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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Thursday, April 03, 2025
The House and the Senate are different, its members like to say. Perhaps nowhere is that more evident this year than the spending bills that are advancing in both chambers.
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday advanced a fiscal 2024 spending bill for USDA and FDA that’s funded in line with the caps in the recently enacted debt ceiling agreement and without the $8 billion in funding rescissions that House Republicans are using to fund their version of the legislation.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers are introducing legislation today to ensure the government keeps using U.S. commodities to provide food aid around the world. About half the funds for the Food for Peace program are currently used to purchase and deliver U.S. farm goods.
The Senate brings out its fiscal 2024 spending measure for USDA and FDA this week, a bill that is shaping up to be an early test of a coming showdown with House Republicans over government funding.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday that relatively low salaries are making it difficult for USDA to retain employees, including Farm Service Agency field staff.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will testify before congressional committees over three straight days this week, and FDA Commissioner Robert Califf also will face lawmakers, who are certain to have questions about his ongoing reorganization of the agency’s human foods program.
It’s up to the Senate to prevent a rail strike that President Biden says would be “devastating” to the U.S. economy. Ahead of a possible vote, Democrats will discuss the issue today with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has released all 12 spending bills for fiscal 2023 without waiting for the panel’s normal bipartisan process of debating the measures separately.
Battles for key farm-state seats in Congress are taking shape after primaries this spring, but there several intraparty fights still to be decided in coming weeks in states such as Missouri, Minnesota and Washington.
