The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has run out of gas. 

Created in 2005, and expanded in 2007, the program requires refiners to blend increasing volumes of biofuels—like corn ethanol—into the nation’s fuel.

The use of corn-based ethanol does more harm than good.  Corn-based ethanol reduces access to affordable food and causes large tracts of farm land to be converted to ethanol production.  It makes it more difficult to feed poultry and livestock, and increases the price of other foods.  Although tail-pipe emissions are reduced, the use of corn-based ethanol ultimately increases overall emissions.  Also, increasing ethanol use will cause major damage to small engines.  These engines are common in motorcycles, farm and lawn equipment, and many other common machines.

While we certainly want to promote renewable fuels that don’t compete with food, the RFS mandate manipulates the corn marketplace, a commodity that can easily stand on its own, and in turn increases food costs. This has become particularly apparent after the drought conditions much of the country has faced in recent growing seasons. Not only does it drive up prices of food produced with these grains, but it also raises the prices of feed for poultry and cattle, which is in turn passed on to consumers. 

Agriculture is our state’s top industry. Poultry and cattle—sectors particularly vulnerable to the drought-related spike in grain costs—represent nearly half of Arkansas’s farm marketing receipts. The RFS is makes it harder for our ranchers to operate and more expensive for all of us to put food on the table.

Last year, a number of states, including Arkansas, petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a waiver in light of the shortage of grain created by recent droughts. The EPA denied every single petition.

Since the EPA is unwilling to work with states to address this crisis, it is incumbent on Congress to take action. That is why I have joined with my colleagues to introduce The Renewable Fuel Standard Fuel Repeal Act (S.1195) which would repeal this harmful program in its entirety. As a cosponsor of this bill, I will be working hard with my colleagues to get it through Congress and put pressure on the White House to act. 

It’s time to leave this program on the side of the road.

This week, the State Department marked the ten-year anniversary of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).  Started under the vision and leadership of President George W. Bush, this program is a success story worth celebrating.

In 2003, when signing the legislation we passed to create the program, President Bush called PEPFAR "a medical version of the Marshall Plan." And it truly is. Prior to the program, an estimated 100,000 people were on anti-retroviral drugs in sub-Saharan Africa. Five years later, when President Bush left office, close to two million people were receiving these life-saving drugs. One million babies have now been born HIV-negative thanks to PEPFAR's mother-to-child interventions.

Along with tackling HIV in Africa, President Bush was instrumental in fighting malaria on the continent. By the time President Bush's left office, his initiative had halved the cases of malaria in fifteen African countries.

A common thread in these success stories is that neither program relies solely on the government. While the government has a role to play in these battles, faith-based organizations are doing exceptional work in tandem. As a former member of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, we examined how federal funds can help public-private partnerships and reach populations of rural Africans to improve the health and education of this epidemic. Government can’t solve the problem on its own. These organizations are vital to this fight.

As we mark the ten years of lives that PEPFAR has saved, it is not enough to celebrate the successes. We must continue to the good work of this program.

The American people have always risen to the challenge to help our global neighbors. We recognize that we have moral responsibility to respect the dignity of all human beings no matter what country they call home, and that is why I am an advocate of global health initiatives. 

On June 19^th, 1865 a troop of Union soldiers came riding in to Galveston, Texas. The news they brought with them would not only change the state of Texas, but it would change the United States.

 General Order No. 3

"The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere."

These words were the first taste of freedom that slaves had in Confederate Texas. Although President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had gone into effect two years before, there were not enough Union troops in Texas to enforce the executive order. When General Granger arrived in Galveston with his men two months after the end of the Civil War, the last slaves in the United States were set free. Slaves in Texas began moving north towards freedom, or east to find family in other Southern states.

The day General Granger arrived in Texas was eventually celebrated as “Juneteenth.” For the past 148 years Americans across the nation have come together to celebrate Freedom. Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

With the ushering in of the 20^th century, interest in Juneteenth began to decline. However, it resurged with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s. The holiday was officially recognized on June 19, 1980 thanks to the efforts of African-American Texas State Legislator Al Edwards.

Although not all states participate in Juneteenth celebrations, I am proud to say that Arkansas is one of the many that does. With celebrations across the state, Arkansans come together to honor the struggles of those who came before us. We come together to commemorate Arkansas’ diverse history. We come together to celebrate how far we have come as a state and as a nation; to challenge ourselves to keep moving forward. We come together united under one common theme: freedom. I hope you gather with others and celebrate and reflect on what this holiday means to all Arkansans and Americans. Happy Juneteenth!

The immigration debate starts, the farm bill passes, I host another telephone town hall and more in this edition of the “Week in Review”

• Senate Passes a Farm Bill: I am pleased that we overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan farm bill this week. Considering that agriculture is Arkansas’s top industry, passage of a farm bill is vital to our state’s economic recovery.
  
  
• Why I Oppose the Current Immigration Bill: The Senate began debating an immigration reform bill this week. While this debate is overdue and there are reasonable measures that we can take to reform our immigration system, the bill brought forth in the Senate fails to provide the necessary actions that will keep us from having to revisit this issue in the future.
  
  
• Telephone Town Hall Recap: On Monday night, we held our third telephone town hall of the year. Over the course of an hour, I visited with callers from Fayetteville, Ozark, West Memphis, Bentonville, Bryant, Cane Hill, Blytheville, Gentry, West Helena, Springdale, and Gravette. Read a recap and sign-up to take part in the next one.
  
  
• The Unaffordable Care Act: Another week, more troubling news about the President’s health care law. This time it’s that the law actually makes insurance less affordable for lower income workers.
  
  
• Challenges to Our Transportation System: At the Senate Appropriations Committee, we are exploring ways to do more with less money. The highway bill Congress passed last year will improve our roads and bridges conditions, and it requires the U.S. Department of Transportation to eliminate wasteful bureaucracy that causes costly and harmful delays to projects. You can watch as I question witnesses from the Department of Transportation to make sure that these cost-saving reforms are implemented as required by the law. 

• Recovering from Severe Weather: Arkansas is no stranger to severe weather, including the recent floods that took the lives of Scott County Sheriff Cody Carpenter and Arkansas Game and Fish Officer Joel Campora. My column this week honored their lives and outlines efforts to protect Arkansans from severe weather.
   
• Continuing our Commitment to our Veterans: As a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs I have a unique opportunity to help improve the quality and delivery of veterans’ benefits.  This week the committee heard testimony from VA representatives and major Veterans’ Service Organizations regarding some of the legislation recently introduced. 

• Jasper Fire Dept. Receives Grant: Senator Mark Pryor and I announced this week that the Jasper Fire Department will receive a $370,300 grant from the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program to improve their operations and safety.
   
• Flag Day: Today is Flag Day. Read about how the American flag became one of the most recognized symbols throughout the world