More on Bush's New USDA Secretary, Mike Johanns

From: THE AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER
December 7, 2004, 2004, Issue #383
Monitoring Corporate Agribusiness
>From a Public Interest Perspective

EDITOR\PUBLISHER; A.V. Krebs
E-MAIL: avkrebs@earthlink.net
WEB SITE: http://www.ea1.com/CARP/
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____________________________________________________________________________

SUPPORTER OF FREE TRADE,
ETHANOL SUBSIDIES, MIKE JOHANNS,
NEBRASKA GOVERNOR, PICKED AS
NEW SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE

CHRISTOPHER COOPER, SCOTT KILMAN, Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET
JOURNAL: President Bush nominated Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns as his new
agriculture secretary and will pick former New York City Police Commissioner
Bernard Kerik as his new homeland-security chief, officials said.

Meanwhile, in another high-level departure from the Bush administration,
Washington's ambassador to the United Nations, John Danforth, submitted his
resignation after only a few months on the job. Mr. Danforth, a former
Republican senator from Missouri, cited personal reasons for his departure.

An administration official said an announcement on the homeland-security
post may come as early as today. The nominee will succeed Tom Ridge, the
first head of the Department of Homeland Security, a sprawling,
180,000-employee agency formed from 22 government departments after the
September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Mr. Kerik, 49 years old, helped oversee emergency operations after the
strike on the World Trade Center. He also has experience in the Middle East,
first serving as a security guard in Saudi Arabia and most recently helping
train Iraqi security forces. He joined the New York Police Department in
1986, first walking a beat and then rising to commissioner in 2000.

With his law-enforcement experience, Mr. Kerik will likely be popular as
chief of homeland security, as well as in Congress. "I don't want to take
anything away from Tom Ridge, but Bernie's going to be more intense, more
hands-on and more of a presence on Capitol Hill," said Rep. Peter King
(Rep.-New York ). Both Mr. Kerik and Mr. Johanns are likely to face easy
confirmation in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Mr. Johanns, a 54-year-old Republican lawyer in his second term as governor,
would succeed Ann Veneman, one of seven cabinet members so far who have said
they don't plan to stay for Mr. Bush's second term. An Iowa native, Mr.
Johanns grew up on a dairy farm before setting up a law practice and running
for public office as a county commissioner in Nebraska. "I am very, very
proud of my ag background," Mr. Johanns told reporters. "I do feel that
those years on that dairy farm did much to define who I am as a person."

As governor of a major farm state --- Nebraska is a big livestock producer
and is third in the U.S. in corn production and sixth in soybeans --- Mr.
Johanns is an ardent supporter of ethanol, a gasoline substitute made from
corn produced largely in the Farm Belt with the support of heavy federal
subsidies. He also presided over an $85 million property-tax rollback. In
announcing his choice, Mr. Bush mentioned Mr. Johanns's focus on economic
growth and alternative-fuels development as primary reasons for his
selection.

Mr. Johanns would take over as agriculture secretary at a time when the Farm
Belt's traditional ability to generate a trade surplus is evaporating,
thanks in large part to the American consumer's growing appetite for foreign
foods. One of Mr. Johanns's first tasks would be to reopen foreign markets
to U.S. beef, a $3 billion market that was crushed by the 2003 mad-cow
scare.

He also would spearhead the Bush administration's inevitable clash with
Congress over how to rein in farm subsidies. The agriculture committees of
the House and Senate long have controlled America's farm policy. Populated
by rural legislators, the two committees largely ignored the Bush
administration when they wrote the five-year farm bill in 2002. That bill
potentially would have been the most costly on record for taxpayers, had a
recovering farm economy not reduced the eligibility of some growers.

Congress probably will begin holding hearings next year on the shape of the
next farm bill. This time around, projected record federal budget deficits
will put enormous pressure on the White House to cut spending on subsidy
programs, which are expected to swell by billions of dollars in the wake of
this year's price-depressing record harvests of crops such as corn and
soybeans.

