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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
With the new farm bill likely stalled until after the November mid-term elections, one of the biggest disputes still to be ironed out is a provision in the House farm bill that would end commodity program payments for acreage on which farmers haven’t been growing program crops.
House and Senate negotiators are likely to provide another infusion of cash into rural broadband development, but an effort to repeal the Obama-era “waters of the U.S. rule” doesn’t appear likely to survive the talks on fiscal 2019 spending bills.
USDA is moving quickly to implement its planned move of the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture out of Washington, D.C., requesting “expressions of interest” (EOIs) about new locations for the two agencies.
USDA has approved the sale of the first revenue protection insurance policy for dairy producers, allowing them to buy coverage for the first quarter of 2019.
Farm groups desperate to address the agricultural labor shortage are lobbying Republicans to include farm labor provisions in any legislation the House votes on this month.
Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts forcefully rejected proposed farm bill reforms that would make the Agriculture Risk Coverage program more attractive and increase payments to farmers in the upper Midwest at the expense of producers in other regions.
The Senate Appropriations subcommittee advanced a fiscal 2019 spending bill for USDA and FDA that would provide $425 million in funding for rural broadband expansion to add to the $600 million that Congress provided for this year.
House Republican leaders pick up the pieces this week after another embarrassing defeat on a farm bill, which was weighed down yet again by controversial food stamp reforms before sinking because of an intra-party feud over immigration policy.
USDA Chief of Staff Heidi Green announced today that she will return to Georgia after helping Secretary Perdue during his first year in office. Her replacement will be a familiar face to many in agriculture.
President Donald Trump is using a meeting with the House and Senate Agriculture committee chairmen today to emphasize that a new farm bill needs to tighten work requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said.
