Omaha World-Herald, NE
09-21-07
Trade hallmark of Johanns' tenure as U.S. agriculture secretary
BY JOSEPH MORTON
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
WASHINGTON — As U.S. agriculture secretary, Mike Johanns grabbed a bigger
role than his predecessors in the crafting of a federal farm bill, pushed to trim
spending on federal farm supports and pursued aggressive trade policies.
President Bush, right, speaks Thursday as outgoing Secretary of Agriculture
Mike Johanns looks on in the White House Rose Garden.
As Johanns stepped down to run for the Senate in Nebraska, farm groups
praised his work to promote renewable fuels, his dedication to opening overseas
markets to U.S. farm products and his willingness to listen to all sides of a
debate.
"He has been very effective in positioning the department to be an influential
force in this farm bill and has been very accessible to farmers and ranchers," said
Mark Maslyn of the American Farm Bureau Federation.
"I always found him pleasant to work with and I was very impressed by how
involved he was in this farm bill process," said Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, DIowa, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
A number of proposals Johanns promoted received mixed reviews, however,
particularly efforts to trim subsidy payments.
"It's a mixed record," said Chuck Hassebrook, executive director of the Center for
Rural Affairs in Lyons, Neb. "There was some uneasiness with the whole notion
of cutting farm programs."
President Bush named Johanns, then Nebraska's governor, as his agriculture
secretary in 2005 to replace Ann Veneman.
In his wordsComments Thursday from Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns
following his resignation to run for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska:
• "Making the decision to resign is a tough decision, but oftentimes in life timing is
the thing that we have the least control over."
• "This job has been an honor. It's been an honor for me personally. It's been an
honor for our state."
• "For me to come out here to represent rural America, represent Nebraska, has
really, really been a great opportunity."
• "I now have an opportunity to kind of look across the landscape and decide the
next step in my life."
Johanns, who grew up on an Iowa dairy farm, was seen as closer to farmers and
ranchers than Veneman, who never quite connected as the daughter of a
California peach grower.
Johanns' 21⁄2 years on the job was a shorter tenure than his immediate
predecessors: Veneman served a full four-year term; Dan Glickman was in the
office for nearly six years under President Clinton.
Trade was front and center for Johanns, as the importance of overseas markets
continued to grow for U.S. producers.
Johanns logged thousands of international airline miles on trade-related trips, but
he faced some uphill battles — particularly with efforts to reopen markets for U.S.
beef that slammed shut in 2003 over fears of mad cow disease.
Japan did agree to start accepting shipments of beef again, but with a variety of
restrictions that have helped keep the volume of shipments much lower than
before 2003. Beef exporters also continue to struggle in getting access to South
Korea's market.
Johanns created uneasiness among some farmers with his emphasis that farm
support payments be trade-friendly .
"He was a proponent of saying we should be willing to accept cuts (in U.S. farm
subsidies) in order to expand markets," Hassebrook said.
That message was not always one farmers wanted to hear, and some criticized
what they saw as a willingness to give up concessions without guarantees of
similar steps by other nations.
Johanns' time running the USDA was marked by soaring prices for many crops.
Corn prices, in particular, have risen with increased demand from the taxpayersupported boom in ethanol fuel.
With prices high, Johanns saw an opportunity for significant change in the 2007
farm bill.
He received widespread praise for conducting public forums held across the
country before he came up with a detailed set of proposals for the House and
Senate to consider.
It was a marked contrast from recent agriculture secretaries, who were more
likely to outline broad concepts for a farm bill, then leave the issue up to
Congress. Johanns even provided lawmakers with detailed legislative language.
His farm bill proposal sought to trim overall federal farm spending, partly by
tightening crop subsidy payment limits.
In the end, some of Johanns' ideas made their way into the House-passed
version of the farm bill, but lawmakers stopped far short of where he wanted
them to go.
For example, the House followed Johanns' suggestion to lower the income cutoff
for people receiving subsidy payments. But instead of lowering the cutoff level
from $2.5 million to $200,000, as Johanns wanted, the House set the bar at $1
million. That would affect only a fraction of the tens of thousands of people who
would be cut off under Johanns' plan.
Overall, the House bill would largely preserve the current system of subsidy
payments and would impose a new corporate tax on international companies
operating in the United States. The Senate has yet to take up the bill, but
Johanns has said Bush should veto the legislation in its current form.
Johanns confronted some challenges not of his own making.
Republicans lost control of Congress in 2006, and the Bush administration's
influence waned as the president's approval numbers in opinion polls dropped.
Johanns also was trying to oversee federal agriculture policy at the same time
that Bush has sought to reduce the federal deficit.
One area where that fiscal tension was apparent was on the topic of disaster
assistance.
As governor of Nebraska, Johanns pushed for emergency drought relief for the
states. As agriculture secretary, he resisted calls from lawmakers on Capitol Hill
for billions of additional dollars in such assistance.
Groups such as the Nebraska Farmers Union said they had hoped that Johanns
would convince President Bush of the need for drought relief and were
disappointed to see it happen the other way around.
Johanns on Thursday touted his work on the farm bill, saying he had a greater
impact on it than any secretary in a quarter century.
He pointed to the rise in agricultural exports and the progress on beef exports.
He said the department has made unparalleled efforts in the area of conservation
and done more than ever before to feed people through the department's
nutrition programs, which make up 60 percent of the department's budget.
Amid both praise and criticisms, Johanns received plaudits for his willingness to
meet with people and hear them out.
As ag secretary, Johanns displayed a "refreshing openness to listen" to
conflicting points of view, said Neil Harl, a retired Iowa State University
professor of agriculture law.