The Week Ahead: January 2-8, 2017

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Washington’s attention will focus on a new Congress that begins Tuesday and who will be chosen to be the next USDA Secretary and US Trade Representative since both of those positions were yet to be filled as 2016 ended – although some sources signaled a USDA decision has been made. That will begin the real assessment of what lies ahead at USDA and provide some clues on the potential policy focus for the Trump administration.

For Congress, activity will be relatively light with most of the attention focusing on organization activities and such. Plus, lawmakers will continue to respond to Trump Cabinet choices as well, with no hearings on those selections this week.

Trump on Friday met with several potential candidates for USDA Cabinet post; some sources signal Perdue will be tapped for USDA. President-elect Donald Trump met Friday afternoon with several people under consideration for USDA Secretary, one of his few remaining unfilled Cabinet positions. Trump met with former Texas Rep. Henry Bonilla and former Texas commissioner of agriculture Susan Combs at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, where he has been spending time over the holidays. Texas agricultural commissioner Sid Miller also met with some of Trump’s senior aides. Speaking afterwards, Bonilla said his meeting with Trump “went very well... There were general questions about the agency, general discussion about regulations that farmers want fixed,” Bonilla said. Asked why he felt he was suited for the role, Bonilla said: “I chaired the agriculture appropriations sub-committee for my last six years in Congress, and it was a huge responsibility to oversee the budget for all of the USDA,” he said. Miller said he had a “very good” meeting with Trump aides Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus, saying they discussed the weather, grandkids and agriculture. Trump met earlier in the week with Elsa Murano, the former president of Texas A&M, about heading USDA, and with and former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado.

Other potential candidates or people “floated” for the position include former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, former Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman and Trump campaign agriculture advisory committee chairman Charles Herbster.

Perdue may be Trump’s selection for USDA post, per some sources. Perdue — no relation to the family of the same name that owns chicken producer Perdue Farms Inc. — was born in Perry, Georgia. A graduate of the University of Georgia, he served as a state senator. In 2003, he became the first Republican governor of the state in 130 years. He stepped down in 2011, and the same year he founded Perdue Partners LLC, which is an Atlanta-based trading company.

Fed watchers will get some things to mull, as the minutes from the December Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting will be released. The focus there will be on the level of debate over the rate increase the Fed agreed to at that meeting and whether there is any sign that some were reluctant to back the action even though there were not dissenting votes. The watch will also be on signals of the elections and how that was discussed since Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen said that was indeed a topic they talked about. Beyond the FOMC minutes, Friday will be the other focus day on the Fed as Chicago Fed President Evans (2017 voter) and Atlanta Fed President Lockhart (2018 voter) both are currently on the schedule. That list could always grow since information on the holiday shortened week may have been a little incomplete.

Eyes will remain on South America weather. Forecasters were signaling beneficial rains were ahead for the weekend, and trading could hinge on the coverage of the precipitation. Demand will still stay a focus, putting the Tuesday Grain Inspections and Friday Weekly Export Sales figures as watch points — both reports are delayed one day by the Monday government holiday. Other data that will be watched include updates from some states on the winter wheat situation today as those now only come monthly until the national USDA update resumes in April. Also, today USDA releases the monthly data on fats and oils crush and grain crushings. Besides the weekly export update, USDA will detail the agricultural trade data in the afternoon on Friday.

NOTE: This column is copyrighted material; therefore reproduction or retransmission is prohibited under U.S. copyright laws.