This morning I had the opportunity to meet with the Agriculture Chairs of the Minnesota Legislature. The four Minnesota delegates were Representatives Al Juhnke of Willmar, Mary Ellen Otremba of Long Prairie, and Senator Jim Vickerman and his wife. They were attending a two-day conference in Washington with 47 of the 50 states’ agriculture chairs. Our staff and I walked them to a room in the Cannon Building where Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Agriculture of the House Appropriations Committee, was speaking. She talked about renewable energy being the thing that is going to get the Farm Bill rolling, which has been a reoccurring theme in our office as well. Our staff director then talked about what he saw as challenges, including that PAYGO and a reduced baseline budget were going to make it really hard to cover everything everyone wants covered. I have heard time and again that right now, we don’t have enough votes to pass the bill. We need to convince other members of Congress to vote for the bill, which will probably be done by linking it to being more fuel independent, helping the environment, and then finally talking about helping our farmers get better prices for what they do. Our staff, along with many other house committee members’ staffs including Ranking Member Goodlatte’s, then answered questions on everything from Animal Welfare to Disaster Relief. Most of the questions were unable to be answered as the limited budget really does not allow the staff to confirm anything that will definitely be in the bill.
This afternoon I continued transcribing a speech that Mr. Chairman gave at the national Farm Bureau convention. While I thought this would be boring, it is really a good tool as I am learning everything that he (we) stand for. It also gives me a better sense of his personality, which I don’t get to see much of while he’s in Washington because he seems much more business like.
With another week down, I feel like I made a good choice in coming out here, and I am learning far more about agricultural policy than I could anywhere else.
1 comment:
Lucas: when you get that speech transcribed, let us know where we can access it. We old fashioned internet users that are still on dial up need to get our stuff in writing so we can print it out and read it while we have our coffee and cookies at the kitchen table. P.S. Did you know that my husband and your Grandpa Lowell are second cousins?
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