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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Thursday, April 03, 2025
Lawmakers want states and the Agriculture Department to do more to cut error rates in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program administration and are using the farm bill to take action.
Members of the House Agriculture Committee heard from a meat processing industry representative and a labor law expert Wednesday in a closed meeting on the use of child labor in meatpacking plants.
The softening in grain markets that is pressuring row crop farmers has brought some welcome relief to dairy producers, but the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza on dairy farms continues to weigh on the sector.
Senate Ag Committee veteran Chuck Grassley sees a glimmer of hope for a farm bill in comments Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock made to Agri-Pulse about reference prices.
As red lines form within his party over the farm bill, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock stressed the concerns he’s heard from both rural and urban constituents and the importance of strengthening coalitions to get a balanced farm bill passed.
A farm bill doesn’t appear to be headed anywhere in the Senate, even though Ag Committee Republicans have now outlined their proposal. Senate Ag Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., doesn’t think the House Ag Committee’s bill can pass the House and fears a Senate bill could face the same fate, she says on this week’s Agri-Pulse Newsmakers.
The top Republican on the Senate Ag Committee, John Boozman, has laid out his proposals for a new farm bill. For the most part they mirror the bill the House Ag Committee approved last month, which means the partisan divide over policy and funding is no closer to being resolved.
Republican dominance of farm country has neared the point where only a handful of major agricultural districts are in play in this fall’s elections, but the GOP hold on the House is so tenuous that races for those seats could potentially determine which party wins control of the chamber.
House Republicans are scaling back their ambitions when it comes to slashing spending at USDA. The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee today will take up a draft spending bill for fiscal 2025 that would reduce total funding for USDA, FDA and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission by just over 1%.
