The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service administers the National Watermelon Promotion Board, an agency dedicated to promoting watermelons. The Secretary of Agriculture appoints board members, and the federal government collects mandatory dues from all watermelon producers except for small producers.
Promotion boards exist for Christmas trees, potatoes, cotton, milk, and many other commodities.
The agriculture appropriations bill that recently cleared the full committee would exempt these federally created, federally appointed, federally funded, and federally administered boards from the Freedom of Information Act, the Capital Ag Press reports.
In an April 11 letter to the leadership of the House Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies, 14 commodity organizations requested the change in FOIA policy on behalf of their related checkoff fee-funded boards, which are prohibited from lobbying.
Their language was included in the appropriations bill that passed the subcommittee, followed by the full House Appropriations Committee on April 19, and awaits action by the full House. It reads: “The funding used to operate and carry out the activities of the various research and promotion programs is provided by producers and industry stakeholders, and employees on the boards are not federal employees. Therefore, the committee urges USDA to recognize that such boards are not subject to the provisions of 5 U.S.C. Section 552 (the Freedom of Information Act).”
The industry lobbies argue that these boards shouldn’t be subject to FOIA, because the government collects their funding only from the industry, and not from taxpayers. But of course, requiring all U.S. producers of a commodity to pay a fee is, ultimately, requiring all consumers to pay a fee. So these boards make us pay more for our foods so the industry can do research it wants to do, and otherwise promote their food.
The money it takes to respond to FOIA requests, the industries said, was money they couldn’t spend on research and crop promotion.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, will oppose the provision, according to his office. “This is crony capitalism organized by Washington at its worst,” Lee said. “Not only is the federal government forcing market participants to collude, it is then actively engaging in a cover up of that collusion.”
Timothy P. Carney, the Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
