CQ reports:

By 231-191, the House passed the farm bill (HR 2419) after dispatching 31 amendments aimed at shifting its priorities. The measure would allocate $286 billion over five years.

Ag Secretary Mike Johanns spoke at the National Press Club today; we just happened to catch his comments about the politics of the bill having become polarized because of the unexpected tax increases added to pay for some of the programs, i.e., the tax increase on companies that invest in the United States. (Previous posts here and here).

Johanns’ comments add context to this CQ observation: “Realizing he could no longer count on GOP support for his bill, Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin C. Peterson, D-Minn., went into overdrive cutting deals with undecided Democrats to put together the majority needed to pass it.”

The USDA is good about posting the Secretary’s comments, so the Press Club transcript should be up next week. Here’s a transcript of his July 25th tele-conference.

UPDATE (5:15 p.m.): Via the Organization for International Investment, a copy of Secretary Paulson’s letter opposing the tax increase provisions of the farm bill. Key paragraph:

This tax proposal would override all of the United States’ existing tax treaties, disrupting current investment into the United States, and undermining our ability to negotiate future tax treaties. The tax proposal would raise taxes on foreign investment into the United States, thus discouraging such investment and the resulting job creation. Foreign-owned companies provide, directly and indirectly, millions of jobs in the United States. Moreover, the tax proposal is overbroad, affecting far more than potential “earnings stripping,” and it would adversely affect the United Stats’ relationships with our major trading partners. In fact, the tax proposal may even cause other countries to retailiate, raising taxes on U.S. companies with multinational operations.

“America’s Business with Mike Hambrick” examines a full range of manufacturing-related issues this week, ranging from workforce needs to ground-level ozone, from health care to electronic ID. Manufacturing is a busy and complex world, after all.

Manufacturers are leading the way in promoting technical and vocational education, helping young people gain essential workplace skills. A leader in the effort — and the Manufacturing Institute’s “Dream It! Do It!” campaign — is Joseph Loughrey, president & CEO of Cummins Engine. Joe joins host Mike Hambrick to discuss southeastern Indiana’s “Dream It! Do It!” initiative, a grassroots effort uniting business, government and education on behalf of skills and manufacturing careers.

The Environment Protection Agency has issued proposed rules to restrict ground-level ozone, worrying manufacturers and local officials about billions of dollars in new compliance costs for uncertain health benefits. Detailing the real-world impact of the EPA’s proposal is Mayor George Grace of St. Gabriel, Louisiana, and Joseph C. Stanko, Jr., an emissions-policy expert with Hunton & Williams.

Radio Frequency Identification Technology, or RFID, is making great strides in the manufacturing world, especially supply chain and inventory, and the technology’s potential seems enormous. Joining Mike to review RFID’s use and national security-related issues are Tres Wiley of Texas Instruments and Milan Turk, director of customer E-business for Procter & Gamble.

Employees’ chronic health conditions can hit employers hard with increased health-care costs, but there are positive steps business can take to help manage those conditions. You can learn how at a joint summit on intergrated care in Las Vegas sponsored by the NAM and the Disease Management Association of America. Here to discuss the program are Tracey Moorhead, DMAA’s President and CEO, and the NAM’s Jeri Gillespie.

Our “Women in Business” series brings us Christina P. Mullen, manager, technical & regulatory, Toyota North America. Speaking from “The Factory Floor” in Minneapolis is Harold Hamilton, founder of Micro Control Company.

Our regular segments feature Renee Giachino of the American Justice Partnership, making the case for tort reform; the NAM’s Hank Cox taking us back to “The Way Things Were”; and NAM President John Engler closing with his “The Last Word” commentary.

For more on “America’s Business with Mike Hambrick” and to listen to this week’s program, please click here. And don’t forget to check out the America’s Business Blog with audio clips!

Secretary Paulson organized a daylong conference Thursday to bring attention to the U.S. system of business taxation and where it falls short in promoting global competitiveness. From his closing statement:

It is clear from our discussion that America needs to remain alert and responsive to changing global economic conditions. Other nations have seen the results of the bold tax reforms enacted by the U.S. in the 1980s and they have moved to follow our example. And with much of the world having reduced their corporate rates, we now have the second highest statutory corporate tax rate among OECD nations.

