• The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) concluded in September 2000, after an extensive 3-month review, that Ag Secretary Dan Glickman acted within his statutory authority when he chose to conduct the referendum to terminate the program. The GAO report stated, "the Secretary has the authority to order a pork referendum."
  
  
• This was a binding vote. The referendum rules -- which are law -- said that the checkoff program would be terminated if termination was favored by a majority of producers and importers voting in the referendum. And that's exactly what happened -- 53% of those voting favored termination. Veneman has a legal obligation to comply with the final referendum rule and end the program.
  
  
• Congress put its stamp of approval on the referendum and the referendum rules. Congress ratified the Secretary's decision to hold the referendum and USDA's directive to terminate the checkoff upon a majority vote favoring termination when it passed a law on November 9, 2000 authorizing the use of taxpayer funds to pay for the referendum. Section 316 of Public Law 106-472 mandated that "the Secretary shall use funds available" from specific congressional appropriations "to pay for all expenses associated with the pork checkoff referendum ordered by the Secretary on February 25, 2000."
  
  
• The USDA's Office of Inspector General concluded that claims of voting irregularities made by NPPC were unfounded. In a January 10, 2001 memo to Ag Secretary Glickman, the OIG said "after our review of the [NPPC's] information and interviews with AMS and FSA staff, we concluded that AMS had controls in place governing the conduct of the referendum...and that we found no evidence that the controls did not work as intended. Thus we have no basis for further inquiry."
  
  
• Secretary Veneman and other government officials claim that the Campaign was included in the negotiations for the settlement agreement. The Campaign for Family Farms, which represents the hog farmers who called for the referendum and won it, was never consulted by USDA and the U.S. Department of Justice officials about their secret, back room negotiations with NPPC. The Campaign learned about the back room deal only minutes before it was announced to the national media. This lack of ethics by USDA and DOJ is outrageous and totally unacceptable.
  
  
• The U.S. District Court judge in Michigan has issued no ruling on the merits of this case, including the so-called "settlement agreement." All the judge said was that hog farmers had to continue paying the checkoff until he makes a ruling. This is partly because USDA failed to defend hog farmers' vote, and that's why the Campaign for Family Farms had to intervene in the case -- to provide the defense and protect the vote.
  
  
• Our lawyers have submitted pleadings (legal documents) with the District Court vehemently opposing the settlement and claiming that Veneman legally must end the pork checkoff program based on the producer vote. She did not have the authority to enter into a settlement with NPPC.
  
  
• Pork producers have clearly spoken through the ballot box -- according to the vote, the pork tax must be eliminated. Failure to complete the termination of the program will deny a tax cut mandated through a binding democratic vote.
  

An editorial that appeared recently in Agri News, a weekly farm newspaper that serves Minnesota and northern Iowa, said that all Americans should be angered by Veneman's and NPPC's "frontal assault on democracy;" that the proposed settlement agreement is a "corrupt deal;" and that NPPC is acting like a "tin horn dictator."

We don't want another vote -- we've already voted, and we won. We want to nail down our victory and end the pork tax. We need to keep the pressure on Veneman, Bush and Congress! Demand that they honor the vote, honor democracy, and end the pork tax. This issue affects all of us.

Member groups of the Campaign for Family Farms are:

Illinois Stewardship Alliliance
P.O. Box 648
Rochester, Illinois 62563
217/498-9707 (phone)
217/498-9235 (fax)
email: ilstew@fgi.net

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI)
2001 Forest Avenue
Des Moines, Iowa 50311
515/282-0484 (phone)
515/283-0031 (fax)
email: iowacci@dwx.com

Land Stewardship Project
3203 Cedar Avenue South
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55407
612/722-6377 (phone)
612/722-6474 (fax)
email: marks@landstewardshipproject.org

Missouri Rural Crisis Center
1108 Rangeline Street
Columbia, Missouri 65201
573/449-1336 (phone)
573-442-5716 (fax)
email: morural@coin.org

Legal counsel for the Campaign for Family Farms is
Farmers' Legal Action Group, Inc.
St. Paul, Minnesota

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