Washington Insider-- Thursday

By DTN's Washington Insider

Here's a quick monitor of Washington farm and trade policy issues from DTN's well-placed observer.

House to Vote on Government Funding Bills Next Week

House Republican leaders know Congress will need to vote on government spending measures next week to head off the threat of a government shutdown when a current stopgap funding measure expires Dec. 11. To avoid a shutdown, Republicans say they plan to bring to the House floor next week an 11-bill omnibus spending package that will fund most areas of the federal government through the end of next September. But lawmakers said they also will push a separate, shorter continuing resolution to fund programs at the Department of Homeland Security as a response to President Obama's controversial executive order on immigration.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the administration does not object to the Republicans' plan, but added that it would be better if Congress were to finalize all its appropriations bills on time. "I don't have a specific reaction to that proposal, other than to say that the administration believes that it's the responsibility of Congress to pass a full-year budget for the federal government," Earnest told reporters. "[W]e're not asking them to do anything heroic," Earnest said. "We're asking them to do their job."

The congressional appropriations process usually gets underway in March and in more than a decade has never been completed on time, which is supposed to be the beginning of the next fiscal year on Oct. 1. The current House is divided 234 Republicans to 201 Democrats. In the next Congress, the GOP will gain at least 10 additional seats, giving the party significantly larger majority. However, a larger majority is unlikely to result in the House meeting the Oct. 1, 2015 appropriations deadline. Democrats found that out when they held an even larger majority in the House during the 111th Congress (2009-11) and were unable to meet the deadline.

***
More Than 130 Obama Nominees Still Waiting Senate Confirmation

With just five days remaining in the lame duck session of the 113th Congress, 133 of President Obama's nominees are still waiting for the Senate to vote to confirm them. However, there is a question of just how many will be considered before the scheduled adjournment date of Dec. 12. At issue is a disagreement among Senate Republicans on how many nominations to move now and how many should be carried over to next year when the president would need to re-submit the names.

Democrats would like to move as many names as possible before adjournment. They realize that the current backlog occurred even as they were the majority party in the Senate and many fear that the confirmation process will become even more clogged once Republican take control of the chamber in January.

***

Washington Insider: Another Food Advocacy Group

The urban press has been enamored recently with a new "food policy" organization, according to the news group Politico. A recent article noted that a food judge on the TV show "Top Chef" is working to motivate a growing army of chefs across the country who want to capitalize on their celebrity to influence food and agriculture policy in the broadest possible way, concerning issues ranging from school nutrition to the farm bill to animal welfare and even fisheries management.

Politico says they have political muscle based on their support from well-known personalities like Rachael Ray and Mario Batali along with scores of local celebrity chefs and restaurateurs. Politico also says it is impressed by the effectiveness of their organizing efforts in support the Obama administration's sweeping food policy agenda in the face of "an adversarial Congress."

It appears that "Chef Action Network has "trained dozens of chefs since launching last year." It also runs Food Policy Action, a 501(c)(4) non-profit, social-welfare group co-founded by Tom Colicchio in 2012 and Chefs Collaborative, a network of more than 10,000 "culinary leaders." The group apparently is now working more closely than ever to increase "chef engagement" on Capitol Hill and beyond. For example, Food Policy Action this week delivered a petition to Congress that endorsed the labeling of genetically modified foods.

So far, it appears that the chefs have worked mainly to defend the administration's new school nutrition standards against a House Republican supported appropriations rider that would have allowed schools to opt out of the standards on the grounds of budget pressures. The move sparked a bitter fight between Congress and first lady Michelle Obama, who championed the changes.

A key part of Food Policy Action's muscle is the celebrity status of its members. The school nutrition debate brought Colicchio to Washington last summer for meetings with GOP lawmakers, Politico notes. "Despite being squarely on Team FLOTUS (First Lady of the U.S.), the chef had little trouble getting meetings with the opposition. Republican aides were thrilled to get photos with him."

Politico seems intrigued by the celebrity status of the chefs, too — and the possibility that they may be able to generate more visibility in the grass roots give and take of food policy. The publication noted that, "The school lunch debate will be a big test for the culinary political network, but it's only one of a long list of food policies the chefs are looking to be active on. In addition to the upcoming advocacy for mandatory GMO labeling, organizers are starting to lay the groundwork for getting more local food support in the next farm bill, which is at least four years away."

There is, of course, a question of how powerful the Food Policy Action is likely to become, and whether it could compete with the heavy-duty commodity groups that have successfully protected their interests for decades.

In an earlier article, the Washington Post explained that 501(c) (4) groups are allowed to participate in politics, so long as politics do not become their primary focus — which the Post said is defined as spending less than 50% of their money on politics.

In fact, some such groups are well known, heavy political hitters, including the group co-founded by Karl Rove. The Post cites Center for Responsive Politics' reports that conservative nonprofits spent more than $263 million during the 2012 campaign, while liberal counterparts spent close to $35 million.

At this time, there is no suggestion that the Food Action chefs have anything so ambitious in mind, but access to the kind of public exposure these folks have certainly makes their ag policy efforts noteworthy.

So far, much of the ag establishment is belittling the chefs as "policy amateurs," and most of them certainly are. However, they likely are not much interested in fine-tuning farm policies but are focusing on changing the way Americans think about food, nutrition, land and water and other resources — and, doing so without inviting ag representatives to a seat at the table.

Such ambitions and ideas should be watched carefully by producers, especially if they continue to grow as they have in recent months, Washington Insider believes.

---

Want to keep up with events in Washington and elsewhere throughout the day? See DTN Top Stories, our frequently updated summary of news developments of interest to producers. You can find DTN Top Stories in DTN Ag News, which is on the Main Menu on classic DTN products and on the News and Analysis Menu of DTN's Professional and Producer products. DTN Top Stories is also on the home page and news home page of online.dtn.com. Subscribers of MyDTN.com should check out the U.S. Ag Policy, U.S. Farm Bill and DTN Ag News sections on their News Homepage.

If you have questions for DTN Washington Insider, please email edit@telventdtn.com

(GH/CZ)

Copyright 2014 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.