News: Bennet barnstorms farms ahead of farm bill, election

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Bennet barnstorms farms ahead of farm bill, election

Sep 06, 2022

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By Garrett Downs

Presented by

With help from Marcia Brown, Cristina Rivero, Ryan Heath and Ella Creamer

QUICK FIX

— FIRST IN MA: Sen. Michael Bennet announced a new slate of farm bill listening sessions ahead of the 2023 farm bill. The Colorado Democrat is among the most vulnerable senators up for election in the midterms.

— Liz Truss will be sworn in today as the United Kingdom's next prime minister after she defeated fellow Conservative Rishi Sunak on Monday.

— Doug McKalip, the nominee for chief agricultural negotiator at the U.S. Trade Representative office is likely to be advanced by the Senate Finance Committee when they meet on Wednesday. The position has been vacant since the start of the Biden administration.

HAPPY TUESDAY, SEPT. 6. Welcome back to Morning Ag. I'm your host, Garrett Downs, and I hope you had a great Labor Day weekend. Tips? Send them along to gdowns@politico.com and @_garrettdowns and follow us at @Morning_Ag.

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Driving the Day

FIRST IN MA: Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and his staff will hold at least a dozen more farm bill listening sessions in Colorado, building on the 17 he has already held within the last six months.

Bennet's barnstorming of Colorado farms comes amid record drought gripping the western states and battering farms with arid conditions. It also coincides with the longtime Ag Committee member's precarious reelection effort, which last month tipped from "likely Democratic" to "lean Democratic" in POLITICO's election forecast.

State of play: Bennet is seen as one of the more vulnerable Senate Democrats, telling POLITICO himself in May that the perception of his state as a blue state is misguided.

He is facing Republican Joe O'Dea, a political novice who owns a construction company and has tried to leverage his blue-collar appeal.

Where will they be?: Bennet's office said the sessions will be held in coming weeks in southwest Colorado, the San Luis Valley and the Denver area.

What will they be about?: Bennet said he's holding the sessions "to ensure next year's Farm Bill reflects the priorities of Colorado," which include "severe drought, increased prices, and our broken immigration system."

He was part of a group of senators that secured $4 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act for drought resilience, and his office says he remains in negotiations with Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) on a bill to reform the farm labor system. But as your host reported, that bill is quickly running out of time.

Past attendees to Bennet's sessions have included Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and Forest Service Chief Randy Moore.

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TRUSS TO TAKE REINS IN U.K.: Liz Truss will be officially sworn in today as the United Kingdom's next prime minister after she defeated fellow Conservative Rishi Sunak on Monday.

Context: Truss, who served as foreign secretary for the outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson and was the country's trade minister during the Trump presidency, was a strong proponent of a U.S.-U.K. free trade agreement. A comprehensive deal was highly sought after by the U.S. ag industry, but only incremental steps were achieved under Johnson.

A deal with the U.S. was seen as one of the key objectives of Brexit in 2016, which Truss initially opposed but later supported.

When Washington changed hands in 2021, a negotiation that was supported by former President Donald Trump and had a fast-track in Congress was scuttled as the Biden administration has remained averse to new trade agreements.

The outlook: POLITICO's Ryan Heath and Ella Creamer report that Truss will likely face an uphill battle on a bilateral trade deal as long as Biden remains in the White House and steadfast in his resistance to new deals.

Truss will need Republican support to have any hope of completing a U.S.-U.K. trade deal under Biden. Even that might not be enough. "It will take a change in the White House to a pro-free trader president" for Truss to unlock a trade deal, said Luke Coffey, a former U.K. Defense Ministry and Conservative Party adviser now at the Hudson Institute.

MCKALIP LIKELY TO ADVANCE THIS WEEK: Doug McKalip, the nominee for chief agricultural negotiator at the U.S. Trade Representative office will likely advance from the Senate Finance Committee when they meet on Wednesday.

It's been a long time coming for ag-watchers and traders, who have lamented the vacancy in the office since the beginning of the Biden administration. Biden's first nominee for the position, Elaine Trevino, failed to advance after being nominated for six months .

Who is McKalip?: A 29-year veteran of the USDA, McKalip currently serves as a senior adviser to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack. Before that, he was a senior advisor in Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the senior policy adviser for rural affairs at the White House domestic policy council and a number of other policy positions at USDA.

His selection to the USTR position was lauded by ag groups, and he has even received praise from a number of Republicans who are eager to fill the position.

Fun fact: McKalip is also in a band called BoxCartel, which plays in the D.C. area and released a new album in April.

The long game: McKalip is expected to easily advance through the committee and will then be eligible for a confirmation vote on the Senate floor.

But even if he is confirmed, it likely won't end congressional quarrels with his likely boss, USTR Katherine Tai, over the administration's seeming lack of appetite for trade deals. The Biden administration and Tai have emphasized enforcing existing trade deals before striking new ones — which has invoked the ire of the GOP and ag groups seeking expanded markets for U.S. ag.

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ICYMI — FTC CHAIR KHAN WEIGHS IN ON CHICKEN: Lina Khan filed a public comment supporting the Agriculture Department's rulemaking to change how contract chicken farmers are paid. Public comments for a proposed rule requiring greater transparency and fairness in chicken contracts have closed, but USDA is still accepting public comments on the tournament system, which ranks farmers against each other based on efficiency, adding bonuses or docking pay accordingly.

For a visual representation of the tournament system, see this DataPoint from Cristina Rivero and Marcia.

Details : Khan's comment praised USDA's initial efforts but asked the agency to do more, adding that the FTC stands ready to "lend support." Although the examples given of FTC enforcement and rulemaking don't exactly match the issues in poultry, USDA could "apply broadly similar reasoning to justify restrictions on unfair contract terms in the poultry sector," Khan wrote.

Noteworthy history: She is particularly attuned to poultry markets as the author of a 2012 Washington Monthly story detailing the last time USDA tried to regulate the tournament system.

A message from the National Confectioners Association:

Row Crops

— Republican ag policy expert Danielle Beck is joining Invariant, a government relations firm, to advise its clients on the 2023 farm bill. She most recently worked at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association and was previously a lobbyist for the Russell Group and an aide to former Rep. Thomas Rooney (R-Fla.).

— Allison Crittenden is now senior director of government affairs at JBS USA. She previously was director of government affairs with the American Farm Bureau Federation.

— U.S. crops are not having a good year, with yields being choked by drought and extreme weather conditions, The Washington Post reports. It comes as global food insecurity is quickly on the rise.

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In 2017, America's leading chocolate and candy companies joined forces in a landmark agreement to help consumers manage their sugar intake. In a commitment to Partnership for a Healthier America, these companies set an ambitious goal to provide more transparency, create more portion guidance options in innovative packaging and educate consumers about how unique products like chocolate and candy can be an occasional treat in a balanced lifestyle. The companies exceeded their commitment, empowering consumers to make informed choices and driving directional alignment within the broader confectionery industry. In fact, 85% of chocolate and candy sold today comes in packaging that contains 200 calories or less per pack – whether that's individually wrapped products or multipacks that contain smaller packages inside. Learn more at AlwaysATreat.com.