Articles Tagged with ''Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program''

House Republicans step up their latest effort to cut domestic, non-defense programs this week as they release the fiscal 2024 spending bill to fund the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration.

Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee are proposing to raise Price Loss Coverage reference prices by 10% to 20% depending on the commodity, while also providing increased income protection to growers under the Agriculture Risk Coverage program and crop insurance, according to a section-by-section summary released Friday.

House Agriculture Committee Democrats have offered a counter proposal on the farm bill that suggests using USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation funding authority to shore up commodity programs and crop insurance, according to a summary of the proposal obtained by Agri-Pulse.

The Biden administration is expected to announce key updates this week to its carbon-intensity scoring for sustainable aviation fuel this week, while lawmakers are struggling to break a partisan impasse over a new farm bill that Republicans are determined to move through the House Ag Committee in May.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is under fire again from House Republicans over the Commodity Credit Corporation, this time both for suggesting the CCC could be used to supplement farm bill funding but also for refusing to use it to make disaster relief payments to some California producers.

Farmers who have experienced discrimination from USDA in farm lending programs should get assistance sometime this summer, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing Wednesday that lacked the partisan vitriol of the secretary’s appearance last week before the House Ag Committee.

Lawmakers have until Friday to pass the first of their fiscal 2024 spending bills, including the measure needed to fund USDA, or they’ll have to pass another stopgap spending measure to avert a partial shutdown of the government.  The Biden administration also is scheduled to announce a critical update of the GREET model that’s used to measure the carbon intensity of biofuels.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack heads to Capitol Hill this week amid a deepening partisan stalemate over how to fund a new farm bill, and he will also keynote USDA's 2024 Ag Outlook Forum