John Hoeven: “I rise to talk about legislation that we are introducing today. It is called the FARMER Act. ``FARMER'' stands for…”

“I rise to talk about legislation that we are introducing today. It is called the FARMER Act. ``FARMER'' stands for Federal Agriculture Risk Management Enhancement and Resilience, and that is just exactly what this farm bill does, what this legislation does. Really, we think this is an important step to getting to a farm bill--and hopefully this year--because it is all about enhancing crop insurance. I am very pleased to be joined here on the floor by our ranking member on the Ag Committee, Senator Boozman, from Arkansas. He is cosponsoring the legislation, as are other members of our Ag Committee, including Senator Ernst of Iowa, Senator Fischer of Nebraska, Senator Grassley of Iowa, Senator Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, and Senator Marshall of Kansas--all Senators who have significant ag production in their State, both in terms of crops and livestock. And this is all about what we have right here: ``Keeping the farm in the farm bill.'' As a matter of fact, it is about putting more farm in the farm bill, and that is going to have to happen in order to get a farm bill accomplished this year. Well, how do we do that? What does that mean? That means strengthening crop insurance, our farmer's No. 1 risk management tool, and also updating ARC and PLC, which is the countercyclical safety net. ARC--Ag Risk Coverage--and PLC--Price Loss Coverage, that is the countercyclical safety net that our farmers rely on; so crop insurance, the No.…”