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Senate Ag Committee 
Fri Nov 19, 2010 at 10:52:51 AM PST
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First off, it's official: Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) is the new Ag Committee Chair in the Senate. PHEW. BIG sigh of relief. This is wonderful news. She's not exactly Dennis Kucinich but she's a HUGE improvement over Blanche Lincoln, and there were fears that Ben Nelson or Kent Conrad would take the chairmanship instead of her, which also would have been worse.
Second, the Senate Republicans are playing all sorts of stupid games with the Food Safety bill - stuff that has nothing to do with food safety - and so the bill is stalled yet again. And now the Tea Party has started sending around frantic action alerts about how S. 510 is an evil government take over of your food and Glenn Beck is freaking out about it too.
Apparently, on Monday they will take votes on Coburn's bullshit amendments, and those votes will require a 2/3 majority which they won't get. Then they'll debate for a bit, have a cloture vote to end the debate (60 votes needed), and vote on the bill (simple majority needed). Stay tuned. And thanks to Naomi Starkman, Elanor Starmer, and Carol Tucker-Foreman for their help in navigating this very confusing process.
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Wed Oct 14, 2009 at 10:00:00 AM PDT
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I'm not sure when it happened, or why, but it appears to me that the Senate Ag Committee just redesigned its website. The entire top half of the page is now dominated by a picture of the many healthy foods that our government's ag policy does not promote: red and yellow bell peppers, purple cabbage, tomatoes, broccoli, sweet corn, onions, and leafy greens. Yum. It seems that this website redesign coincides almost exactly with the change in leadership from Tom Harkin to Blanche Lincoln. Which makes it even MORE ironic, because she's the representative of Wal-Mart, Tyson, Big Rice, and Big Cotton... four major forces working against the foods featured on the new ag committee website graphic.
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Wed Sep 16, 2009 at 23:13:10 PM PDT
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Here's a statement from our friend Blanche Lincoln:
I will continue to fight for the hardworking farm families and rural communities who provide the safest, most abundant and affordable supply of food and fiber in the world.
This was part of a statement she released upon assuming the chair position in the Senate Ag Committee. I want to call it out because this is a phrase repeated over and over again by Big Ag shills. They constantly emphasize that we have the safest, most abundant food supply in the world. Sen. Lincoln comes from a cotton state so she remembered to include fiber as well as food.
Is our food really the safest? I'd doubt that. Safe as in what? As in not killing you immediately upon ingestion? We've got quite a food safety problem in this country. It would be pretty sad if all of the other countries were even worse than us. But how about long term safety? As in keeping you healthy and not making you sick. How about safety as in the production of the food is not harmful to your health via environmental pollution? I don't think Sen. Lincoln meant that.
As far as the claim that our food is the most abundant and affordable, that might be true. And so what? We still have hungry people in this country, even with all of that food, and we suffer on an epidemic scale of illnesses from people eating too much cheap food. None of this is the farmers' fault - the farmers I know all work their butts off and receive far too little in compensation for their efforts in my opinion - but once the farmers grow all of that food, the end result ain't so great.
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Tue Sep 15, 2009 at 15:41:17 PM PDT
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Blanche Lincoln's hardly sat in the Senate Ag Committee's chairwoman seat long enough to warm it up, and she's already up to no good. Congress Daily has a piece up called "Lincoln: No Support For House Climate Bill." And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Note that this was all said in a speech to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
Blanche on the climate bill:
In comments after the speech, Lincoln she said does not support the House-passed climate-change bill because it "picks winners and losers" and "places a disproportionate share of the burden" on her home state of Arkansas in particular and rural and poor America in general. Lincoln said she will not support a climate change bill in the Senate if it is similar to the House-passed bill.
Blanche on the estate tax: She calls it an "absolute disadvantage" to farm and ranch families.
Blanch on the Clean Water Act:
Moving to the environment, Lincoln said a provision in the Clean Water Restoration Act passed by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that covers "the waters of the United States" rather than "navigable" waters needs to be amended so EPA does not interpret it to cover all waters.
"We've seen in the past where the imagination can be stretched," Lincoln said. "We don't need the imagination to be stretched right now."
Blanche on free trade:
Lincoln also addressed trade, arguing that the world market for U.S. farmers "is not free or fair at this juncture." The Bush administration made concessions on agriculture in the Doha round negotiations last year even though other countries had not reciprocated, she said, adding that any further negotiations should start "with a new text." She also urged the Obama administration to push the Colombia and Panama free trade agreements and make it easier to sell U.S. products in Cuba.
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Mon Sep 14, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT
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Recently I've had a lot to say about new Senate Ag Committee chair Blanche Lincoln, most all of it negative. However, even though she's the chair, she's limited in her ability to really change the priorities of the committee. Sitting next to her on Ag are four powerful committee chairs: Harkin (HELP), Leahy (Judiciary), Baucus (Finance), and Conrad (Budget). Lincoln has some measure of freedom to pursue what she wants, but she has to keep those four happy. Both Leahy and Harkin are committed to conservation and organics. Additionally, Harkin comes from a corn and soy state (IA), and Leahy comes from a major dairy state (VT), so they will always represent those interests.
Lincoln herself faces two challenges in keeping her spot as Ag Committee Chair. First, she needs to get re-elected in 2010. Second, Harkin can actually take his chairmanship back from her if he wants. My hunch is the more likely of these two scenarios is Lincoln losing her election. I don't know why Harkin would take back his chairmanship unless a) Dodd decided to take HELP from Harkin or b) Harkin was REALLY REALLY unhappy with what Lincoln was doing on Ag. Translation: This is not a very likely scenario, but it is something that Lincoln will have in the back of her mind when negotiating with Harkin over bills considered by the committee.
