Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
The U.S. Senate passed a motion to invoke cloture on the 2007 Farm Bill late Thursday night, limiting further debate and setting up a final vote on the bill. The cloture motion passed by a margin of 78-12.
The Senate will have 30 hours to finish debate and dispose of amendments before voting on final passage.
The Senate has voted down 12 amendments to the bill since Tuesday, including several high-profile amendments that had received the backing of both of Iowa's senators.
One of the most highly anticipated amendments was introduced by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and would have put a cap of $250,000 on farm commodity payments.
Grassley has been highly vocal about the need to limit commodity payments and has been critical of the current system that allows the wealthiest 10 percent of landowners to receive 73 percent of the benefits from farm programs.
The Grassley-Dorgan amendment was defeated, despite the fact that a majority of senators voted for it. It failed on a vote of 56-43. A 60-vote threshold was required to pass the amendment because an unknown senator had threatened a filibuster.
After the amendment failed to pass, Grassley quickly issued a press release stating his intentions to continue pushing for payment limits. "This isn't over," said Grassley. "The underlying bill is not real reform. There are loopholes you can drive a 9630 John Deere tractor through and I'm going to work to convince the conferees that the majority in the Senate was right."
All of the Democratic senators who are running for president voted in favor of the amendment. They had apparently all made a special trip to Washington, D.C., just to cast their vote on the issue of payment limits, and then all traveled back to Iowa for a debate in Des Moines in the afternoon. Arizona Republican John McCain was absent and did not vote.
The Senate also rejected an amendment that would have strengthened the Packers and Stockyards Act by limiting the power of major meatpacking corporations. The amendment, presented by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., failed on a vote of 55-40, unable to garner a required 60-vote threshold.
Other rejected amendments included an attempt by Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar to limit commodity payments through an adjusted gross income cap, and an amendment by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, that would have changed eminent domain laws.
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