Des Moines Register
11-01-07
Ex-governor picked to head USDA
N. Dakota's Edward Schafer would succeed Iowa native Mike Johanns
By PHILIP BRASHER
REGISTER WASHINGTON BUREAU
Washington, D.C. -- President Bush nominated former North Dakota Gov.
Edward Schafer to become agriculture secretary Wednesday, succeeding Iowa
native Mike Johanns.
Schafer's home state is highly dependent on farm subsidies, and its interests
sometimes clash with Iowa's. His nomination comes as the Senate prepares to
debate a new farm bill that the administration wants to influence.
Introducing Schafer at the White House, Bush said he would be a "trusted friend
to America's farmers and ranchers."
Johanns, a former Nebraska governor, resigned to return to that state to run for
the U.S. Senate.
Schafer, who has no farm background, served eight years as governor starting in
1992 and later co-founded a wireless communications business that he has since
left. The Agriculture Department awarded the company, Extend America, an $11
million loan for rural high-speed Internet service in 2004, but the money was
never actually released, USDA officials said Wednesday.
Schafer, 61, grew up in Bismarck, the son of the founder of the Gold Seal Co., a
household products company best known for Mr. Bubble bath soap. Schafer was
president of the company from 1978 to 1985.
As governor, he became a strong advocate of the state's farm interests, which
required traveling to Washington with farm leaders to press for disaster
assistance, said Robert Carlson, president of the North Dakota Farmers Union.
Schafer originally supported the 1996 Freedom to Farm law, which was intended
to wean farmers from subsidies, but he later changed his position, Carlson said.
"Ed knows the difference between wheat and oats and barley and corn and all
those kinds of things, and he knows what farmers and ranchers go through to
make a living," Carlson said.
Nearly one-quarter of North Dakota's population works in agriculture or farmrelated businesses. Anyone growing up in Bismarck, as Schafer did, learns
agriculture by "osmosis," Carlson said.
North Dakota lacks the favorable climate of states like Iowa, so farmers there rely
more heavily on disaster payments, crop insurance and other types of federal
assistance.
Schafer's appointment should mean relatively little to Iowa farmers because they
have become more dependent on biofuel policy than farm subsidies, said Bruce
Babcock, an Iowa State University economist.
But at times North Dakota and Iowa lawmakers have clashed over farm policy,
most recently in the Senate's farm bill.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., forced the chairman of the Senate Agriculture
Committee, Iowa Democrat Sen. Tom Harkin, to accept revisions in a new
subsidy program that favor North Dakota wheat growers over Iowa corn growers.
Conrad, who is Schafer's former brother-in-law, also won approval of a
permanent disaster program that Harkin and the Bush administration have
criticized.
North Dakota's sugar industry has collided with the Bush administration over its
attempts to overhaul the government's price support program for that commodity.
Harkin and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Ia., issued brief statements saying they
looked forward to learning more about Schafer and his views.
Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Ia., said Schafer, as a former Midwest governor, "would
understand the emerging demand of the ethanol industry, and that will be a good
thing. We'll just have to wait and see how he states his case on other agricultural
issues."
It's not clear how much impact Schafer will have on the farm bill, since his
nomination still must be approved by the Senate. The House passed its version
of the farm bill in July, and the Senate is due to debate its legislation next week.
After that, lawmakers will go to work merging the two versions.