02/02/09 U.S. House Ag Committee gets organized
Farm and Ranch February 2, 2009 U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson opened business for the committee's new year last week by welcoming new members and calling on all members to get straight to work on a busy schedule. Two Pacific Northwest lawmakers are on the House Ag Committee, Walt Minnick of Idaho and Kurt Schrader of Oregon. Peterson topped the committee agenda with work starting this week with hearings on legislation to reform the financial derivatives market. He said a fast pace is necessary. Peterson: "To make sure that some of these problems don't happen again and we get some confidence back into this marketplace." The Agriculture Committee will also work on modernizing the structure of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Peterson says he's already met with USDA officials about updating the department's antiquated computer systems to move USDA into the 21st century and improve services to the nation's farmers. Peterson: "One of the things I would like to see us be able to do with this modernization is for farmers to be able to sign up over the internet. There is no reason why a lot of these people have to go into these offices. There is no reason they couldn't just do this on line, but given the current situation they can't. So that is going to be on our agenda." The House Ag Chair also said the committee will focus on efforts to speed up the implementation of the 2008 Farm Bill and ensure the bill is implemented in the way Congress intended. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
