Congressional leaders announced agreement Sunday on a new stopgap funding bill that would keep the government funded until March 1 for some departments and agencies, including USDA, and to March 8 for the rest.
The continuing resolution must be passed by Friday in order to avoid a partial shutdown of some departments and agencies, including USDA, FDA and the Transportation Department.
"To avoid a shutdown, it will take bipartisan cooperation in the Senate and the House to quickly pass the CR and send it to the president’s desk before Friday’s funding deadline," Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Sunday evening.
Congress has yet to pass any of its appropriations bills for fiscal 2024, which started Oct. 1. Under the existing continuing resolution, enacted in November, departments and agencies covered by the Agriculture, Energy-Water, Transportation-HUD and Military Construction measures are funded through Friday. The new CR would extend their funding to March 1.
Departments and agencies covered by the remaining eight FY24 bills are funded through Feb. 2, and would be extended to March 8 under the new CR.
The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, said the new CR would hopefully be the last for FY24.
"There is a mutual understanding that the only way to finally end the saga of 2024 funding is to write government funding bills that can earn the support of both Democrats and Republicans in the House and in the Senate," she said.
In a post on X, the hard-right House Freedom Caucus blasted the new CR, which the group is likely powerless to stop: “The @HouseGOP is planning to pass a short-term spending bill continuing Pelosi levels with Biden policies, to buy time to pass longer-term spending bills at Pelosi levels with Biden policies. This is what surrender looks like.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., came under heavy pressure from hard-line conservatives last week to renege on a $1.6 trillion top-line spending agreement with the White House and Senate Democrats, but on Friday he told reporters that he was sticking with the deal.
Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good and other hard-liners continued to complain Friday about the deal after Johnson's declaration. Good told reporters he was “vehemently opposed” to the agreement, and Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, told CNN Johnson “negotiated the terms of our surrender.”
The hard-liners have little recourse unless they are willing to file a motion to oust Johnson and have the votes to back up the threat. There were reports Friday that some Democrats would vote to keep Johnson in office, something that didn’t happen when the hard-liners revolted against Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy in October.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., told Real America’s Voice she warned Johnson that she would file a motion to remove him from the speakership if he caved on border security concerns and instead allowed the House vote on new funding for Ukraine, issues that have so far been kept separate from the FY24 appropriations process.
On Saturday, Johnson posted “absolutely not” on X to a description of a possible bipartisan border deal reported by Fox News. There has been no definitive announcement of such an agreement, however.
Meanwhile, the presidential nominating season kicks off with the Iowa Republican caucuses Monday night. The final Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom poll shows former President Donald Trump leading Nikki Haley 48% to 20%, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis third at 16%.
Also this week, USDA on Tuesday will resume a hearing process that started in August on possible changes to federal milk marketing orders.
If the hearing is not completed by Friday at 5 p.m., the hearing will reconvene again on Jan. 29. The National Milk Producers Federation says its testimony and cross-examination will likely reach more than 15,000 pages by the expected conclusion of the hearing, now expected by Feb. 2.
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NMPF has been pushing for a series of changes to the pricing formula, including the way producer returns for fluid milk are regulated. Under an industry agreement that was implemented in the 2018 farm bill, the price paid for fluid milk (Class I) must be at least 74 cents per hundredweight over an average of the prices for Class III (milk sold for cheese) and Class IV (butter and milk powder).
In November, cumulative producer pool losses since the formula was changed in the 2018 farm bill surpassed $1 billion, according to an analysis by the American Farm Bureau Federation.
“With no immediate changes in sight from the ongoing federal milk marketing order hearing or in renewed farm bill discussions, dairy farmers continue to feel the impacts of diminished pool values and outdated pricing regulations,” AFBF economist Daniel Munch said in a recent Market Intel.
Even after the hearing wraps up, the remaining mandated steps required by USDA include up to 270 days when the hearing transcript is published and when a producer referendum may occur. Any regulatory changes are unlikely to take place until 2025 or later, Munch says.
Here is a list of agriculture- or rural-related events scheduled for this week in Washington and elsewhere (all times EDT):
Monday, Jan. 15
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Iowa Republican caucuses.
Tuesday, Jan. 16
Wednesday, Jan. 17
Thursday, Jan. 18
8:30 a.m. — USDA releases Weekly Export Sales report.
10 a.m. — House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed climate disclosure rule, 2128 Rayburn.
Friday, Jan. 19
11 a.m. — Alliance for a Stronger FDA webinar with senior FDA officials on the agency’s reorganization plan.
Saturday, Jan. 20
The American Farm Bureau Federation kicks off its annual meeting in Salt Lake City.
Jacqui Fatka contributed to this report.
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