Turnout Key to Election Outcome on All Fronts
With President Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney running neck and neck, and several key House and Senate races much closer than expected, turnout on November 6 will be the key to who lives in the White House for the next four years and who controls Congress. With the “undecided” portion of the electorate down to less than an estimated 2 percent, polling late this week showed Romney and Obama each with about 49 percent of the vote, with last-minute campaigning in full swing after a two-day respite due to Hurricane Sandy. At this point in 2008, Obama enjoyed a 14-point lead against Sen. John McCain. While it appears the GOP will retain control of the House, picking up a seat or two, key Senate races in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Montana, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota and Virginia are all too close to call, with none of the front-runners enjoying more than a four-point lead just four days before the general election. A big issue at this point for most voters is the economy – jobs, taxes, growth and regulations. Agri-Pulse reported this week on its tracking of agriculture/agribusiness political action committee (PAC) contributions, and the bottom line is ag favored Republicans in this election by 2-1, shifting away from a traditional even split between Republicans and Democrats. Total contributions from producer group PACs as well as those controlled by supply groups and processor trade associations was $15.3 million to all federal candidates in the last year. The business community seeks greater certainty from Washington, D.C., on prospective regulations and a plan to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff,” jump starting the economy out of its currently sluggish “recovery.” Personal issues center on broadening the employment base and individual tax rates, both in play as Congress prepares to return to Washington after the election for a lame duck session.
Farm Bill Slips as Lame Duck Priority
House GOP leadership continues to swear it will take up a “tweaked” five-year Farm Bill when it returns for the post-election lame duck session, but the fiscal cliff and Hurricane Sandy may push re-authorization of farm programs further down the legislative agenda. The number one item for the lame duck session is ensuring there’s no headlong rush over the fiscal cliff with its expiring tax cuts and January, 2013, mandatory budget cuts, the mere presence of which the U.S. business community says is dragging down the economy. House and Senate ag veterans said this week some form of farm program action will be taken, but Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) was the most cynical, saying if President Obama is re-elected, it will likely be a five-year bill; if Gov. Mitt Romney wins, it would more than likely be a five-month extension of 2008 programs so the new administration can puts its mark on the new programs. Sen. Pat Roberts told a Kansas audience this week he sees quick action on the Farm Bill – “we will get it done” – but the biggest stumbling block is federal food stamp program costs. The Senate-passed Farm Bill cuts $4 billion out of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the new title for food stamps, while the House cuts $16 billion, mostly through re-invention of management and state authorities. However, others contend there’s still no agreement among producer groups on farm program re-authorization – the House committee bill includes marketing loans and deficiency payments, the Senate bill does not – so a “quick” resolution of the Farm Bill may be elusive.
Ag Dodges Hurricane Sandy Bullet; Puts Emergency Aid on Lame Duck Agenda
Call it unprecedented, historic, the “storm of the century” or the “perfect storm,” Hurricane Sandy left a wake of nearly $20 billion in property damage from North Carolina to Boston this week. Lost business and other impacts are expected to ratchet that figure closer to $50 billion when all the numbers are in. While the most severe damage was centered on New York City and New Jersey, reports on how agriculture fared during the hurricane indicate damage was relatively minor, with reports of flooding at poultry grow-out facilities, wind damage to outbuildings, etc. Specialty crop and other harvests were mostly complete, and business is quickly returning to normal after shutting down Monday and Tuesday this week. However, congressional delegations from the hardest hit states are demanding Congress immediately approve a massive package of emergency relief spending, even after the Administration pushed nearly $35 million into New York City and New Jersey within hours of Sandy’s assault. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said his state was hit by an unprecedented natural disaster and the federal response should be equally unprecedented. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), chairman of a Senate subcommittee that oversees surface transportation and marine infrastructure, after touring the damage in New Jersey, said he’d return to fight for the necessary funds to “rebuild and improve infrastructure in New Jersey.” Schumer, Lautenberg and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) sent a letter this week to President Obama asking him to use his authority granted under a 1974 disaster law to pay 90-100 percent of the cost of disaster relief for New York State and New Jersey. The normal maximum federal rate is 75 percent. However, both Democrat and GOP Senate leadership this week said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has money in the bank since it’s the beginning of the federal fiscal year, and Congress is likely to wait for solid estimates of Sandy’s damage before moving to authorize through a supplemental appropriations bill any emergency spending. For itself, FEMA executives say they’ll likely need a cash infusion to deal with the post-Sandy clean-up. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, wants $12 billion in emergency spending authorized for FEMA’s use immediately upon Congress’ return for the lame duck session later this month. If authorized as emergency spending, no offsets or cuts in other programs are required under congressional budget rules. Fiscally conservative Republicans in the House are expected to insist any new disaster spending be offset by cuts in other federal programs.
