House GOP leaders have dropped plans for floor debate this week on the fiscal 2025 Agriculture bill that would fund USDA and FDA.
But the House is still expected to debate two other bills important to the agriculture sector – the Interior-Environment bill that funds the Interior Department and EPA, and the Energy-Water bill that includes funding for the Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps of Engineers.
The Interior-Environment bill would slash spending for both Interior and EPA and includes a number of policy riders intended to block a variety of regulatory actions by the Biden administration.
None of these riders are likely to become law but they include a provision to block EPA from implementing regulations on light, medium and heavy-duty vehicles that are intended to accelerate a shift to electric vehicles. Another rider would stop the Bureau of Land Management from carrying out new regulations that put conservation on a par with grazing and other uses of BLM land
By the way: As the House Rules Committee met Monday to prep the bills for floor debate, Chairman Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said the spending measures would “right-size federal agencies” and “refocus federal bureaucracies on their core missions.”
The committee’s top Democrat, Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, described all the spending measures on the panel’s docket as “no good” and “divisive.”
Take note: To no one’s surprise, the White House issued statements of administration policy threatening vetoes of the Agriculture bill as well as the Interior-Environment and Energy-Water measures. Among other things, the SAP on the Agriculture bill said the White House “strongly opposes” a policy rider that would block enforcement of new competition rules for the livestock and poultry industries.
Congressional Ag Democrats rally behind Harris
Members of the House and Senate Agriculture committees have largely thrown their support behind Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate for president.
As of Monday night, all but one Democrat on the panel had endorsed the vice president. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who was one of the lawmakers originally calling for Biden to step down, told CBS’s Face the Nation that he wasn’t endorsing her “right now” and it’s important for Democrats to take care of the energy currently “unleashed.”
“My view is that our nominee, in all likelihood I think Vice President Harris, is going to be strengthened by a process that’s seen as open,” Welch said Sunday.
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Most House Agriculture Democrats expressed support for Biden and his decision to end his run, but six have refrained from fully endorsing Harris.
As of Monday evening, frontline Reps. Don Davis, D-N.C., and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., had not endorsed the vice president. Both are in close re-election races.
“It’s time to move forward and put the past behind us,” Perez wrote on X. “The next President must clearly be fit enough to do the job, and that fitness must be prosecuted publicly.”
By the way: More than 500 national and state groups have signed a letter urging lawmakers to finish a farm bill this year. The groups say it won’t be easy to get a bill done quickly next year. Read our report at Agri-Pulse.com.
Syngenta makes it three pending applications for dicamba
Syngenta has applied to register its dicamba product, Tavium, for over-the-top use on soybeans and cotton, submitting an application that carries a 30-day comment period.
The application is the third the agency will consider. Bayer and BASF have already applied.
EPA is treating all three applications as being for “new uses” and thus subject to a 17-month decision deadline under the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act.
Keep in mind: The companies would like to see EPA act faster than that, but the agency has told Agri-Pulse that the 17-month timeframe is “is predicated on a budget that EPA did not receive.”
“The exact timeline for the review of a new food use will vary based on the complexity of the review and other factors,” a spokesman said last month when asked whether the agency would take the full 17 months.
The comment periods for the Bayer and BASF applications have ended. For Syngenta’s application, the comment period will end Aug. 22.
Federal Maritime Commission issues final rule on refusal to ship goods
The Federal Maritime Commission has adopted regulations that seek to ensure U.S. exporters can get their goods to their destinations in a timely fashion.
The FMC issued a final rule defining when it will consider shippers to have unreasonably refused cargo space. That refusal can now come during negotiations but also during the “execution” phase, after a deal has been struck.
The commission’s rule implements part of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022.
More on the rule: FMC said in the rule that not all refusals by vessel-operating common carriers will constitute a violation. “If an ocean common carrier can prove there was a reasonable basis for refusing to negotiate or carry cargo, their conduct will not be found in violation of the law,” the rule said.
Carriers also will be required to file a confidential documented export policy annually with the commission, containing “information on pricing strategies, services offered, strategies for equipment provision, and descriptions of markets served.”
Why it matters: Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition, said currently, “we are not hearing from our AgTC member ag exporters of consistent carrier refusal to take export bookings, although equipment can be in short supply in some locations.” Nevertheless, “even if not immediately required to direct carrier behavior, this rule serves at a minimum as a timely warning, encouraging carriers to make best efforts, together with terminals and shippers, to assure continued export fluidity.”
Rail regulator sets September hearing date to analyze shifting rail volumes
The Surface Transportation Board has scheduled two days of hearings for September to gauge the industry’s health after noticing decreasing carload volumes over the past 10 years.
The hearing, set for Sept. 16 and 17, aims to “explore how industry participants are strategizing and innovating to reverse this recent trend and achieve freight rail growth.” The board also hopes to hear from shippers on what factors affect their decisions to use rail to transport their goods, as well as what rail carriers are doing to increase use of their services.
Rebekah Alvey, Philip Brasher and Noah Wicks contributed to today’s Daybreak.
