12/07/06 Progress on ID & Lawmakers giving up.

Progress on ID and Lawmakers giving up. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. R-CALF leaders have been working for several months with various USDA officials to prevent the implementation of a mandatory animal ID system. And with the latest developments - Chuck Kiker - R-CALF President says it appears Under Secretary Bruce Knight and other officials were listening. KIKER: I think USDA needs to rebuild that confidence and we candidly talked about it and they agreed that they've got to build some confidence back in the country and I think they're going to work towards that. But as soon as that's done then I think you'll see more producers look at USDA as a tool, as a friend, someone working for them instead of someone working against them. It may only surprise a few  but lawmakers have all but given up on completing any of the nine remaining spending bills. The lame duck congress is expected to leave it up to the new Democratic leaders to work out the new government spending levels when they take charge in January. The future of the Vietnam trade-liberalization bill does not look bright. The measure has run into some trouble with lawmakers in the House who fear it could further damage the U.S. textile industry. While it`s possible the legislation - which would establish permanent normal trade relations with Vietnam could be attached to the tax-break package - along with the offshore drilling measure, the Senate won`t have a chance to act if the House doesn`t. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. I used to say I would never do it&but I have& and I am ashamed to admit that I catch myself doing it much more frequently these days and for tinier and tinier amounts&.come on you know what I am talking about& admit to it, you do it too&. Dinky debits&More than 67 million of us have used a debit card for a purchase of less than $5.00 in the last five days. The majority of us do dinky debits draws conveniently at convenience stores, our second top dinky debits are for naturally, coffee. In fact, approximately 11 percent (or roughly 21 million Americans) purchased coffee more than 20 times over the last 30 days using debit cards. 26 million of us even pay our subway tolls with debits and more and more of us are dinky debiting at fast food restaurants. According to theses numbers I guess I shouldn't feel guilty my dinky debiting habit, really I should consider myself a bit "avant-garde" by contributing towards the move to a cashless society. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.