01/31/08 Schafer on the job for about a year

Ed Schafer waited patiently but finally got Senate confirmation and is now Secretary of Agriculture. SCHAFER  "I 'm not going to be a lame duck here, I'm not just a place holder, I'm not just a name on the secretary's desk." The former two term governor of North Dakota will hold the job for just under one year under the Bush Administration. SCHAFER  "The President has asked me to get involved in trade issues, I plan on doing that and like I said I'll be side by side with Chuck and we'll be working to narrow the gaps to get a farm bill that the President can sign." Schafer was referring to Chuck Conner, the acting secretary who replaced Mike Johanns. Conner is the point man for the Farm Bill but Schafer says he's been meeting with and talking to House and Senate conferees about a bill that the President could sign. Shafer says during the confirmation process he met a lot of people who told him he was joining the best run agency in the Federal government. SCHAFER  "They have the best employees, the most mature staff, the most committed, the hardest working, those are the people who operate the United States Department of Agriculture and they deliver the programs to the farmers and ranchers and landowners and the poor and the needy. " Ed Schafer, the nation's newest Secretary of Agriculture Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott