Senate Republicans are slated to pick their new party leadership this morning in a closed-door, secret ballot election.
House Republicans will hold their leadership elections this afternoon. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to be on the Hill ahead of his visit to the White House to meet with President Joe Biden.
The new GOP leader will be crucial to shepherding Trump’s agenda, including a sweeping tax bill, through Congress. Rick Scott of Florida, John Thune of South Dakota and John Cornyn of Texas have been vying for the role.
Thune, the current minority whip and a member of the Senate Ag Committee, and Cornyn, who formerly served as McConnell’s top deputy, represent the more institutional wing of the party. Should Scott prevail today, it would mark a MAGA shift in the GOP.
Take note: Following a candidate forum Tuesday night, some GOP senators suggested the key differences between the three men were leadership style and experience. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., who has publicly backed Thune, said he’s the most likely to win on a first ballot.
Cramer said the farm bill did come up in the forum as to what Senate needs to get done either in the lame duck or next year. He said there were no clear differences in how each candidate would approach passing a farm bill.
Musk, Ramaswamy named to cut government waste
Billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new non-governmental “Department of Government Efficiency” for Trump. “Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies,” President-elect Donald Trump said in a statement Tuesday evening.
“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people!” Musk said in a Trump transition statement.
“To drive this kind of drastic change, the Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management and Budget to drive large-scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before,” Trump said.
Keep in mind: DOGE doesn’t have statutory authority, so this entity will essentially be a White House commission.
Bayer lowers earnings forecast; Tyson reports increased sales, earnings
Bayer lowered its earnings target for the year in presenting disappointing third-quarter results Tuesday.
The pharmaceutical and agricultural giant, which is going through a restructuring, reported a net loss of $4.44 billion compared to a loss of $4.85 million in last year’s third quarter.
The company’s Crop Science division saw sales fall in the third quarter from $4.64 billion to $4.23 billion this year. Bayer said “in view of the weaker-than-anticipated development of the agricultural market,” it was revising its earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortization, forecast lower to between $11.05 billion and $11.36 billion. It had been between $11.36 billion and $12 billion.
Tyson goes the other way: Tyson Foods, however, reported sales of $13.6 billion in its fourth quarter, and adjusted earnings per share of 92 cents, up 149% from last year’s fourth quarter.
The company’s chicken business buoyed its results. Tyson reported $409 million in operating incomes from chicken and $203 million from prepared foods, which more than made up for losses of $71 million in beef and $16 million in pork.
Judge rules in favor of USDA in records lawsuit
A federal judge has ruled in favor of the USDA’s Inspector General and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the Organization for Competitive Markets.
Emmet Sullivan, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., brushed aside OCM’s claims USDA improperly produced and redacted documents relating to a 2010 audit of its beef checkoff program. He said the agency performed an adequate search for records and properly withheld Beef Checkoff contractors’ business information and information regarding agency deliberations.
Biosolids company agrees to $610,000 fine
Denali Water Solutions of Russellville, Arkansas, will pay $610,000 to settle an enforcement case with EPA over alleged Clean Water Act violations related to overapplication of sewage sludge, also known as biosolids, on land in Arizona and California.
Denali also must follow “strict application requirements if they resume land application in these two states within the next five years,” EPA said in a news release. EPA alleges that, since at least 2016, Denali “repeatedly land-applied biosolids to land application sites in Arizona and southern California at levels that exceeded the nitrogen needs of the crops.”
It's the first judicial against a biosolids land application company that addresses only alleged Clean Water Act biosolids violations.
Immigrants are people, too, Indiana Dairy Producers head says
In the debate over Donald Trump’s proposal to deport millions of immigrants, including farmworkers, Indiana Dairy Producers Executive Director Steve Obert says he is guided by his Christian faith.
Obert, who was interviewed for our newsletter piece on the potential for deporting immigrants, says, “I take seriously my Christian values, and we all know that the gospel talks about the treatment to strangers and to refugees and immigrants. … If we believe that we're all created in the image and likeness of our Creator, then there's really nothing that separates us.”
Individuals with “nefarious intentions … have no business being in our country, but we can't use a broad brush to paint a whole group of people as criminals and with bad intentions, and that's deeply concerning to me,” Obert said.
Obert talked to Agri-Pulse for a report in this week’s newsletter on the incoming Trump administration’s approach to illegal immigration. We also look at where Congress and the administration are headed on tax, trade and regulatory policy.
Final word
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who has also been vocal about food, health and nutrition issues, told reporters he connects with some of the things RFK Jr. and the MAHA movement have said. That said, “I'm not writing anything off, but color me skeptical about a president that did a lot of things in his last administration to undermine people's access to healthy quality food, tried to lower nutrition standards and do the kind of things that is not making America healthier,” Booker said.