USDA Reminds Farmers, Ranchers on Emergency Assistance
In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture wasted no time in pushing out two press releases, one reminding farmers and ranchers to keep comprehensive records of their losses, while the second three-page release detailed what individual agencies within USDA are providing as disaster assistance. The records release told farmers to keep records that document all losses, including livestock and poultry deaths, as well as expenses for feed purchases and “extraordinary costs” because of lost supplies or transportation costs. Producers were told to document the number and type of livestock lost, “supplemented if possible” by photos or video records of ownership and losses; the dates of animal deaths supported by “birth recordings or purchase receipts;” costs of moving livestock to safer grounds or animals to new pastures; feed purchases if supplies or grazing pastures are destroyed; crop records, including seed and fertilizer purchases, planting and production records; pictures of on-farm storage facilities destroyed by wind or flood damage; and “evidence of damaged farm land.” Details of the claims process and other actions taken by USDA post-Hurricane Sandy can be found by going to www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=hurricaneinfo.xml.
AHI, AFIA Contend Waxman Ag Antibiotics Bill is Overreach
The animal health industry says its complicated product distribution system – along with a labeling system that allows for marketing to multiple species – make it nearly impossible for drug makers to tell the Food and Drug Administration who’s buying what feed antibiotic for what reason, a major priority of those seeking to end on-farm antibiotic use altogether and the subject of legislation to be introduced by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), ranking member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, which oversees FDA. Waxman’s bill will include requirements for “feed mills” to report feeds mixed using low-level antibiotics, to whom the feeds are sold, for what species and for what purpose the antibiotics are to be used. The American Feed Industry Association says collecting such data would be expensive, complicated and will likely result in private transaction data – now protected – possibly being reported to FDA and subject to Freedom of Information Act requests by anti-antibiotic groups. The Animal Health Institute, which represents animal drug manufacturers, has recommended to FDA it partner with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to collect more farm data if that’s shown to be necessary. It points to the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System – a joint antibiotic resistance project of FDA, USDA and the Centers for Disease Control – which has a new goal of developing a sampling system that is “more representative of food animal production and consumption.” Meanwhile, FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine continues to move forward with an industry cooperative approach, the intention being to eliminate feed efficiency/growth promotion claims for antibiotics and re-invention of the “disease prevention” claim now allowed. At the same time, all antibiotics would only be available for inclusion in feed and water through an expanded Veterinary Feed Direction process, one which requires a veterinarian to effectively “order” the use of the drugs and transmit that order to feed mills. Last week, internal FDA memos were leaked which showed agency frustration with industry push-back on some of its proposals, along with confirmation the agency has regulatory “options” ready to go if the cooperative program on antibiotic use doesn’t work to reduce overall antimicrobial use in animals.
House Panel MF Global Report Expected During Lame Duck
The MF Global bankruptcy, the eighth largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, worked its way into House re-election campaigns this week, and the House Financial Services Committee confirmed it will release its report on the committee’s MF Global investigation “in the near future,” meaning once Congress returns for the lame duck session. The October 31 anniversary of the trading company’s financial collapse prompted Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) to release a press statement this week in which he points out it’s been a year of Hill and administration investigations since MF Global went bankrupt and still no criminal charges have been filed against anyone for misusing $1.6 billion in customer money. Huelskamp said, “For all the talk of the Obama Administration and its Justice Department cracking down on Wall Street misdeeds, a glaring and intentional oversight is the failure to prosecute John Corzine at MF Global for the theft of more than $1 billion.” Corzine, a former Senator and governor of New Jersey, was MF Global’s CEO. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), a member of the Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee, put out a statement this week, saying “… the events surrounding MFG cast doubts on the strength of our market protections as well as the ability of the designated federal regulators to prevent violations of the trust of account holders.” The New York Times reported it’s likely no criminal charges will be filed against any MF Global executives, and that MF Global customers have received 82 percent of their missing money, but are still owed “millions of dollars.”
NGFA Wants STB to Make Freight Rate Challenges Easier
The federal Surface Transportation Board needs to make its rules and policies on rail shipper freight rate challenges easier, the National Grain & Feed Association said this week. NGFA submitted a statement to the STB, commending it for proposing changes to the process by which a shipper can challenge an allegedly unfair freight rate, but said the STB proposal falls short of achieving its published goal. The STB should begin a new more comprehensive, in-depth review of the “so-called ‘simplified standards’ for rail rate regulation” with the goal of proposing further and more significant changes. The agency should ask Congress for additional authority if the STB believes its process for challenging unreasonable freight rates is lacking.
BIO, Seed Association Cut Deal on Expired Patents
The American Seed Trade Association and the Biotechnology Industry Organization announced this week that they’ve cut a first-tier deal on how off-patent biotech seeds will be handled, a move to resolve issues of patent infringement between seed companies and farmers. The agreement – formally called the “Generic Event Marketability & Access Agreement” – was signed off by the two organizations and now individual seed companies are being invited to sign it. The pact was inspired by the expiration of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready 1 in 2015, and other firms want to use the technology and farmers want cheaper seeds. The second stage of the agreement – still in the works, but expected by December – will deal with data use and compensation.
Companies Need to Register with FDA on FSMA Implementation
Companies still not registered with the Food and Drug Administration through the biennial facility registration process mandated by the new Food Safety Modernization Act should not wait for further guidance from FDA, but should register immediately. The deadline for registration is December 31, 2012. FDA says any further guidance it publishes will be minor and not provide any further information on which companies are required to register, as many in the industry hoped. Further, preventive control rules held up by the White House until after the election could change the scope of who should register, but any change won’t affect this registration cycle. FDA says the FSMA registration site is now “harmonized” with the agency’s Reportable Food Registry.