Additionally, pressure for change is growing from the World Trade
Organization, where developing nations are making headway in their complaint
that U.S. subsidy programs encourage domestic farmers to overproduce,
thereby damping world-wide commodity prices. This year, for example, a WTO
dispute panel sided with Brazil over its allegations that some subsidies
collected by U.S. cotton farmers distort trade.

In his resignation letter, Mr. Danforth said he was stepping down to spend
more time with "the girl of my dreams," Sally, his wife of 47 years. He said
he hoped to return to private life by Inauguration Day, January 20, but
remained available to help Mr. Bush from his home of St. Louis, as he did
when serving as a special envoy to Sudan before taking the U.N. post.

Mr. Danforth took the U.N. post on July 1, succeeding John Negroponte, who
was picked as U.S. ambassador to Iraq when the interim government took
office there. An official familiar with Mr. Danforth's thinking said he had
taken the job despite reservations about it and had been considering his
exit for weeks. Mr. Danforth, 68 years old, who besides his long career in
politics is an ordained Episcopalian minister, found life in New York too
harried for his taste, the official said.

His appointment also came at a time of heightened tension between the U.S.
and the U.N., primarily over the prosecution of the Iraq war, which was
launched without Security Council authorization. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan has said the war is illegal under international law, and some
conservative U.S. lawmakers, already upset with alleged corruption in the
U.N.'s Iraqi Oil-for-Food Program, have called for Mr. Annan's resignation.
The Bush administration hasn't joined in those calls, but it is clearly
angry over the world body's continuing refusal to commit significant
resources to Iraq's rebuilding. [ December 3, 2004 ]
____________________________________________________________________

JOHANNS, FORMER DEMOCRAT,
NOW REPUBLICAN, CALLS HIMSELF
AN "ADVOCATE FOR AGRICULTURE"

OMAHACHANNEL.COM: Gov. Mike Johanns was nominated Thursday to be the
nation's top agriculture official.

President George W. Bush nominated the governor to be agriculture secretary
in the second term.

Johanns is a native of Osage, Iowa, where he grew up on a dairy farm. He joked
about his upbringing during the nomination news conference, saying after dairy
farming with his parents, the governorship was a piece of cake.

An advocate for agriculture, the two-term Republican governor came to the
aid of farmers during the drought of 2000.

"When it comes to the ag community, they are going to suffer the most," Johanns
said at the time. "From my standpoint, I'm going to try to get to Washington to pay
attention to what's going on out here."

It was Johanns lifelong leadership on agriculture that brought him to the president's attention.

"I know first-hand his commitment to a strong farm economy. He's been a leader on
drought relief in Nebraska and throughout the Midwest," Bush said.

He graduated with a bachelor's degree from St. Mary's College in Winona,
Minnesota, in 1971. Johanns graduated from Creighton Law School in 1974.

Johanns clerked for Nebraska Supreme Court Judge Hale McCown in 1974. He
practiced law in O'Neill, from 1975 to 1976, then became a partner in the Lincoln
law firm Nelson, Johanns, Morris, Holdeman & Titus, in 1977.

His political career began as a Democrat when he served on the Lancaster
County Board in the early 1980s. In 1988, he switched to the Republican
Party. He was elected to the Lincoln City Council one year later.

In 1991, Johanns was elected to the first of two terms as mayor of Lincoln.
He was elected governor in 1998, and worked with Bush when they were both
governors.

The Roman Catholic divorced first wife, Connie, in 1985 and married former state
Sen. Stephanie Armitage, who had served with Johanns on the county board, in
1986. A son, Justin, 25, and a daughter, Michaela, 22, were products of his first
marriage, and now he has a grandson and a granddaughter. [ December 2, 2004]
_______________________________________________________________________

LETTER FROM AMERICA:
NEW USDA BOSS FACES TROUBLE
WITH CONGRESS AND FARMERS

ALAN GUEBERT, AG COMM: To hear President George W. Bush tell it, Michael
Johanns, Bush's nominee to succeed U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann
Veneman, is an accomplished trade negotiator, ardent defender of American
farmers, ranchers and biofuels and a proven leader with "executive skill."

Moreover, explained Bush December 2, Johanns, governor of the nation's
fourth largest farm state, Nebraska, and now in line to lead nation's fourth
largest government agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, "grew up
close to the land."

