More Senate confirmation hearings are on tap today. President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head EPA, former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, will appear before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, selected to be interior secretary, will testify before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Zeldin will be questioned about biofuel policy. Kansas Republican Jerry Moran, for one, will be asking him about his approach to sustainable aviation fuel. Zeldin was a critic of biofuel policy when he was in Congress.
In addition, ag secretary nominee Brooke Rollins will have her hearing on Thursday, Jan. 23. The Senate Agriculture Committee announced the date late Wednesday.
Rollins gets backing of national, state ag groups
A wide range of national and state farm and agribusiness groups is calling on the Senate to quickly confirm Brooke Rollins as the new agriculture secretary.
“We need her leadership now at USDA to advocate for a new farm bill, stabilize an agricultural economy in decline, support the full food and agriculture and forestry value chain, and continue
American agriculture’s long history of providing the most secure, affordable and nutritious food supply in the world. USDA has the power to help turn things around with strong leadership,” the groups say in a letter to the Senate Ag Committee.
The groups say Rollins has “brought the perspectives of the American farmer and rancher to her work” throughout her career and that she “championed rural priorities across the federal government” while serving as acting director of the White House Domestic Policy Council during Donald Trump’s first administration.
House Democrats try to force congressional vote on tariff plans
A group of House Democrats has introduced a bill to stop the next administration from using emergency powers to enact tariffs. Trump is reportedly considering declaring a national economic emergency to impose new tariffs. The proposed legislation would eliminate tariff-enacting authorities from the president’s emergency powers and, the Democrats hope, force a vote on any new tariffs.
“Congress needs to have a voice and, most importantly, a vote in such far-reaching economic decisions,” Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., told reporters. DelBene and Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., led the group of 11 lawmakers.
The legislation won’t move without GOP support. But Beyer is optimistic the proposal could eventually secure Republican backers.
“They may not be with us in the short run because everyone is cowed by the new president-elect,” Beyer said. But he added that many GOP lawmakers would agree with the bill’s intent. “I'm hoping that that fear of crossing him diminishes over time.”
Booker: U.S. is being ‘outplayed’ in Africa, with economic implications
The U.S. is being outcompeted in Africa and could miss out on vast market opportunities. That was the warning from New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker to Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, at the Florida Republican’s confirmation hearing Wednesday.
Booker touted the continent’s economic potential. He pointed to a growing population and vast resource wealth and lamented the lack of U.S. engagement with African countries.
“We, as a nation, have not really prioritized it,” Booker told Rubio. By contrast, China and Russia are investing heavily in the continent. “We are simply being outplayed in ways that we can counter, if we had a real focus and a real strategy for engaging Africa,” Booker said.
A new Africa strategy, he added, would be tantamount to “planting seeds for the future.”
Rubio agreed with his Senate colleague on the continent’s economic promise. But Rubio stressed malaria and terrorism represent major obstacles to deeper economic engagement.
Check out these stories on Agri-Pulse.com
We posted lots of news stories on our website Wednesday, as one administration rushes to finish its work and another prepares to take over the federal government.
Rebekah Alvey penned a couple of pieces — one on FDA’s decision to prohibit use of Red 3 (usually known as Red Dye No. 3) from food, beverages and drugs. The chemical, linked to cancer in animals, has been on consumers groups’ dart boards for decades. She also wrote about new climate-smart guidelines released by USDA that are designed to work with the 45Z tax credit rule released by the Treasury Department last week.
Noah Wicks covered the Federal Trade Commission’s approval of a lawsuit against John Deere over the company’s policies on farmers’ right to repair their equipment.
Philip Brasher wrote about the latest Consumer Price Index, which showed egg and meat prices contributing to the 0.3% monthly increase in grocery costs.
Oliver Ward chronicled Florida Republican Sen. Rubio’s mostly amicable appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in which he bashed China and said ag trade is a major point of tension between the U.S. and Mexico (see above for more from the hearing).
Steve Davies reported on the second agreement with a meatpacking company this week over child labor. On Monday it was JBS contributing $4 million to child labor causes, this time it was Perdue, although the company admitted no liability.
Final word
"Energy is critical to human lives," Trump's energy secretary nominee Chris Wright said during a hearing today, though he added, "climate change is a global challenge that we need to solve.
"Tradeoffs between those two are the decisions that politicians make and the decisions that will impact the future of our world and our quality of life," Wright said.
Wright has been criticized in the past for comments casting doubt on climate change.
