The Candidate Debate

I am currently watching the Democratic Candidate Debate for President on MSNBC. Nothing surprising right now, but it's funny that the current questions are coming via email from across the country. Times are changing. Also, they are broadcasting live on cable and the internet, but just dropped network TV

Today we held a quick hearing on crop provisions in the Farm Bill, and with that we were done for the week. This morning I was able to finish my "to do" list and was able to work on homework for the internship class in which I'm enrolled. Not too much going on tomorrow as I was given a half day since we stayed late last week and my girlfriend is coming to town.

That's all I have to report for the day, which is good, as we have a bunch of hearings to exhaust us next week. The days are winding down, only 3 weeks left.

Between Iraq and a Hard Place

While we await the Iraq Supplemental's speculated initial veto, renegotiation and final passage, farmers wait and listen. If you don't know the story, a whole bunch of emergency aid and programs were put into the Iraq War Supplemental bill, including two things that are held dear by the Ag. Committee: MILC and disaster aid relief for 2005-07 (you get to pick one of three years). While most of the projects are needed, they were put in to help add votes (a.k.a. to entice Republicans to vote) for the bill. For us, we sit and wait, not so much worried about the war (that is, we care about the war, but as a committee we have no opinion), but to see if our needed legislation will be passed. In the case of disaster aid, it will help a lot of the country, including our farmers in the Red River Valley as well as the Citrus farmers in California, (a full list can be found here, albeit from a Republican and critical perspective, but it was the only one I could find) but most of these projects are needs (at least in the political sense) for both sides, and especially for agriculture. Also, MILC would add a few billion more dollars to our baseline budget number, giving us a little more money to work with. There's a quick explanation of something we get speculative emails about in the office all the time, as the bill nears final passage.

The Farm Bill proposals are rolling in, and I have organized them by area, organization and title (of the Farm Bill) today. I guess you could say I have a pretty good idea of what the House Farm Bill is going to look like, but it would be really hard to explain. Basically, go to the website of every non-governmental organization affiliated with agriculture, find their proposal, and find happy mediums between all the arguments, then mix them with Mr. Peterson's stated opinions, and you have yourself a farm bill. We prepared for our hearing tomorrow on the crop proposals, and a few more next week (even two on Wednesday, that should be fun). Happy days!

Secrets and Whispers

I am able to reveal one of yesterday's "big secrets", which is not really that big (as I explained already), and no longer a secret. The project I was working on was simply summarizing some points about wind energy, as the Chairman testified in front of the Ways and Means Committee about farmers (or rural landowners or whomever) getting a tax credit of $25,000 for building a windmill (or wind turbine), which costs upwards of $40,000-80,000 for a smaller one, up to $2 million for the most economically efficient (the ones used at big wind farms). Although our staff had given him a one page testimonial to read from, Mr. Peterson usually chooses not to, and this was the case today. As he was giving his explanation he rattled off an exact sentence that I had written for him, about how much can be expected for renting land for this use (about $4000). I was only halfway listening and looking around the huge Ways and Means Committee room (which, by the way, is held as one of the top committees to be on in the House, as it deals with a lot of taxes and therefore income, or lack thereof) and the staffer who gave me the project leaned over and whispered, wow, he read your sheet.

The other big stories for the day were our subcommittee hearing for Milk Marketing Orders (I watched the door, but read every single piece of testimony in that time), me being legally taken out to lunch (and no, I'm not saying I have illegally been taken out to lunch in the past) by employees of the University of Minnesota (because state colleges and university's are exempt), and the fire drill that took place after our subcommittee hearing but before we needed to testify before Ways and Means. All in all, another good day.

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

We're all back at work for another week, just for you. At least those of you who aren't in the group of tax-evading citizens of America... and I was hard at work (although I am no part of taxpayer money) too. This weekend however I took my time up to Baltimore to catch an Oriole's game. It was a beautiful day in a beautiful stadium, and I'm getting really excited for the Twins to open their new venue a few years down the road. Also, on this trip me and my travelmate decided that since we are on the east coast, we might as well head up to New York. I think we're going to do that in a few weeks and catch a Yankees/Mariners game while we're up there.

I did my normal Monday routine and then I had a really exciting day. I did research, and sat in on a cool meeting. Unfortunately, I cannot say what the research was for at this time (but should be able to later this week) as it was for a committee hearing and the witness lists are not yet published. Then I sat in on one of the best meetings ever. I again cannot say what it was about, but it was pertinent to the Farm Bill. Basically another Congressperson came to Mr. Peterson with an idea for the Farm Bill. Last week I was put in charge of writing the memo directly to Collin to explain to him in 5-10 bullet points what the 5 pages of information I got was about. Collin, the other Congressperson, a proposer from said-Congresman's district, two staff members and I sat in Collin's office discussing it (of course by discuss I mean the proposer and the two Congressmen, with the staff at times nodding their heads yes or no, and me sitting there quietly, halfway in awe of where I was) and seeing everyone's reactions. It was a great time, that's all I can say.

These two things I cannot talk about are pretty funny. There are a lot of things that just are not yet public, and these are two fine examples. They mean possibly nothing, as both may never need to have been discussed or researched in the first place, but that's the great part about democracy, everyone has a voice, it just depends on who is listening. And from our meeting, I can tell how much Collin really really cares. I wish I was being paid to write this, but he seems to care more about doing stuff right, and that's my personal opinion. While we were in his office, he had no one to impress to get re-elected, and the meaning and feeling he put into what he was saying about the Farm Bill and what "we" need (we - meaning the people of the 7th district) was just great to watch. I cannot say whether all Members feel that way, but the two in the office (both Ag. Comm. Members) sure talked like it with no cameras around. Also, being on the Ag. Committee obviously isn't a place to be to get famous, at least it wasn't until now. They went on to talk about the Farm Bill and the money that they thought we should have for it, and neither of these two Members thought their work was done. They have been talking to the leadership, and I think they will keep talking.

Well, now that everyone is thoroughly confused I will just conclude by saying it was the best meeting I have ever been to in my life, and probably will stay that way for some time. It also gave me the best sense of what democracy is all about, and a good look into what a Congressman should be. Again, I try to write this blog in my opinion, and I have never been scolded or praised at work for expressing my opinions on here, but I will just say this: Mr. Peterson is doing his job, and doing it well, and I wish him lots of luck in the future after what I saw today. He's a good man.