Cattle industry lobbyists scrambling

The turnover in Washington, both in the White House and Congress, has lobbyists for all organizations, and especially agriculture and livestock groups, scrambling for a place to hang on.

After eight years of the Bush Administration, and GOP domination of Congressional ag committees until the last two years, it's a whole new ballgame. Lobbyists have to find new friends in new places, and map new strategies for representing cattle industry interests in the nation's capitol--and at the margin, contain the damage, because in many cases the new regime has very different policies and proclivities than either the industry or the outgoing functionaries.

It's doubly daunting because agriculture is so far down the totem pole that it is not a front line priority for the first 100 days, when the new administration seeks quick action to show its engaged and competent. In this difficult economy, so-called stimulus money and bailout funds are front and center--and it will be a miracle if agriculture gets anything close to a decent share.

It's said "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" and in this realm, agriculture is not too accomplished. Pictures of starving children, soup lines at homeless shelters and tear-jerking stories of healthcare denied due to lack of insurance coverage generally do not lend themselves to helping agriculture. At the most, food stamps are in the USDA budget, so the politicians can assuage their guilt and claim they put major money into agriculture by boosting food stamp funding.

This does nothing for production agriculture, where credit has tightened up, the bad economy has wreaked havoc on commodity prices and markets, and input costs continue to skyrocket.

Interestingly, the newest U.S. Senator, Michael Bennet from Colorado--appointed to replace new Interior Secretary Ken Salazar--says he is hoping for membership on the Senate Agriculture Committee. As a latecomer with no seniority, this relatively minor committee, in the overall scheme of things, may well be all that's open to him. With no demonstrated expertise on the subject, one could question his desire for such a post. It probably falls into category of making lemonade out of a lemon of a situation.

Needing to run for re-election in two years, with no political background or familiarity to Colorado voters, Bennet is at least trying to go in a direction that might help his cause. He faces a steep climb to the Democratic nomination, much less against a Republican, in a potentially unfriendly midterm election.

But the whole mess shows the problems with new names and new faces cattle industry lobbyists are facing in Washington today. The people with real clout are not focused on America's farmers and ranchers.