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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Saturday, October 19, 2024
Congressional Republicans who opposed the Inflation Reduction Act, the main funding mechanism for President Joe Biden's climate policy, would like to move the IRA's funding for climate-related farming practices into the farm bill, which could permanently boost funding for conservation programs.
Most members of the House Agriculture Committee, and many on Senate Ag, face a steep learning curve on farm bill issues, which poses a challenge for ag groups as they try to shape the legislation in coming weeks.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow told farm groups Tuesday that costs for fertilizer and diesel fuel have dropped sharply since last year, undermining a key argument the organizations are making for increasing support rates in the major commodity programs.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson is leaving the door open to trying to tighten SNAP eligibility rules in the farm bill if Republicans fail to get a debt-limit deal with President Joe Biden to expand the program’s work requirements.
House Republicans proposed a plan Wednesday for raising the federal debt ceiling that would also expand work requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to able-bodied adults as old as 55.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said Wednesday the debate over SNAP work requirements should take place during the farm bill debate, not as an issue for negotiations over the government’s debt ceiling.
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack pushed back against Republican criticism of spending under the SNAP program and from the Commodity Credit Corp. at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing Thursday focused on the farm bill.
Senators and witnesses at a hearing Wednesday expressed sharp differences over the need for – and impacts of – a potential national low carbon fuel standard.