Articles Tagged with ''John Thune''

Jewel Bronaugh, the first African-American woman nominated to serve as deputy secretary of agriculture, sailed through her confirmation hearing as she pledged to work closely with senators on issues affecting the nation’s producers.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack denied Thursday that President Joe Biden’s goal of conserving 30% of the nation’s land by 2030 is a “land grab” but is instead intended to protect “private, working lands" through voluntary programs.

President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are readying their next big legislative push for a $2 trillion infrastructure package that he wants to pay for with corporate tax increases, which likely will make the measure a non-starter for Republican lawmakers and many farm groups.

Democrats are threatening to go it alone on the next COVID aid package if Republicans won’t make a deal on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion plan.

Congressional leaders reach agreement with the White House on a $900 billion COVID-19 relief package that will include a new round of aid to various agriculture sectors while also ensuring the deductibility of expenses used to get forgiveness of Paycheck Protection Program loans.

Time is running short for congressional leaders to announce a deal on a coronavirus relief package, but there continues to be some signs of progress.

Lawmakers have given themselves one more week to reach a deal on a new coronavirus relief package that congressional leaders want to wrap into a government-wide funding bill for fiscal 2021.

For the second straight year, Democrats threatened but ultimately backed down from blocking Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue from getting a fresh pot of money to make payments to farmers.

A bipartisan group of 12 senators and 12 representatives signed a letter on Friday calling on the Department of Agriculture to move up the deadline for allowing producers to graze or harvest cover crops on prevented plant acres.

The Small Business Administration on Monday will start accepting new applications for the Paycheck Protection Program, using more than $300 billion in new funding provided by a coronavirus relief bill President Donald Trump signed into law Friday.