12/09/08 Bailout & Cloning Discussions

Bailout & Cloning Discussions plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Congressional Democrats have sent the White House a draft of a roughly $15 billion auto bailout that's expected to come to a vote this week. According to a draft, the measure would rush bridge loans to Detroit's struggling Big Three and put an overseer chosen by President George W. Bush in charge of monitoring an auto industry restructuring. The overseer could recall the loans as early as February if the carmakers weren't doing enough to reinvent themselves and become viable. USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Bruce Knight flew to Argentina Sunday for discussions on the issue of cloning. KNIGHT: I was invited by my counterparts in Argentina to share with them the efforts that we've been making on the decisions on utilization of clones and cloning technology in animals. The Food and Drug Administration has concluded that milk and meat from cloned animals is safe to consume. However - Knight says USDA has continued a moratorium on meat and milk from cloned animals. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. The proposed "Employee Free Choice Act" is a poorly named, (forced is more appropriate than free), and insidious attempt by Union leaders to squelch employees and their employers. In todays struggling economy the EFCA is nothing more than a smoking gun, which will leave only damage in its wake if left to proceed as is. This legislation seeks to remove secret ballots for workers in union organizing elections and bind employers to contracts that inhibit their ability to create much-needed new jobs. Surveys show that the majority of all party members support maintaining the union workers right to cast private votes. Union leaders are claiming that private ballot elections take too long and can cause delays. Truth be told the average election time is just 39 days with nearly 100 percent being held in 56 days. The few exceptions to this should not be the defining factor in discarding the entire private ballot election process. Unions were created to protect the American worker, but who now is going to protect the American workers from the unions? Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.