Chairs of House committees are demanding members of President Biden’s cabinet spell out the regulatory actions that could be affected by the Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning the Chevron doctrine. The decision means courts are no longer supposed to defer to federal agencies in interpreting laws.
A series of letters the committee chairs sent to departments and agencies, including USDA, asks for a list of all judicial challenges to final agency rules that may be affected by the decision, and also any final rules that may be affected but haven’t been challenged in court yet. The committee chairs also want to know what pending rulemakings had been relying on Chevron deference.
“Perhaps no administration has gone as far as President Biden’s to found sweeping and intrusive agency dictates on such questionable assertions of agency authority,” the letters say. The letters say Biden’s climate and energy regulations “have been based on aggressive interpretations of statutes enacted by Congress years and even decades ago, before many issues against which the Biden administration has sought to deploy them were even imagined.”
Vilsack blasts proposed Food for Peace program cut
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack is criticizing a cut to the Food for Peace program contained in the House Appropriations Committee’s fiscal 2025 agriculture spending bill.
The House bill would reduce funding for the food aid initiative by $619 million, to $1 billion. The GOP says it’s doing so because Vilsack has taken $1 billion from the Commodity Credit Corporation to supplement the program at the request of Senate Agriculture Committee leaders.
During the Appropriations Committee’s debate on the bill Wednesday evening, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., offered an amendment to restore the cut to Food for Peace, but she ultimately withdrew the proposal after the committee debated it.
Ag Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., said Food for Peace would still see an overall increase in funding when the CCC spending is taken into account.
The top Democrat on the Ag Subcommittee, Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., said the CCC funding won’t operate in the same manner and “should not be used as an excuse to cut the base annual funding for this vital program.”
More from Vilsack: He said Wednesday that food aid provides a way for the U.S. to counter China’s investment in Africa through its Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. “So, it's penny-wise and pound foolish for us to cut food,” he said.
He also said the idea that the program should be cut to a certain level “assumes that there's a static need for food aid.” Yet since his previous tenure as ag secretary, when there was a decline in severely hungry people around the globe, the number of hungry people in recent years has been increasing, Vilsack notes.
Take note: Vilsack also staunchly defended President Joe Biden as the Democratic Party nominee, saying he’s capable of continuing to do the job he has been doing for three and a half years. See our story at www.Agri-Pulse.com.
USDA announces support grants for states participating in SUN Bucks
USDA will provide $100 million in grants to help states, tribal nations and U.S. territories to implement the SUN Bucks program, which helps families buy groceries for their children during the summer with a $120 stipend per eligible child.
States can opt into the SUN Bucks initiative, which aims to improve food security for children when they don’t have access to school meals.
The grants will help develop or modify state technology systems to effectively run the program. Funds are available to the 35 states that are already participating in the program as well as the three states or territories that anticipate joining next summer.
“One of USDA’s top priorities is helping more states offer SUN Bucks in future years,” Food and Nutrition Service Administrator Cindy Long said in a release. “This funding will make it easier for states to get the program up and running and ensure it runs smoothly for participants.”
Over 1,400 groups urge Congress to protect SNAP in the farm bill
The Food Research & Action Center and over 1,400 organizations have teamed up to push Congress to protect and strengthen the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the farm bill and other legislative vehicles.
In a letter, the groups reiterated their opposition to the House Agriculture Committee’s farm bill, citing changes to the Thrifty Food Plan and a provision that would allow states to outsource some SNAP administrative functions. TFP is model of nutrition costs that is used to set SNAP benefits.
“We strongly support bipartisan efforts to pass a farm bill that supports both farmers and families by strengthening SNAP and protecting vital nutrition programs that reduce food insecurity,” said Colleen Young, director of government affairs at Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, during a press call Tuesday.
Methomyl biological opinion released
A draft biological opinion from the Fish and Wildlife Service concludes that the continued use of the insecticide methomyl will jeopardize the continued existence of 82 federally listed threatened or endangered species — 53 animals and 29 plants.
The public has until Sept. 9 to comment on the draft. The service will work with EPA and registrants of the insecticide to tailor proposed mitigation measures, “so they are technologically and economically feasible,” FWS said.
Methomyl is a restricted use pesticide, meaning it can only be applied by certified applicators.
The Center for Biological Diversity, which sued to force the service to perform the analysis, said the release of the draft opinion was encouraging, but Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director for the group, said “it’s tragic it took them years to complete this while endangered species continue to suffer harm.”
The biological opinion can be found here.
Veterinary experts, APHIS discuss disease prevention
Don’t miss our webinar at 1 p.m. EDT today on what can be done to protect U.S. agriculture from avian flu and other zoonotic diseases.
Agri-Pulse Founder and Publisher Sara Wyant will moderate the discussion with Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee; veterinary consultant Danelle Bickett-Weddle; Doug Ensley, director of veterinary public health for Boehringer Ingelheim; Jamie Jonker, chief science officer for the National Milk Producers Federation; and Jonathan Zack, director of preparedness and incident coordination for USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
You can sign up here.
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