Reporters packed an open room in a
U.S. Senate office building in early October waiting for
Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Chairman Tom Harkin to unveil details in the Senate version of the farm bill.
Though the reporting cadre waited, Harkin (D-Iowa) never showed. He was tied up on the Senate floor with a debate on funding for U.S. Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services.
Senate staffers began breaking down the podium, microphones and giant promotional placard declaring the farm bill would secure America's food and energy needs.
Meanwhile, a dozen reporters cornered Harkin's right-hand man on the farm bill in the hallway for the next 45 minutes, peppering Mark Halverson with dozens of technical questions that only a few policy wonks like Halverson could readily answer.
Senators and congressmen may get credit or criticism for what is in the farm bill, but professional staff members such as Halverson have a great deal of influence on shaping the farm bill.
FARM POLICY EXPERTS. Halverson is majority staff director for the Senate Agriculture Committee. He often could be found during the farm bill debate sitting next to Harkin with a stack of binders, folders and notes on his lap.
Across the aisle, Martha Scott Poindexter, the committee's minority staff director, was usually sitting next to Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) with a comparable stack of papers.
Chambliss, the agriculture committee's ranking member, describes Halverson as "Cool Hand Luke" when it comes to negotiating on various provisions of the farm bill. But Chambliss saved some of his best comments for his own aide. "Without her I simply would not be able to function when it comes to agriculture."
When the farm bill cleared the Senate in December, Halverson and Poindexter took on key roles negotiating the differences between the Senate and House bills.
Professional committee staff are often allowed to work out a great many of the details. They began in early January with an all-day meeting and established subgroups to break down different provisions in the two bills. Much of the work involved getting agreements on technical aspects of the bill, or getting the so-called underbrush cleared away.
Staff must know the mind-sets of their bosses, and committee directors can have strong ties to the senators. Halverson has worked for Harkin since 1988. After getting a law degree at the University of Iowa, he was working at a law office in Washington, but really wanted to be on Capitol Hill.
A position opened up as an agricultural legislative aide, and Halverson took it. "I had done some volunteer agricultural policy work for Paul Simon when he was running for president, so that kind of helped further spur my interest in it," Halverson says.
Poindexter explains her role is to work out details as much as possible until an issue reaches the point that she can no longer make headway.
She has been on Capitol Hill off and on since graduating from Mississippi State University in 1990 with a degree in home economics. Her understanding of nutrition got her a job in the office of Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) who needed a nutrition expert for the 1990 farm bill. She was working at a lobbying firm in 1994 when Chambliss was elected to Congress and needed an agricultural legislative assistant.
"There are a lot of decisions during the farm bill process, everyday decisions, that [Chambliss] is not aware of," Poindexter says. "But I know where my boss stands on stuff. I know what he thinks and what he stands for so I can make those decisions for him. I'm there to make sure all the trains run on time and Saxby has all of the information he needs to make a decision."
Halverson and Poindexter both came to the job with agricultural backgrounds. Their families both still own farms in Iowa and Mississippi, respectively, and Halverson is still actively engaged in managing his family's operation.
Because Chambliss is from Georgia, Poindexter has worked a great deal on peanut issues in the past. But she is quick to say she doesn't want to take credit for any particular provisions in the farm bill.
Poindexter adds she and Chambliss have worked with Southern lawmakers on negotiating controversial caps for commodity programs. "Payment limitations is something we have worked extensively on because it means so much to our farmers."
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Anyone who has followed Harkin knows his advocacy for conservation programs. Halverson says he began work early on ways to get more incentives in the farm bill for farmers to develop better land-stewardship practices. In the 1990 farm bill, Harkin got in the Water Quality Incentives Program. "That kind of got things started," Halverson says.
The water-quality program was later folded into the Environmental Quality Incentives Program in 1996. Halverson then helped Harkin craft the Conservation Security Program for the 2002 farm bill, which is now being expanded and renamed as the Conservation Stewardship Incentives Program for the 2008 legislation.
"I'd say the conservation incentives have been a big thing for Senator Harkin," Halverson explains. "That is something I have felt that I have had some significant role in, and I have enjoyed that a lot."
A STEPPING STONE. Professional committee staff and legislative aides can build long careers on Capitol Hill or move on to other high-profile positions in Washington.
For instance, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) served as an agricultural aide before winning his own congressional seat. Tom Buis, president of the National Farmers Union, worked for former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.
USDA's ranks are filled with former Capitol Hill staffers, right on up to Acting Agricultural Secretary Chuck Conner, who served as an agricultural legislative assistant to Sen. Richard Lugar, and then became both minority and majority staff director for the Agriculture Committee. Advancement is possible, but Poindexter says she doesn't have any desire to work at USDA. Congress can be frustrating, but she likes working for Chambliss and enjoys the parliamentary procedure of the Senate.
"It's the few wins that make you keep doing it," she says. "It's just like golf. That one good shot makes you say ‘OK, I like this game now.'"
Then there are times when committee staffers have worked extensively on legislation with certain senators only to see other members issue trumpeting press releases after certain provisions pass in a bill.
"It's amazing who takes credit for certain things," Poindexter points out. "There's really nothing you can do about it, but we know and hopefully the people we represent know we were the ones who did it; and the agricultural groups we work closely with, they know who is actually doing something and who is not."
Committee meetings typically involve Harkin or Chambliss leaning back to ask their respective staff directors about particular provisions or issues.
Throughout the Senate floor debate, Halverson and Poindexter could be seen on C-SPAN sitting next to their respective senators. They also would talk frequently on the floor, go back into the cloakroom and discuss possible amendment issues with senators and then return with more paperwork for Harkin or Chambliss.
"There is a decorum you have to watch," Poindexter stresses. "It's hard to whisper all the time and be quiet and remember you can't sit in certain seats or walk in certain areas. It gets frustrating, and it gets tiring because you work all night after leaving the floor. We have to come back and get ready for the next day."
Despite party differences, a cooperative working relationship between Halverson and Poindexter includes long policy meetings with staff, overseeing work on the conference talks together and often e-mails several times a day.
"We've got our different points of view to represent and all that sort of thing," Halverson says. "I think we're pretty frank about when we have agreements or disagreements."
While staffers say people working on Capitol Hill can still make time for family, Halverson, 52, and Poindexter, 40, both remain single.
"It's hard to meet people," Poindexter says. "It's a small community, actually, in agriculture. We've known each other and we have all kind of grown up together. It's a small, little town."
Adds Halverson, "I wouldn't want to give the impression that it's impossible around here to have a personal life. That wouldn't be the case."