Democrats in Congress have been quickly coalescing around Vice President Kamala Harris as she takes over Joe Biden’s campaign machinery in the wake of his announcement Sunday that he’s dropping out of the race. Biden immediately endorsed Harris.
Assuming no significant challenge emerges to her candidacy, the big question is her choice of a running mate and how the new ticket will perform in the swing states where Biden has been struggling. Those states include Michigan, where a new Detroit Free Press poll had Biden down seven points to former President Donald Trump.
House Ag Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson told Agri-Pulse at the Republican National Convention that he didn’t think Harris would be any stronger in Pennsylvania than Biden. “Her popularity is lower than President Biden's at this point,” Thompson said.
Of course, if Harris picks Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate, that calculus could change.
Keep in mind: Lawmakers are returning this week from their RNC break, and there will be a lot of buzz around the Harris news. Democrats are to some extent upstaging a GOP that was buoyant coming out of that unified week in Milwaukee.
By the way: African-American lawmakers had on the whole been reluctant to call for Biden to leave the race, but one of his staunchest allies and co-chairman of his campaign, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., immediately endorsed Harris. The Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee also issued a statement supporting her.
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On tap today: The House Rules Committee meets to prepare four appropriations bills for debate, including the Agriculture bill that funds USDA and FDA, and the Interior-Environment bill, which funds the Interior Department and EPA.
For more on the week ahead, read our Washington Week Ahead.
Vilsack pays tribute to Biden
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack vigorously defended Biden to the end, telling Agri-Pulse’s Steve Davies on July 10, “You're damn right he’s capable of doing the job, because he's doing the job.” In a statement Sunday, Vilsack noted that he had known Biden for 38 years and said he “will go down in history as one of our most consequential American presidents.”
Among Biden’s achievements were bringing “to fruition a vision of a new and dynamic American economy built around clean energy and climate-smart and resilient industries, including the agriculture sector,” Vilsack said.
Under Biden’s leadership, USDA “advanced food and nutrition security for tens of millions, invested in new, better and more markets to create a fairer and better marketplace for all farmers, improved the health and resilience of our national forests and grasslands, made our food safer, and centered equity in all that we do,” Vilsack said.
Republicans face new race with Biden gone
Republicans at last week’s RNC were looking forward to running against Biden. But several GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate GOP Whip John Thune of South Dakota, and Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall are now calling on Biden to resign. Marshall reasons that if Biden is not capable of campaigning, he can’t serve as president.
Biden’s decision is expected to shake up the Trump campaign. At 81, Biden would have been the oldest presidential candidate in history. Now that honor will fall to Trump, whose opponent will not, as expected, be the man who turned in a widely panned debate performance, but a 59-year-old woman who appears eager to take on the former president.
Harris’s mother was from India, making Harris the first Asian-American vice president. Her father is Jamaican-American. She is a former attorney general of California.
See our full story at www.Agri-Pulse.com.
‘Card check’ law probably unconstitutional, Calif. judge says, halting union certification
A California Superior Court judge has halted union certification efforts at Wonderful Nurseries after finding that the state’s “card check” process is probably unconstitutional.
The Wonderful Company contends that the United Farm Workers misused the law, which allows workers to sign cards supporting union certification instead of holding an in-person vote by secret ballot.
UFW said the ruling “ignores 89 years of labor law precedent saying an employer must go through the election objections process before seeking judicial intervention.” The group called the company’s claim that workers were misled “bogus.”
Western Growers President and CEO Dave Puglia welcomed the ruling. “The judge acknowledged the significant constitutional concerns and potential irreparable harm that compliance with this law could impose on employers and farmworkers alike,” Puglia said.
The company said in a statement that the court “recognized that, absent an immediate injunction, Wonderful would suffer largely irreparable harm if forced to comply with the certification. In addition, farmworkers had been wrongly barred from objecting to a union being forced on them, and this ruling states that Wonderful indeed has the standing to fight to ensure those constitutional rights of farmworkers, including their due process and First Amendment rights, are not violated.”
USDA warns state WIC agencies of possible infant formula shortages
Some state WIC agencies may experience temporary shortages in supplies of infant formula after a recent tornado damaged a Mead Johnson distribution center. But nutrition advocates say steps taken after the 2022 shortage have better protected agencies from more severe effects.
The USDA Food and Nutrition Service sent a notice of supply chain disruption to all WIC state agencies and directors after a tornado hit a Mead Johnson distribution center in Mount Vernon, Indiana, on July 9. As a result, FNS will consider requests from states with impacted contracts to obtain their formula elsewhere.
Thirteen states and Puerto Rico currently hold infant formula contracts with Mead Johnson, according to FNS.
The Access to Baby Formula Act of 2022 gave USDA better tools to respond to these situations through waivers, allowing caregivers to have more certainty in their ability to feed babies, the National WIC Association says. Additionally, this instance differs from the 2022 crisis because fewer contracts are involved and a warehouse was damaged rather than a factory.
Nominations sought for EPA farm, ranch, rural communities committee
EPA is seeking members for its Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Advisory Committee, which provides advice and recommendations to the EPA administrator on a range of agricultural issues.
The agency is soliciting nominations for people involved in some way in agriculture; they would serve two- to three-year terms.
The notice published in today’s Federal Register says individuals are “generally appointed to serve on the FRRCC as ‘representative’ members” for a particular group and so are not expected to provide “independent judgment and expertise.”
Rebekah Alvey and Philip Brasher contributed to today’s Daybreak
