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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says he’s fairly confident that Congress will succeed in either passing an extension to the 2018 farm bill or finish up work on a new one by the end of the year in order to avoid severe repercussions of doing nothing.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, plans to attempt once again to reform the existing farm bill payment limits, seeking to tighten the amount of people eligible for the government's agricultural programs.
A conservative group that most House Republicans are members of is calling for deep cuts in commodity programs and crop insurance to save taxpayers billions of dollars.
With the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 advancing quickly in Congress, shipping experts have begun to turn a critical eye toward the Federal Maritime Commission – the agency responsible for regulating overseas trade.
Lawmakers are proposing creation of an Office of Rural Prosperity in the White House, which would be tasked with coordinating rural policy across the government.
Lawmakers are steering $346 million in USDA funding to their home states and districts this year as earmarks returned for the first time since Republicans took control of the House in 2011 and then-President Barack Obama vowed to veto bills that had such designated spending.
President Joe Biden is set to sign a bill reforming the funding and operation of the U.S. Postal Service, with provisions aimed at improving service in rural areas.
A stopgap-funding bill that will keep the government operating this fall includes a $10 billion expansion in agricultural disaster aid and temporarily extends authority for USDA’s livestock price reporting system.
House Agriculture Committee Chair David Scott, D-Ga., said the committee is working on permanent disaster legislation to help farmers recover financially from natural disasters, but skeptics say developing a good framework could be challenging.
The White House unveiled a new interactive broadband mapping tool Thursday showing the majority of rural America is in need of access to high-speed internet above 25 megabits per second download speeds and 3 megabits per second upload speeds.
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