We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies in accordance with our Privacy Terms and Cookie Policy
<p>Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.</p>
Tuesday, April 01, 2025
President Donald Trump announced via a video that he doesn't support the sweeping year-end bill combining new coronavirus relief with fiscal 2021 government funding.
Congress faces a midnight deadline to keep the government funded. As of Thursday evening, it wasn’t clear whether lawmakers would be asked to pass a very short-term stopgap spending bill to provide the time they need to pass a massive bill that would include both government funding for fiscal 2021 as well as a big new COVID aid package.
The House has passed a new stopgap spending bill to keep the government funded through next week - and buy more time for negotiators to reach a deal on a new coronavirus relief package.
Food insecurity in the United States dropped again in 2019 ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has cost millions of Americans their jobs and continues to send many into food lines, the Agriculture Department reported Wednesday.
Major farm groups are working to ensure that a new coronavirus relief package provides more specific directions to the Agriculture Department on how to distribute $20 billion in additional relief.
A key senator involved in developing the Republican coronavirus relief package for farmers defended the broad authority it gives to USDA to spend $20 billion in farm aid, but he said the Trump administration likely will need to provide assurances about how the money will be spent.
Talks on a coronavirus relief package will heat up this week as Senate Republicans prepare to bring out their proposal this week with an eye toward getting the massive legislation passed ahead of the August recess.
A House spending bill for the Agriculture Department would provide another $1.1 billion for rural broadband in fiscal 2021, a $435-million increase more than Congress provided for this year.
Stung by scenes of farmers dumping milk and plowing under crops, the Trump administration is launching a never-before-tried plan to use the nation’s commercial food distributors to buy fresh produce, dairy products and meat and give them away to needy families across the country.
