Articles Tagged with ''Build Back Better''

The House takes up a competition bill later this week that includes a number of trade provisions that have implications for the agriculture sector.

The House Agriculture Committee launches an in-depth examination of farm bill programs this week, starting with a hearing on conservation spending, and the full House will debate a competitiveness bill that seeks to bolster trade remedies and address trade with developing countries.

Some $90 billion in agriculture and child nutrition spending that’s part of the stalled Build Back Better bill is in play as the White House and congressional Democrats disassemble the $1.7 trillion measure and possibly move some of the funding into other legislation.

Congress heads into an election year with clouds over two major pieces of legislation that are seen as critical to helping farmers benefit from efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Lawmakers also are expected to begin farm bill hearings this year, and they will have to keep the government funded for the rest of the fiscal year.

The Senate returns to work this week with key elements of President Joe Biden’s climate agenda in peril, while the Supreme Court decides whether to hear several cases important to agriculture, including the latest challenge to California’s Proposition 12 standards for hog and poultry production.

Agri-Pulse readers kept a keen eye on a whole host of developments throughout the year, but none more so than the fresh faces of a new administration and Capitol Hill’s attempts to pass legislation to inject new funds into farm country.

Conservation groups and the Biden administration  are betting big that the promise of direct payments to farmers will supercharge their interest in cover crops, a practice relatively few have tried despite documented benefits to soil health, greenhouse emissions and water quality.

Some $80 billion in climate-related agriculture funding hangs in the balance as President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats try to save at least part of his $1.7 trillion Build Back Better spending package.

Congressional Democrats are punting the next battle over the debt limit until after the 2022 elections, checking off a key item on their long December to-do list, but chances for moving their Build Back Better bill through the Senate are looking less likely.

In this opinion piece, Britt Lundgren with Stonyfield Organic and Nathaniel Powell-Palm of Cold Springs Organics discuss how agriculture is uniquely positioned to help tackle climate change and that Build Back Better can help make that happen while delivering economic benefits to U.S. food businesses, farmers and rural communities across the country.