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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Saturday, October 19, 2024
The Senate this week takes up a package of spending bills that includes the measure funding USDA and FDA, while House Republicans return from the chamber’s long summer recess still divided over how, or whether, to avoid a possible government shutdown when the new budget year starts Oct. 1.
House Republican leaders gave up trying to pass the fiscal 2024 Agriculture funding bill ahead of the August recess after they were unable to satisfy demands from a band of hard-line conservatives who are seeking deeper cuts in spending.
President Joe Biden has come out against a House Republican funding measure that would fund USDA and FDA, arguing the bill goes beyond an agreement to cut spending reached earlier this year with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
A group of hard-line conservatives are threatening to derail the fiscal 2024 appropriations process in the House, further clouding prospects for an agreement on spending with the Senate later this year, including legislation funding USDA and FDA.
House Republicans were arguing not long ago that a deal on the debt ceiling could make it easier to pass a farm bill. Instead, many conservatives are angry over the debt agreement and demanding cuts to nutrition assistance and other programs that could delay the development of a new farm bill and even threaten its passage.
The GOP-controlled House overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation Wednesday evening to avert a first-ever government default, impose caps on federal spending and make the first major changes to SNAP work requirements in decades.
House Republicans who have been struggling unsuccessfully for years to tighten work rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program scored a win in the debt limit negotiations that would expand the requirements to people in their early 50s, but President Joe Biden also won key new exemptions for veterans and people who are homeless.
Work requirements remain in play in the debt ceiling negotiations between the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. It’s still not clear which program might be affected, but President Biden has once again signaled that he might go along with some changes.
Congressional leaders are sounding some notes of optimism after a second meeting with President Biden over the debt ceiling. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy welcomed Biden’s decision to appoint administration officials to lead the negotiations from his side. “I think we set the stage to carry on further conversations,” McCarthy said.
House GOP leaders, struggling to shore up Republican support for their debt-ceiling bill, gave in and moved to preserve some, but not all, of the biofuel provisions that would be repealed or scaled back by the legislation.