The NAM’s statement on the conference is here, quoting from our senior vice president for policy, Jay Timmons.

The AP has a good piece on yesterday’s conference here. Included is this pointed statement from Alan Greenspan:

I think the signs are that we are moving towards a protectionist, closed society and that would be the most extraordinarily damaging thing to our standards of living.

It’s not only business owners who suffer the consequences of excessive lawsuits, frivolous litigation and “jackpot justice,” you know. From the Los Angeles Daily News:

Los Angeles county and city lawsuit settlements, verdicts and outside counsel have cost taxpayers more than $209 million in the last two years, according to a report released Thursday.

The report California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse said reasons for the settlements range from slip-and-fall accidents on public property to employment-related lawsuits.

“These funds could be going to much more important things like our sheriffs, police officers and firefighters,” said Peter Bylsma, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the nonprofit tort reform group.

The California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse have made the report available here as a .pdf file. The report is especially timely, given some of the odd developments going on in Los Angeles County.

The report comes as members of the county Board of Supervisors question a decision by County Counsel Ray Fortner to stop releasing details about legal settlements.

Fortner’s decision came after attorneys suing the county discovered the documents online and began using the information as leverage during settlement negotiations.

Not quite sure what to make of this. Obviously you don’t want to be revealing your legal negotiating strategies in public; most open meetings and open records laws include an exemption for precisely that. But completed settlements? Taxpayers have the right to know.

The Houston Chronicle does the best job of any of the major U.S. newspapers in reporting on the energy industry, and its coverage includes regular blogging, as well. Such as this item at Newswatch Energy:

Engler talks energy policy in Houston
General Motors’ falling market share and the lure of low-wage countries like China are only part of the reason the U.S. has lost more than 3.2 million manufacturing jobs since 2000.

Productivity increases, and — believe it or not — rising energy costs are also to blame, said John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers.

Engler, a former three-term governor of Michigan, was in Houston Wednesday to meet with members of the trade group and stress the need for Congress to hammer out a comprehensive energy policy that offers long-term solutions for improving access to energy supplies and reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

“We need to work hard to have Congress understand this is about much more than scoring a political point,” he said in an interview with the Chronicle. “This isn’t just trying to have an environmental group say we’re happy with you because you’ve delivered on this promise. What’s at stake are literally thousands and thousands of jobs in the U.S. economy.”

Expect a more complete story from the interview in next week’s business section.

Apropros Texas newspapers, the July edition of The Columbia Journalism Review featured a thorough and generally fair analysis of the business and journalistic difficulties faced by The Dallas Morning News, an article entitled, “Damage Report.” Not too much of the journalist whining that tends to undermine these analyses, and all in all, it’s one of the best pieces we’ve seen about the decline of big city newspapers.

From the People’s Weekly World:

During the House and Senate debates on the Employee Free Choice Act, some of my friends got riled up by all the right-wing nuts attacking the EFCA because the Communists support it. I got a lot of e-mail from folks disturbed by the red-baiting and anti-communism. Some were indignant, and some worried that the Communist Party’s support for the EFCA was being used to taint the legislation.

I had a different reaction. Thank you, National Association of Manufacturers. Thank you, Senators McConnell, Chambliss and Isakson. Thank you, Reps. Foxx and Brown-Waite. And thank you, Fox News. All of you blasted the EFCA by saying that the bill is supported by the Communist Party. You’ve given us great publicity and helped make it clear to millions where the Communists stand on labor issues.

Times have changed. In the old days, this kind of thing would have gotten you shot for social-revisionism.

Hat tip: Bret at Laborpains.org.

President Bush signed H.R. 556 yesterday, which rationalizes the national-security examination of foreign purchases of U.S. companies. The White House statement:

The President today signed the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007. This legislation will strengthen our national security by ensuring a thorough and high-level review of acquisitions of U.S. companies by foreign firms that may present security considerations. The legislation also demonstrates that America can meet the challenges of the post-9/11 world while continuing to welcome foreign investment that provides well-paying jobs and economic opportunity for our citizens.