Right, as U.S. farmers are fond of reminding politicians who boast they grew
up on a farm, "So did every mule and hog in America."

Truth is, nothing in Johanns' background has prepared him for the challenges
he now faces in what he somewhat romantically calls his "dream job," running
the $82 billion, 113,000-employee USDA.

After a rapid and certain confirmation by the U.S. Senate in January,
nothing about leading USDA will be romantic. Johanns' will face domestic and
foreign farm fires immediately --- if not sooner.

First, America's ballooning federal debt, an all-time record $413 billion in
2004, guarantees USDA farm programs will go under the knife in Congress in
2005. Already, rumors suggest the White House has alerted all federal
agencies to expect heavy budget cuts; maybe two to four percent below 2004
levels.

For USDA that means the fiscal conservatives in Congress who won sweeping
election victories in the Republican "red" heartland last month could slice
as much as $3 billion from food aid and farm support programs.

That will be a tough diet because Congress, with Bush's blessing, already
made the easy cuts in 2003 and 2004. For example, in the last two fiscal
years Congress lopped more than $1 billion from 2002 Farm Bill soil and
water conservation programs.

As such, any new cuts will dismantle many rural development programs, slice
deeper into conservation and begin paring farm price support programs.

Current ideas center on cutting annual "base" payments guaranteed grain and
cotton producers under the 2002 Farm Bill as well as lowering Farm
Bill-pegged commodity prices that deliver greater government support as
commodity prices fall.

Johanns' job in the budget fight will be two-fold. First must position
himself and the President as a defenders of farmers so rural congressman and
senators have political cover with their constituents when cuts are made.

The operative line Johanns must learn is "Congress wanted deeper cuts, but
the President and I limited the damage." It may pinch the truth, but, hey,
this is politics.

The second job will be far harder --- convincing farmers and ranchers that
less money for American agriculture is good for them and the country.

The supporting line for that argument is plain: America must reform (read
that cut) most of farm price support programs to complete world trade talks.

That script was a better seller before November 22, the day USDA announced
that for the first time in nearly 50 years the U.S. will not run and farm
trade surplus in 2005. The news shocked American farmers who have long
warmed themselves with the thought that "America feeds the world."

Not anymore. According to USDA's latest estimates, U.S. farm exports in 2005
will be $56 billion, nearly $7 billion under 2004's. More importantly, 2005
ag imports will be (in a curious coincidence) an identical $56 billion, $9
billion more than as recently as 2003.

That means in just four short years White House economic and trade policies
have taken the US farm trade surplus from $13.6 billion in 2001 to zero in
2005.

Gov. Johanns will be looked to by farmers to stop that freefall. While Bush
touts Johanns' trade experience, the governor's actual experience is mostly
as a salesman. Over the past six years he has led nearly a dozen one-and
two-day Nebraska trade junkets to the Far East and South American.

If that makes Johanns a trade expert, then anyone who has watched a baseball
game at New York's hallowed Yankee Stadium is Babe Ruth.

Johanns' best links to agriculture came as a politician; he has not farmed
since childhood in Iowa. As Nebraska governor, though, he served as chairman
of the National Governor's Association Biotechnology Partnership with
American business.

Johanns' ties to agribusiness were tested last January when he led an effort
to undermine a Nebraska law called Initiative-300, the toughest
anti-corporate farming law in America. It was a raw political move to open
the nation's biggest red meat-producing state to corporate livestock
integrator-meatpackers.

The effort quickly backfired, however, and Johanns was soundly rebuked by
Nebraska farmers and ranchers who cherish their independence almost as much
as their cherish their guns.

It is a lesson Johanns may endure again as he prepares to battle for Bush
farm policy initiatives--budget cuts and more free trade --- in the U.S. and
abroad. Both will be met with worry and anguish on the farms and ranches of
America.

Bottom line for Secretary-to-be Johanns? He's Ann Veneman with a firmer
handshake and a quicker smile. The problems he faces, however, are the not
only the same as Veneman's, they are bigger, too. [ November, 2004 ]