WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Credit rating agencies like Moody’s Corp and Standard & Poor’s hoped to win a reprieve on Tuesday from a proposal that would upend their business model as U.S. lawmakers sat down to craft a final rewrite of financial regulations

Lawmakers from the Senate and the House of Representatives could strip a provision designed to eliminate perceived conflicts of interest between the credit rating agencies and the companies whose debt they rate as they resolve differences between their two Wall Street reform bills.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The resurgent U.S. ethanol industry will use an additional 250 million bushels of corn through the next 15 months, dramatically reducing the corn surplus despite record crops, said the government on Thursday.

Traders said the forecast of higher demand would boost corn prices. They had expected modest reductions in the corn stockpile instead of the Agriculture Department’s large cuts.

WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) – Some Democratic senators
emerging from closed-door financial reform talks on Wednesday
praised a controversial measure that would require banks to
spin off their lucrative swaps desks.

The measure put forth by Senator Blanche Lincoln is “a
strong provision in the bill,” said Senate Banking Committee
Chairman Christopher Dodd, who three weeks ago had tried to
soften it.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senator Blanche Lincoln faces possible elimination in a Democratic run-off primary in Arkansas on Tuesday, putting at risk her tough stance against the big banks in Wall Street reform.

Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter held a small lead over Lincoln in polls of likely voters ahead of the vote. Lincoln led in the May 18 primary but did not get an outright majority to claim nomination for a third Senate term.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The author of a U.S. Senate proposal to force banks to spin off their swaps desks said on Thursday she will fight to see the idea is part of a House-Senate compromise on financial regulatory reform.

Agriculture Committee chairman Blanche Lincoln told Reuters that “I am going to push hard for it” in negotiations to reconcile House and Senate differences.

WASHINGTON, May 25 (Reuters) – The U.S. government will
soon propose rules to bar meatpackers from unfairly favoring
big cattle feedlots and to give poultry producers more
leverage, two small-farm groups said on Tuesday.

The proposal would modify Agriculture Department guidelines
on fair play in livestock and poultry sales. Activists say
farmers are out-muscled by big packers who dominate meat
processing. The 2008 farm law required action on the issue.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China bought more than $10 billion in U.S. farm goods in the first six months of the year to become the country’s No 1 agricultural export market, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Thursday.

In an interview with Reuters, Vilsack said farm exports during the first half of fiscal 2010 totaled $59 billion, “the best six months ag trade has had.” With the strong start, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will probably raise its forecast of sales for the year, he said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China bought more than $10 billion of U.S. farm exports in the first six months of the fiscal year to become the country’s No. 1 buyer, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Thursday.

During an interview with Reuters, Vilsack said U.S. farm exports during the first half of fiscal 2010 totaled $59 billion, “the best six months ag trade has had.” With the strong start, the Agriculture Department probably will raise its forecast of sales for the year, he added.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senator Blanche Lincoln, a key voice for financial reform, was forced on Tuesday into a Democratic runoff election in Arkansas and lost leverage for her plan to force big banks to spin off swaps desks.

She was expected to be the vote-leader in the primary and possibly win the nomination outright. Instead, Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter ran neck-and-neck with her in a race colored by anti-Washington sentiment.

WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) – Congress should ban sugary
sodas from the $58 billion-a-year U.S. food stamp program as a
step to combat the obesity crisis, the House Agriculture
Committee was told on Thursday.

Wellesley College professor and food expert Rob Paarlberg
suggested the ban during a hearing to review the 2008 farm law,
which includes food stamps as well as crop subsidies. Food
stamps help low-income people buy food. One in eight Americans
receives food stamps.