Source:  Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 11/3/10

Midterm election results will bring new heads to both the Senate and House agriculture committees just before 2012 farm bill negotiations start in earnest.

The new Republican majority in the House of Representatives means Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) will be replaced as head of the House Agriculture Committee, likely by Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) who is the current ranking member of the committee.  

A number of other House Agriculture Committee members lost their races, which will mean significant turnover in the committee’s membership.

In the Senate, the Democrats hung on to the majority, but Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) lost her race. This puts Rep. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) in line as most likely to take over the chairmanship of the committee.

All of those changes don’t happen until January, however, so with two months to go, meat industry associations are turning their lobbying efforts to key issues that could be addressed during the so-called “lame duck” session of the existing Congress.

Taxes
“At the end of the day…we must not lose sight on the fact that the 111th Congress isn’t over yet,” said National Cattlemen’s Beef Association President Steve Foglesong in a statement issued first thing Wednesday morning.

NCBA is urging action on extending estate tax laws that expire in January, without which estate tax rates would return to a 55 percent rate, making it difficult for family ranchers to pass operations to the next generation.

Ethanol
A group of meat and poultry associations didn’t even wait for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to win his close race before lobbying against proposals by the ethanol industry that would favor more corn-based ethanol production.

In a letter dated Nov. 2, The American Meat Institute, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National Chicken Council, National Meat Association, National Pork Producers Council and National Turkey Federation urged Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (D-Ky.) not to support a proposal that has not even been introduced as legislation yet.

A proposal being floated in Washington by the ethanol industry would extend the expiring ethanol blenders credit and import tariff on foreign ethanol, create new corn ethanol subsidies, and change the definition of “advanced biofuels” to include corn ethanol in the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).

“As you prepare for the legislative work period following the elections, we encourage you to allow the current tax provision to expire in December and oppose this new proposal,” the letter urged.

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