Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Some big changes are going to have to be made to the Farm Bill before there's any chance it will be signed into law.
Both the House and Senate versions of the bill raise revenue by closing tax loopholes, and for that reason alone the White House is standing by its threat of a veto. Acting U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Conner firmly stated this week that President Bush will not sign a Farm Bill that raises taxes.
"We simply don't believe other sectors of our economy should be asked to pay additional taxes for programs in the Farm Bill," Conner said. "Especially when the current versions of the bill fail to reform farm payments even to nonfarmers living on Park Avenue."
A congressional conference committee will begin hammering out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill next week, and some of the changes sought by the White House could still be made to the final bill. But in order to bring the bill in without any new revenue from tax changes, significant cuts must be made.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, will preside over the conference committee. Harkin told reporters Thursday that he's optimistic that the issues can be solved and said he is open to some cuts in certain areas of the commodity subsidy system. Harkin has often said he's never been in favor of direct payments, and Thursday he noted that cuts to direct payments are "on the table."
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., is less optimistic that the disagreements with the White House can be resolved. In a Reuters article Thursday, Peterson noted that it will be difficult to find ways to cut the $15 billion from the Farm Bill that the White House is demanding.
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