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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
The Senate is expected to approve a new deputy secretary for USDA this week as lawmakers return from their July 4 break facing a backlog of fiscal 2024 spending bills heading into the August recess.
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.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients were overpaid at a rate of 9.84% in fiscal 2022 and underpaid by 1.7% on average as state agencies struggled with staffing coming out of the pandemic, according to USDA.
Consumers are starting to slow purchases of plant-based meat alternatives as their promises of improved sustainability don’t overcome the health considerations of those alternatives, according to a new report from Rabobank.
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.
Senators were warned Wednesday that the EPA’s new regulations for plant-incorporated protectants will slow the breeding of new fruit and vegetable varieties that are more resistant to pests and diseases.
Critics of commodity checkoffs are making a fresh run at imposing new restrictions on the programs, including a prohibition on contracting research and promotion work out to organizations that lobby Congress or federal agencies.
Congressional approval of the debt ceiling agreement between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has triggered a new debate about the impact of the changes made to SNAP work requirements, with Republicans insisting they take another crack at the issue during the upcoming farm bill.
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.
Leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees say the debt limit agreement should remove SNAP work requirements as a potential sticking point in the upcoming farm bill debate, but also said the deal takes away some potential funding.
