WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's victory over Republican candidate John McCain probably assures government support for farm subsidies and biofuels including corn-based ethanol, but the beginning of the Obama presidency is likely to coincide with increasing economic troubles in rural America.
Tom Buis, president of the Democratic-leaning National Farmers Union, congratulated Obama Nov. 5 and said he was "relieved" that he prevailed over McCain, who had said he would have vetoed the 2008 farm bill and wanted to get rid of all support for ethanol.
Bob Stallman, president of the Republican-leaning American Farm Bureau Federation, also congratulated Obama and said the group is used to working with both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Obama supported the 2008 farm bill and showed support for ethanol, including the renewable fuel standard that sets the level of ethanol in the nation's fuel supply. Obama did not win the Plains states, but he did win key farming states such as Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois and became the first Democrat to win Indiana since 1964. County-by-county vote tallies were not yet available at press time, but Obama campaigned harder in farm country than any Democrat since President Clinton, and there were signs that the combination of his campaigning and McCain's positions against the farm bill and ethanol support may have led to more rural votes for Obama than for Democrats in other recent presidential elections.
Filling posts
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The appointment of a new agriculture secretary is at the top of the agriculture community's agenda. Buis is considered a candidate, and he has said he would consider the position if it is offered to him. Other potential candidates include former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sibelius.
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer issued a news release pledging his cooperation with Obama's staff on the transition, but a USDA source said that as of Nov. 7, Obama's office had not yet sent any staff to the Agriculture Department.
On Capitol Hill, the next session of Congress definitely will bring changes to the House Agriculture Committee and may bring changes to the Senate Agriculture Committee. Six members of the committee -- three Democrats and three Republicans -- were defeated and one Republican is retiring. The number of Democrats on the committee will go up while the number of Republicans will go down because the Democrats won 24 more House seats, which will change the ratios.
On the Senate side, the big question is whether Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., wins re-election. A recount in that race is under way. If Democratic candidate Al Franken wins, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, also has promised him a seat on the committee.
Lame-duck session
Congress is scheduled to come back to Washington for a lame-duck session the week of Nov. 17. There is talk of an economic stimulus package, but it's unclear how much Congress will be able to accomplish or what President Bush would support.
Buis called on the Senate to pass the House-passed commodity futures anti-speculation and regulation bill during the lame-duck session and on President Bush to sign. Buis said the recent decline in oil and agricultural commodity prices after speculators withdrew from those markets during the stock market collapse has proven that investor speculation really did create bubbles in those markets and should be stopped.
"Regulatory oversight over the futures markets has to happen," Buis said. But he added that he would oppose efforts to merge the Commodity Futures Trading Commission into the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Buis also said that for Obama, "Now the hard part comes -- that's the governing."
Buis said he sees "some pretty dark clouds on the horizon" for American agriculture, with commodity prices plummeting, input prices still high and credit getting tighter. He said he will call other farm leaders to see if there is interest in an agriculture summit to which all farm groups, members of Congress and representatives of the Obama administration would be invited.
"There is a lot of anxiety" in rural America, Buis concluded.
