Agricultural News
Is Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas the Next Chairman of the House Ag Committee?
Wed, 27 Oct 2010 6:14:28 CDT
By Wednesday of next week, we will have a pretty good idea if Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas will be the first House Ag Committee Chairman to ever come from the state of Oklahoma. The Vice President of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Bob Drake of Davis, did not wait for the official word as he introduced Congressman Lucas as the next Chairman of the House Ag Committee when Lucas spoke to the Resolutions Committee of the general farm organization on Tuesday.
After his remarks to the Farm Bureau members- we talked with Congressman Lucas about what the agenda might look like with a Lucas led Committee. Several key points emerged from our conversation-
Congressman Lucas would not push for an early writing of the 2012 Farm Bill as Collin Peterson has been doing. Lucas believes that the fiscal mood in Washington will be better in 2012 and that writing a farm bill that year makes more sense. The Congressman also spoke of his preference to keep Direct Payments as a part of the Farm Bill Safety Net- while Peterson has talked about a better funded ACRE program or perhaps other programs taht could be established if the Direct Payment money was shifted.
Congressman Lucas also spoke of Oversight hearings soon after the first of the year if he is Chairman. One oversight issue that probably cannot wait for January is the so called GIPSA Marketing Rule- and Lucas says that he plans to have a personal conversation with Peterson about dealing with the GIPSA Marketing Rule in the Lame Duck session, with USDA expected to issue the final GIPSA Rule soon after the end of the public comment period on November 22, 2010.
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear our full conversation with Congressman Frank Lucas on Tuesday, October 26 in Oklahoma City.
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