It looked like a done deal at press time. Nebraska Republican Mike Johanns would trade his title of “governor” for “Mr. Secretary” – Secretary of Agriculture, that is.
Johanns hails from the “cornhusker” state, an obvious allusion to the importance of that billion-bushel-a-year grain to Nebraska’s fortunes. And a lot of that corn is fed to livestock, making Nebraska one of the biggest producers of red meat in the country.
Early on, Johanns got acquainted with animal agriculture – he was born and raised on an Iowa dairy farm. But as many future politicians do, he became a lawyer and a city slicker.
Before becoming governor, he was the mayor of Lincoln, NE. Unlike most politicians, however, he started out as a Democrat and wound up as a Republican.
As governor, Johanns has touted farm exports through trade missions overseas, pushed ethanol production (using corn, of course), and tried to get rid of a more than two-decades-old law aimed at preventing agribusiness incursion into the state’s farming.
As ag secretary, he’ll be in on crafting the 2007 farm bill – as well as dealing with a spectrum of other issues such as trade, energy, nutrition, and food security.
Note: It should come as no surprise that the Renewable Fuels Association heartily endorsed Johanns, hoping that he’ll pave the way for more ethanol production.
Changing of the Guards
Although this session of Congress is underway with nine new senators, the upper chamber remains firmly in GOP control – with the same Republican leaders in the top slots as before. The minority leadership, however, has changed with the election defeat of Senator Thomas Daschle (D-SD) who was the top Democrat there since 1995.
Senator Harry M. Reid (NV) is the new leader of the Democrats. He says he’s for compromise and consensus – for working together with other lawmakers and the administration – up to a point anyway.
“I always would rather dance than fight,” is how he puts it, “but I know how to fight.”
The Washington Post chose to break the news of Reid’s stepping up to the Senate leadership by depicting him as “a miner’s son who grew up in a home with no indoor toilet.” One gets the idea that Reid is no stranger to adversity and is presumably made of tough stuff!
Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) is the new minority whip – the number two leader of the Senate Democrats.
Note: A new Republican Senator, Elizabeth Dole (NC), wife of former Senate Republican leader Robert Dole, takes over chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. That committee raises money for election campaigns as well as scouts for new potential candidates for Senate races.
Take This Bit of Advice
With more than three dozen new lawmakers in the House of Representatives this year, advice has been in anything but short supply as to how those freshmen should conduct themselves in order to survive on Capitol Hill.
Here’s what a staffer for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had to say: “You only have two things as a member – your word and your vote – and you have to use both judiciously.”
A Harvard professor who has worked for Republican administrations, Roger Porter, shared this nugget: “You can’t do anything about the environment where you work. But you can do everything about how you respond to it.”
What Goes Up…
What do you do if Uncle Sam can’t pay the bills? If you’re a lawmaker, it seems, you just vote to let the government borrow more money. It’s called raising the federal debt limit. It’s rather like a credit card company increasing how much a person can charge when that person can’t pay up!
No, this isn’t Alice in Wonderland. It’s the last session of the U.S. Congress where members were down to the wire on funding the federal government for fiscal year 2005. Rather than trim budget legislation to fit debt ceilings, they voted to boost the fed’s borrowing power by $800 billion – to a grand total of $8.18 trillion. (Just thinking of how many zeroes you need for trillions boggles the mind.)
Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) will have his work cut out for him as the new head of the Senate budget committee.
…Must Come Down Somewhere
With more borrowing power, Congress finally passed the fiscal 2005 spending bills. Agriculture came out with nearly $17 billion in “discretionary resources,” as House appropriations committee language put it. That’s almost $123 million more than Congress okayed last year and $393 million more than President Bush asked for.
Note, however, that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will have to cut 8.3 percent from its budget. This can be done by an across-the-board cut, or by cutting some items more than others to come up with the same result.
Prior to any cuts, here are some highlights: Food Safety and Inspection Service increased by $44 million to $824 million; Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service up by $98 million to $820 million; and Food and Drug Administration increased by $76 million to $1.46 billion. Another $20 million was earmarked for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) detection and prevention.
Briefly
• Administration types have toyed with the idea of making Cuba pay for products before the United States even ships them there, rather than paying once the ship is there but before it is unloaded. Seems Cuba hasn’t always come through in a timely fashion. Some Senators worry that such a change in payment policy could hurt agricultural sales.
• Scientists are checking cattle for an altitude sickness resistant gene. It could pay off for ranchers out west. When they buy cattle from lower elevations, some make it just fine; others sicken and die from the thin air.
February 2005 Render