This morning Senate Ag Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss, with the help of his very capable communications director, Keith Williams, held a technologically advanced press conference with farm reporters. Using a chat room for reporters to sign on and ask questions and a live internet audio feed, Senator Chambliss addressed a number of questions related to congressional activities in light of the hurricane disaster. Some of the points he made were that basically, this changes everything as far as congressional activities are concerned. Deadlines for appropriations bills will likely be changed, consideration of the death tax repeal will be put off, and agricultural disaster aid will be part of subsequent disaster supplementals once total costs are determined. Besides the producers in the affected states, energy and fertilizer costs are increasing and transportation has been disrupted for producers everywhere, and he noted that agriculture is unable to pass along increased input costs. However, Chambliss did say that he expects WTO and other trade negotiations to move ahead despite the disaster.

You can listen to a portion of the press conference here: (12MB MP3 File)

Among the reporters who were on-line asking questions were Pam Jahnke of WI Farm Voice; Peter Shinn of NAFB; Stuart Doane of Clear Channel in Little Rock, AR; AgriTalk; Josh St. Peters of Brownfield Network and Cindy on behalf of Southeast AgNet. There were apparently some technical difficulties to start, but it was a very cool use of new communications technology.
Great job, Keith.