As the President made clear in his May 10 Statement on Open Investment, a climate conducive to foreign investment strengthens our national security. This Administration is committed to maintaining that climate at home, and will continue to seek it abroad. We commend the Members of Congress of both parties whose leadership enabled the passage of this legislation.

Also yesterday, NAM President John Engler submitted testimony for a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing on the need to streamline export controls. Engler:

The ability of America’s manufacturers to provide cutting edge technology is at risk due to a system that is a relic of a different era. We need an export controls system that keeps sensitive technologies out of the hands of those seeking to harm us, yet allows high-tech industries to expand exports.

More on this later, but for now, here is the NAM’s news release with a link to Engler’s statement.

The House adopted the rule for consideration of H.R. 2419, the farm bill reauthorization, last night bya roll call vote of 222-202 (Roll Call No. 746). We’ve already written about the anti-investment provisions, the $7.5 billion tax increase in the bill. Other bad things are surfacing, including provisions that would damage domestic energy development. In a letter to the House yesterday, the NAM argued:

In particular, we oppose provisions in the bill that would: impose a fee on 1998-99 deep water leases that are not renegotiated to include price thresholds; repeal provisions of the Energy Policy Act (EPAct05) that preclude the Bureau of Land Management from collecting certain fees; prevent additional royalty relief for oil and gas produced from the OCS, ultra deep wells, very deep waters and Alaska; and authorize the Secretary of Interior to modify the term of oil and gas leases in the national petroleum reserve in Alaska.

Oil and gas from federal lands and waters is critical to meeting the nation’s energy needs, providing approximately 32 percent of all oil and 32 percent of all natural gas produced in the United States. EPAct was intended to encourage energy efficiency and conservation, to reduce dependence on foreign sources of energy, and to increase domestic production of oil and natural gas. The repeal of provisions contained in the EPAct that were designed to encourage domestic production would be a step backward for U.S. energy security.

To too many members of Congress, “energy independence” is a talking point; once they’re done, you can point to a lot of talking as being the major achievement.

Meanwhile, for an interesting, purely political take on the farm bill — its horsetrading and the domination by special interests — check out this story in the San Francisco Chroncle, “Dem Leaders Shield Farm Bill.” Headline aside, the story is mostly about the battle between urban and rural members over who gets the bigger piece of the pie.

P.S. We’ve placed the full text of yesterday’s letter to the Hill in the extended entry below.

(continue reading…)

USA Today took a look at the economic resiliance of right-to-work states versus those with mandatory union membership in a major package Thursday, using Michigan as a case study.

To regain some of its economic health, Michigan needs to attract different industries, such as alternative fuel production, health care and tourism. But right-to-work proponents say the strong union presence keeps new industry away. A weaker union base would help attract more businesses, they argue.

“We’ve got to do something bold, something dramatic,” says Lawrence Reed, president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank in Michigan that promotes business interests. “This is the one best thing that can break the perception around the country that Michigan doesn’t have a friendly work environment. Nothing would do that better than a right-to-work initiative.”

The Mackinac Center has a right-to-work FAQ available here.

We recall that CNBC’s ratings of the “Top State for Business” featured five right-to-work states as the top five. Companies, manufacturers, investors — they’re all voting with their feet.

He Man and the Masters of the Universe is to the 1980s what, well, what’s the best analogy? Space Ghost was to the 1960s? Race Bannon?

Anyway, He Man was an obviously cool cartoon show — to kids, at least — who is now recalled fondly but also a fit topic for satire. And the world’s leading Masters of the Universe satirist is Daniel Geduld of Flying Squid Studios and author of “The Skeletor Show,” a series of cartoon mash-ups available on You Tube.

We caught The Grammar Lesson, over at The Corner — hanged not hung! — and hunted down the rest. There’s Skeletor’s take Frank Langella and more! Bjorn, I’m tellin’ ya, this is going to be the Best Westchester Kennel Club ever. (Episode 9.)

Some of the episodes have bad language, but they’re all pretty darn funny. So this Friday, our Follies are The Skeletor Show. It breaks reality.