E15
Floor Speech
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, a top issue for Iowans and particularly an issue in these midterm elections is the farm economy, which isn't very good. Farmers continue to face stronger headwinds. It is not profitable today, particularly in grain farming. It is not just an Iowa issue. It is not just an American issue. I recently read that Brazil farmers are being foreclosed on because of low prices there as well.
There are two ways of attacking this. There are only two sides of a ledger. We can help lower input costs and increase markets for farmers. Farmers continue to say they don't want checks from the Treasury that are often passed on to the input suppliers; they want their prices from the marketplace.
So I have a solution about the marketplace. I and other Senators, both Republican and Democrat, have been talking about the ethanol issue of E15. We have been doing that for months now. I have been sharing that year-round E15 would create a nearly $14 billion increase in demand for corn in the United States. Those figures come from economists and the Iowa Corn Growers Association.
But this does not show the full picture. E15 would also add $25.8 billion to the national gross domestic product and 128,000 jobs. Most of the jobs and value created from E15 support rural communities. High- paying jobs go to local ethanol plants, grain cooperatives, ag equipment manufacturing, and other agriculture suppliers. And, of course, the farmers benefit from it as well.
During my annual 99-county Q&As that I hold around the State--this year and each year--I have heard directly from Iowans at county farm bureaus, other businesses, and cooperatives how year-round E15 will support the rural American economy.
It is time, then, that the Senate pass E15 legislation. It is good for the farmers. It is good for good-paying jobs in rural America. It is good for the environment because ethanol is cleaner burning than gasoline from fossil fuels. It is good for national security, as we depend less on foreign sources of energy. So I like to say when I do a ribbon-cutting at the opening of an ethanol plant, it is good, good, good. You have heard it too: M'm, m'm good.
I want to speak also about ethanol and E15 as a process right here in the U.S. Senate, and I think it is about time that this be highlighted by both Democrats and Republicans from agricultural States that support E15 but don't talk about it enough. Now, it could be handled as a separate issue in the U.S. Senate, and that would be the appropriate way to do it. But you know, when the Senate is only in session about 3 days out of the week, we aren't getting much done with separate pieces of legislation. So something like E15 is going to have to find a home in some other bill--the farm bill, the Defense bill, appropriations bills. But we aren't talking about what that is going to do. I just mentioned three possibilities, and there aren't a whole lot of other possibilities.
There is even talk around here that you don't hear or read in the press, but talk about maybe the government is going to shut down just before the election, that maybe Democrats want the government shut down just before the election. Then, you know what, you get into continuing resolutions, and continuing resolutions are usually what we call clean--nothing added to it.
So let's say we get to October 1 and there are no appropriations bills. Then you have a continuing resolution until Thanksgiving. Then you don't pass appropriations bills and you have a continuing resolution until Christmas. And then Christmas comes and you have a continuing resolution that maybe takes you over into the new calendar year, middle of February. And if those are all clean appropriations bills, where are you going to put E15 if it is not on the farm bill or the Defense bill or appropriations bills?
Now, we have to start thinking about that, both Republicans and Democrats, from farm States that support ethanol. We have to be thinking about what we are going to do if this isn't going to come up as a separate bill on the floor of the U.S. Senate. And I think we had better put our heads together. That is probably at least 28 Senators from grain-growing States in the United States where we grow. At least 14 States, 28 Senators better put our heads together, or we are going to lose the opportunity of getting E15.
It is through the House of Representatives. It is further than it has ever been. And if we miss this opportunity, we may never get E15 and lose that $14 billion that the economists for the Iowa corn growers tell us that we are going to get--increased price of grain.
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