Roberts still rules

Between the Intelligence and Agriculture Committees, Sen. Roberts finds plenty of common ground

By Sara Wyant

As chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, it's difficult for Sen. Pat Roberts to spend as much time focusing on agriculture as he did when he chaired the House Agriculture Committee from 1995 to 1997. However, the Kansas Republican still serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee and is very much engaged in looking out for the interests of farmers and ranchers. In many cases, he's found that national security interests and agricultural interests intersect.

During a recent interview in Wichita, he talked about a wide variety of topics. At 70 years young this year, Roberts is still as witty and quick with the comeback lines as ever before. The senior Kansas senator assured me that he had filled up his tank with E-85 in Washington, D.C. that morning. "Senator Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, and I have a glass of ethanol every morning," he dead-panned. "It will warm you right up." Here's a sampling of his comments:

What kinds of changes do you predict we'll see in the 2007 farm bill?

Both Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte plan a thorough review of the current farm bill. Hopefully, we will be trying to focus on good policy for the 2007 farm bill, rather than all of the money involved, as happened in 2002. Things will be different this time around with new budget pressures and renewed interest in tighter payment limits.

Changes are likely to be more evolutionary than revolutionary. We should consider providing assistance in the least trade distorting fashion as possible. And we should look at basing the counter-cyclical payments based on revenue, so we can assist producers when there is no crop and no counter-cyclical payments.

I predict that there will be a much larger energy section in the next farm bill. For agriculture, the biofuels industry will probably be equal in effect to that of the railroads. But we need to proceed with caution. We need to make sure that the local community which passes the bond issue to bring in an ethanol plant is on sure footing with withstand any kind of market change that may be coming down the road.

How will farm programs change as a result of the World Trade Organization talks?

We have to be careful in terms of making farm program changes in respect to the World Trade Organization (WTO). Countries like Brazil have already challenged our Step 2 program for cotton and other challenges could come up, for example, on our food aid programs.

What about concerns that our food aid programs should be dismantled because they are displacing other food products?

We must fight the urge to cut food aid. Our food aid programs are one of the biggest tools we have to fight terrorism. I know the importance of the world food program doing its job, teaching and feeding at the same time. Families that are fed in these countries will send their daughters to school. If you do that, you will be better off in the long run because young women will not permit seventh century servitude if they are educated. Young men will not be sitting on rooftops with AK 47 machine guns. How on earth this is displacing product, I don't know.

What are the prospects for successful completion of the WTO round?

I think the bloom is off the lily in regards to the WTO round. I'd like to see some evidence that the trade talks are making progress, but there's been no discussion of getting rid of State Trading Enterprises (STEs) and all of the other things we'd like to see happen on market access. It's got to be a two-way street, but it's not working that way now.

What about trade issues facing beef producers?

I'm extremely worried about our livestock industry in terms of what's happening in Japan, China and Korea. Along with Sen. Kent Conrad, D-ND, I will be introducing a tariff bill in reference to Japanese. I don't like doing that. I'm a trade-oriented member of the Senate. But this business of sending people over to inspect every one of our plants is unprecedented. I don't think it's right and I'm very upset about that.

Editor's note: Columnist Sara Wyant is president of Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc. and publishes a bi-weekly newsletter, Agri-Pulse, on food and farm policy. For more information, you can e-mail her at Agripulse@aol.com.

Date: 6/22/06

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