12/12/06 Peterson Takes Control

Peterson takes control. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. While it's been expected since the Democrats won enough seats to take control of Congress in the November election - it wasn't official until Thursday night. But now - the House Democratic Caucus has officially selected Minnesota's Collin Peterson to Chair the House Ag Committee for the 110th Congress. That means Peterson will be in the driver's seat as the committee works to reauthorize farm programs in the 2007 farm bill. On Friday - Congressman Peterson addressed his plans for the next farm bill with reporters. Right now - Peterson says it's nearly impossible to make any decisions as its unknown how much money the Committee will have to work with. But he says he's currently working to conduct the research and gather the information needed to make wise decisions in a timely fashion once the baseline number is available. PETERSON: My preliminary discussions with Chairman Harkin over in the Senate is that we will try to move expeditiously with the hope of finishing the bill in the House and the Senate this summer at least before the August recess if not before. That will give our staff the time over the August recess to do a lot of the work that needs to be done to reconcile the two bills with the idea of coming back after Labor Day and finishing the conference report in time to get it to the President for signature before the current bill expires on September 30th. And while no final decisions have been made - Peterson says folks may feel like they're stepping back in time when the Democrats make decisions related to the jurisdictions of the subcommittees. PETERSON: We're kind of heading towards the idea of going back to the way things used to be back; way back when I guess in the 80's when they used to write the bills in subcommittee in public with amendments and the way I think things should be done and so we're proceeding along those lines and we're hoping to be able to operate that way. Despite the possible changes in the process used to write the bill - Peterson says to expect a bill that looks similar to the 2002 version. Peterson was originally in favor of an extension of the current farm bill - but has since changed his mind - noting that he sees the need for a couple changes. PETERSON: I want to try to concentrate on getting a permanent disaster program into the current bill. I'd like to see the Secretary have permanent authority so we don't have to end up doing these ad hoc bills every couple of years. And the other area that I really want to put a lot of focus in this farm bill is in the renewable fuels area. I think it's a great opportunity for agriculture. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.