewable fuel standard that will help us usher in this biofuel driven revolution for our country the third was dealing with  by getting under understanding of how we can see questor carbon here within our country the fourth with the renewable electrical standard or the renewable portfolio standard across the country and the fifth where the tax provisions that essentially function of the jet engine that allow us to move much of our policy forward that we articulated in that bill and i'm hopeful that as we move forward that we won't lose sight of these key measures of the legislation and then we get call as much of these key components of this legislation enacted into law and i know that the discussions that are taking place now between the leadership of the house in the senate take place many of these aspects of the legislation will in fact be addressed so that we have the sixty votes to get a good bill out of the senate and then get a bill on to the president's desk that the president will sign i will make just  final comment on one of those five key aspects and that again is the renewable fuels standard the renewable fuel standard which we said at thirty six billion gallons in the legislation that we passed out of this body is a very good piece of that legislation i do not believe that the senate should compromise on that renewable fuel standard at all we went way very thoughtful process to come up with that thirty six billion gallons standard we had the experts from around the country including the national renewable energy lab coming in and talking to us about how we would achieve the limitation of corn based ethanol at fifteen billion gallons we also heard from experts who tell us we're within a year or two away from being able to open the door to the commercialization of cellulosic ethanol and we made the determination that that's where the future of our energy independence lies in the area of biofuels and transportation and so we said we can produce  a new r f s thirty six billion gallons that's a quintuple link of the current renewable fuel standard which we currently have in place that's the correct number because that is what the science will support and we know that because fifteen billion gallons will come from that twenty one billion gallons will come from the advanced biofuels which were pushed pushing in that legislation so i would hope that those who are involved in dealing with the renewable fuel standard in the legislation which is currently interne negotiation understand the importance of the r f s and how much work went into coming up with that thirty six billion gallons a year r f f that came out of the senate energy committee which was adopted with a broad bipartisan vote here on the floor of the u s senate madam president and i believe that the people of america would be delighted if we here in the united states senate working with the house of representative are able to complete the legislation on these two very important issues to complete the farm bill and to get it done before christmas to complete a good energy bill that will help us move forward towards energy independence and  critical policy challenges that confront us is a signature issue of the twenty first century the clean energy economy is something which we must embrace it's something that we do in both pieces of legislation that we have talked about here today the farm and the amendments have been offered we are making significant progress and that based on the unanimous consent agreement that was reached last week we now have moved to a point where the twenty republican amendments have already been filed on the bill there are five democratic amendments have been filed on the bill and what we will do starting in just a few seconds and moving on into tomorrow is moving forward trying to get to a final point on this farm bill and we're optimistic that we're going to get this done i think there is good bipartisan agreement and i think this legislation which senator harkin has championed as the chairman of the agriculture committee along with the assistance of the ra member chambliss will in fact move its way forward to a conclusion here in the senate mr president i would ask unanimous consent that on tuesday december eleventh when the senate resumes prior to a vote in relation to the amendment no amendment be an order to the amendment prior to the vote that it twelve thirty today the senate stand in recess until two fifteen p m for their respective party conference meetings that upon reconvening at two fifteen p m the senate resumed the debate with respect to amendment thirty seven eleven and then upon the use or building back of time the senate proceed to vote in relation to amendment ten minutes without objection mr president i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the media to consideration of esr as three nine eight submitted earlier today the clerk will report and a resolution three ninety eight honoring the life and recognizing the accomplishments of joan knox all broadcaster for the cincinnati reds is there objection to proceeding to the measure without objection  mr president i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to the preamble agreed to the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table and that any statements relating there to appear at the appropriate place in the record as if re without intervening action or debate their objection without objection so ordered mr president i understand there are three bills at the desk and i ask for their first reading and block the clerk will read the title of the bills for the first time on block as twenty four thirty six a bill to amend the internal revenue code of one thousand nine hundred six and so forth and for the purposes s twenty four forty bill to amend the foreign intelligence surveillance act of hundred seventy eight and so forth and for the purposes as twenty four forty one a bill to amend the foreign intelligence surveillance act of one thousand nine hundred seventy eight and so forth and for the purposes of this president i now asked for a second reading block and i object to my own request and block objection having been heard the bills receive their second legislative reading on the next legislative day mr president i now ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today its down to german till ten a m tuesday december eleventh that on tuesday following the prayer and pledge the journal proceedings be approved the date the morning hour the end expired the time for the two leaders reserved for their use later in the day that there then be a period of morning business for sixty minutes with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their design and senators permitted to speak they were in for up to ten minutes with the first half under the control of the republicans and the final half under the control of the majority that at the close of morning business the senate then resume consideration of h r twenty four nineteen their objection without objection so ordered