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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Monday, April 29, 2024
Lawmakers are back in D.C. with four weeks until the Memorial Day deadline set by House Ag Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., for moving a new farm bill. Republicans and Democrats remain at an impasse about key details of the bill, most notably on cuts to nutrition spending.
House Agriculture Committee Democrats have offered a counter proposal on the farm bill that suggests using USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation funding authority to shore up commodity programs and crop insurance, according to a summary of the proposal obtained by Agri-Pulse.
The Biden administration is expected to announce key updates this week to its carbon-intensity scoring for sustainable aviation fuel this week, while lawmakers are struggling to break a partisan impasse over a new farm bill that Republicans are determined to move through the House Ag Committee in May.
The Labor Department has finalized a series of new protections for H-2A employees, including a right to participate in advocacy efforts over working conditions and restrictions on when workers can be fired for cause. A leading industry group denounced the regulations as "offensive" and "developed in bad faith."
The Biden administration has finalized a sweeping set of rules aimed at slashing greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants from power plants. The rules are a fundamental part of President Biden’s climate strategy. But the National Rural Electric Cooperative is among the industry groups blasting them.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s annual report on intellectual property protections, out today, includes concerns about the European Union’s “aggressive promotion” of geographical indications for food products.
For nearly four decades, the federal government has protected environmentally sensitive farmland through a simple bargain with farmers known as “conservation compliance.” If they want to receive farm program benefits, growers can’t plow up wetlands, and they must take steps to protect highly erodible acreage.
The federal agencies that buy food for distribution try to buy products locally but don’t have a comprehensive way of tracking the source of products, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.
The top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters of California, and four senior Senate Democrats are urging an appeals court to preserve a new law that requires small businesses, including farms, to disclose their ownership to the federal government.