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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow expects to have $4 billion to $5 billion in new funding available to address issues with commodity programs and expand crop insurance options, she said in an exclusive interview with Agri-Pulse.
U.S. farm groups were quick to cheer Tuesday's announcement of a $1.3 billion investment in a new Regional Agricultural Promotion Program after waiting for weeks for the USDA to confirm its plans to fund a new program to help promote ag exports.
The chaos among House Republicans isn’t the only hurdle facing a new farm bill. Senate Republican Whip John Thune, R-S.D., says the Senate Ag Committee remains divided over key issues, including what to do about the major commodity programs.
USDA’s plan to spend $1.4 billion to pay for a new export promotion program will provide the increase in market development funding that commodity groups have been trying to get through the farm bill, says Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
Members of key House Republican groups reached agreement Sunday on a month-long stop-gap spending bill tied to tougher border security measures, but a government shutdown is still possible when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, since the Democratic-controlled Senate would be certain to reject the measure.
The Department of Agriculture has agreed to use Commodity Credit Corporation funds to spend about $1.4 billion on a program to help farm groups market their commodities overseas and about $1.1 billion to pay for commodity-based international food aid, according to sources.
Farm groups have grown accustomed over the last few years to having more money to work with for promoting their products overseas, but that abundance could come to an end quickly.
As Congress prepares to begin replacing the 2018 farm bill with new legislation, a thorough study of how long the process has taken before offers insight into how long the upcoming undertaking might last.
The House and Senate Agriculture Committees are still several months away from voting on a new farm bill, but the major issues in each of the 12 titles are coming into focus even as lawmakers continue offering new proposals they’d like to see included. Here is a summary of the issues in play as well as notable proposals lawmakers would like to see included in the bill.