Lawmakers look to finish work on some fiscal 2024 appropriations bills important to agriculture this week, as newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson and other congressional leaders face a looming deadline for keeping the government open amid deep partisan divides over spending.
The Senate is nearing final votes on a package of three FY24 spending measures that includes the bill to fund the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration.
The House, which is lurching back to action after going three weeks without a speaker, is scheduled to take up its FY24 Interior-Environment spending bill, which would make sharp cuts in funding for the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency while also repealing the Biden administration’s “waters of the U.S.” rule.
Johnson’s election last week has done little so far to quell the partisan rancor in the House. The lawmakers are facing votes this week on whether to expel Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., who faces extensive fraud charges, as well as a dueling pair of censure resolutions directed at other House members.
One of the censure measures, brought by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, targets Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat of Palestinian descent whom Greene accuses of being antisemitic and pro-Hamas.
The second censure resolution, filed by Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., accuses Greene of repeatedly fanning the “flames of racism, antisemitism, LGBTQ hate speech, Islamophobia, anti-Asian hate, xenophobia, and other forms of hatred.”
Republicans, who narrowly control the House 221-212, can ill afford to lose Santos, which is why many GOP members could be reluctant to vote against the expulsion measure, which requires a two-thirds majority to pass.
With the House’s current makeup, Republicans can only afford to lose four votes on partisan measures.
If the resolution were to pass, Santos would be only the sixth House member to be expelled by colleagues, according to Roll Call. The most recent was James Traficant, D-Ohio, who was removed in 2002 following a conviction on corruption charges.
Johnson has made clear he wants to keep Santos in the House for now. “We have no margin for error,” Johnson told Fox News host Sean Hannity last week. “We have to let due process play itself out. That’s what our system of justice is for.”
Losing Santos would have implications not only for moving their partisan spending measures, but could potentially affect a farm bill as well if Republicans go the route of moving legislation that cuts nutrition spending to fund farm programs.
Johnson also could face a partisan battle over a continuing resolution that will be needed to keep the government open when a CR that’s been funding the government since FY24 started Oct. 1 expires Nov. 17.
Johnson told Fox News on Sunday he's open to moving a new continuing resolution that would fund the government to Jan. 15, but he suggested Republicans might include a provision that could trigger a 1% across-the-board cut in federal spending. That provision would be intended to give the House some negotiating leverage with the Democratic-controlled Senate in negotiations over the final appropriations legislation.
He said he expects hardline conservatives to agree to a new CR to give time for the House to finish moving all of the 12 FY24 appropriations bills.
His colleagues "understand we’re really doing this work, and if we run out of time on the calendar we’ll need a little more to complete it," he said.
The House has three more appropriations bills on its schedule this week.
The Interior-Environment bill includes deep cuts in many areas of the Interior Department, EPA and Forest Service. The Bureau of Land Management’s budget would be slashed by 18% to $1.2 billion. The Fish and Wildlife Service, which enforces the Endangered Species Act, would get a 13% cut.
EPA’s environmental programs would be slashed by 26%, or $857 million, in FY24. The Forest Service’s non-fire account would be cut by 8%.
The WOTUS repeal provision that’s included in the legislation was also part of the House Energy-Water spending bill that the House approved last week.
The Democratic-controlled Senate has taken a very different approach to FY24 funding by adhering to the spending levels in the debt ceiling agreement that lawmakers reached with President Joe Biden in May. The Senate’s spending bills, including the Agriculture measure that funds USDA and FDA, have broad bipartisan support.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., noted that the three bills in the package the Senate could approve as soon as Tuesday “will be the only appropriations bills passed in either chamber that both parties support, and I think that’s key to remember as we move forward.”
The Senate has a handful of proposed amendments to consider before a final vote on the package.
Some relatively noncontroversial amendments approved last week on a voice vote included one by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., that would earmark $8.5 million for USDA's Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production grant program.
Other approved amendments included one by Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., to designate $1 million for breeding drought- and disease-resistant peanuts. An amendment led by Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, would ban the use of Chinese seafood in federally subsidized school lunches.
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The House’s version of the Agriculture funding bill remains in limbo. The measure failed on the House floor after 27 Republicans, many of them from rural districts, joined Democrats in opposing it. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the bill would effectively slash USDA's budget by 18% from FY23 levels.
Unless House Republicans can find a way to resurrect the bill, their negotiating leverage with the Senate over USDA and FDA funding ultimately will be reduced. But it’s not clear they can find a way to salvage the legislation because of restrictions on the abortion drug mifepristone that divide Republicans.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack are heading to Minnesota Wednesday to kick off a two-week, nationwide effort to showcase how “Bidenomics” is helping rural America through investments in farming, ag production and rural communities, according to the White House. Cabinet members and other senior administration officials “will barnstorm across the country” to impress upon communities that “rural Americans do not have to leave their hometowns to find opportunity.”After Minnesota, Vilsack is off to Indiana, where he’ll meet with the FFA to speak “about opportunities for the next generation of agricultural leaders.” Next, it’s on to Wyoming and Colorado, where he’ll be highlighting the administration’s plans for investing in rural America as well as efforts to “protect and conserve our lands for future generations.”
Here is a list of agriculture- or rural-related events scheduled for this week in Washington and elsewhere (all times EDT):
Monday, Oct. 30
4 p.m. — USDA releases weekly Crop Progress report.
Tuesday, Oct. 31
Noon — Environmental Law Institute webinar, “Green Fields, Broad Impacts: Unpacking the Environmental Implications of the 2023 Farm Bill.”
Wednesday, Nov. 1
National FFA Convention kicks off in Indianapolis, runs through Nov. 4.
10 a.m. — Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, “The Science of Extreme Event Attribution: How Climate Change Is Fueling Severe Weather Events,” 406 Dirksen.
Thursday, Nov. 2
8:30 a.m. — USDA releases Weekly Export Sales report.
Friday, Nov. 3
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