At stake is the writing of the 2012 farm bill. As the chair during 2009-2010, Lincoln will get to write the Child Nutrition Reauthorization, but whoever is chair in 2012 will write the next farm bill and that's a BIG deal. I really, REALLY hope Lincoln's not in charge at that time.
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Tue Sep 08, 2009 at 22:12:51 PM PDT
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The Senate upheaval caused by the death of Ted Kennedy appears to be very, very bad. Kennedy chaired the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee. Second and third in line for the chairmanship are Dodd and Harkin. According to the Washington Post, Dodd will decline HELP to stay at Banking and Harkin will leave Agriculture for HELP. The next 3 in line for Ag already have influential chairmanships that they won't give up (Baucus in Finance, Conrad in Budget, and Leahy in Judiciary), and 4th in line is Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas. Yuck. (If, for some reason, Lincoln declined the Ag Chair position, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan would get it, and that would be good.)
The only silver lining here is that Lincoln faces a rough 2010 re-election race, and she might lose.
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Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 18:00:25 PM PDT
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A friend (who I trust) assures me we have nothing to worry about. Previously I posted a nightmare scenario that could occur if Chris Dodd didn't move from chairing the Banking Committee to taking over Sen. Kennedy's spot as HELP Committee chair (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions). Don't worry, my friend said, Dodd will go to HELP and that means Harkin will stay put as Ag Committee Chair.
The reason? This is Dodd's chance to separate himself from the trouble going on in banking, while simultaneously scoring a legacy if he can manage to deliver up health care reform as chair of HELP. Good idea, Sen. Dodd. Go do that.
As for all of the less-than-complimentary things I said about Sen. Blanche Lincoln? Well, that still stands. She might not be our next Ag Committee Chair, but she still sucks.
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Thu Aug 27, 2009 at 15:22:52 PM PDT
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The death of Ted Kennedy just went from "that's sad" to "oh shit!" I've been saying for ages that we're lucky to have Tom Harkin chairing the Senate Ag Committee because he takes some very good stances on things like organics and child nutrition. And I've also said that if we want true change in food & ag policy, we need to shake up the membership and leadership of both ag committees, particularly the House.
Well, with the loss of Sen. Kennedy, we might be getting that shake-up, but not in a good way. Kennedy chaired the Senate's HELP committee (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions). Next in line for that post is Dodd, who already chairs Banking. If Dodd keeps his chairmanship for Banking, then the HELP chairmanship goes to Harkin. And if Harkin takes it... then there's a vacancy for Ag.
Next in line for the Ag chairmanship are Kent Conrad, Max Baucus, and Pat Leahy. However, right now Conrad's got Budget, Baucus has Finance, and Leahy has Judiciary. There's about zero chance that any of them would give up those posts in order to take Agriculture. Next in line for Ag is.... Blanche Lincoln (D-Tyson & Walmart). And that's some seriously bad news.
In addition to her conservative policy positions, here's a taste of who in the lobbying world used to work for Sen. Lincoln:
Greg Means (Alpine Group) - Managed Blanche Lincoln's 1992 House campaign
Charles Barnett (Alpine Group) - Leg Asst to Blanche Lincoln 1999-2003
Clients: 3M, BP America, Home Depot, Renewable Energy Group Inc
Kelly Bingel (Mehman Vogel Castagnetti, Inc) - Chief of Staff to Blanche Lincoln 1993-2005
Clients: Abbott Labs, America's Health Insurance Plans, American Petroleum Institute, Business Round Table, Clean Energy Fuels Corporation (a natural gas company), Merck, Proctor & Gamble, Walmart
Ben Noble (Troutman Sanders Public Affairs Group, LLC) - Policy Advisor to Blanche Lincoln 2000-2001
Clients: Agricultural Development Council, Anheuser Busch, Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Authority, Monsanto, National Cotton Council of America, USA Rice Federation
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Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 10:30:06 AM PDT
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Today the Senate Ag Committee held a hearing about child nutrition. There were two panels, but I'd like to focus on the second one for now - I'll get to the first one later. The second one involved one health professional and three industry representatives - one for dairy, one for Mars (as in the candy), and one for the American Beverage Association (i.e. soft drinks). Each of the industry reps presented their own special lines of bullshit, and Harkin totally took them to task over it. It was awesome. I wish I had some popcorn to munch while watching!!
UPDATE: If you want to express your thoughts to the Senate Ag committee, the committee # is 202-224-2035.
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Wed Mar 18, 2009 at 18:53:59 PM PDT
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Earlier I posted about the first half of the Senate Ag Committee hearing on child nutrition. The first half had to do with school food. This is about the second half, which is on food outside of school.
Panel II: Improving Nutrition for Children When They're Not in School
Dr. David Paige, Professor
Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, MD
Mr. Kenneth Hecht, Executive Director
California Food Policy Advocates, Oakland, CA
Ms. Lucy Nolan, Executive Director
End Hunger Connecticut, Hartford, CT
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Wed Mar 18, 2009 at 08:00:00 AM PDT
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A few weeks ago, the Senate Ag Committee held a hearing on child nutrition programs. And what better way for me to deal with insomnia than by watching replays of Senate committee hearings? So here's the scoop.
The chair, Sen. Harkin (D-IA), kicked off the hearing with a statement. He called child nutrition a "down payment on comprehensive health reform." Well done, Sen. Harkin. Ranking Republican Saxby Chambliss spoke next. He made generally positive comments about child nutrition and bipartisanship.
Then the hearing began with its first panel (agenda below). This diary covers the first panel about school lunch. A second diary will address the panel on food outside of school.
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