11/9/06 Election Not Discouraging

Election day has come and gone - and while the Senate is still a question mark - the Democrats have gained the necessary seats to take control of the U.S. House. National Corn Growers Association President Ken McCauley says NCGA recognizes the bi-partisan nature of agriculture and will continue working with leaders from both parties MCCAULEY: All of the proposals and the things we have accomplished have been bi-partisan so we're just looking at dealing with different people on these issues and we don't think that our attack will be any different. We look forward to working with the new leadership and I think we're on target for offering a new farm bill and talking about the same issues that we have. McCauley says that means staying the course and maintaining the revenue-based approach to the farm bill NCGA unveiled in October. McCauley says NCGA's approach would provide producers coverage when there's no crop - would replace the marketing loan and counter-cyclical programs - and would be tough to challenge under World Trade Organization rules. Ultimately - McCauley says NCGA is working to create a bill that works with the current market situation and agriculture of today. McCauley says that's something Congressmen on both sides of the aisle can get on board with - which is why he says NCGA is confident it will garner a positive reaction regardless of who's in power. MCCAULEY: The farm bill is expiring and I think it's offering us a real unique opportunity to try something new and that's what we presented. Our farm bill has a lot of things to offer that Mr. Peterson has talked about in the fact that we've got some disaster assistance built into this program and you know we've always been conservation minded so our proposal has a lot to offer no matter what you're looking at. And when it comes to renewable fuels - McCauley says NCGA knows the nation's corn growers still have friends in high places. MCCAULEY: We do have friends in the committees and we still will. Everybody is on the bandwagon for renewable fuels. We sure are and we want to make sure that continues. It's on a rapid pace of expansion right now. We don't know, we're not going to try to slow that expansion but we want to make sure that it continues in the right direction. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.