Articles Tagged with ''Pete Buttigieg''

Federal programs intended to help farms and other rural businesses can have intimidating application processes or payment structures that render them inaccessible to some of their target recipients. Testimony in front of some congressional committees is raising these concerns while a series of webinars aims to help farmers and food entrepreneurs navigate the process.

A California Democrat says he’s optimistic negotiations to secure a workforce at the nation’s West Coast ports will come to a timely conclusion.

Cabinet members will be back on Capitol Hill this week, this time in the Senate, where they will face questions as lawmakers and appropriators mull 2023 budgets for the federal agencies.

Difficulties in getting containers full of U.S. ag commodities on ocean-going vessels persists and U.S. dairy exporters are still losing money because of the problems, according to the U.S. Dairy Export Council and the National Milk Producers Federation. That’s why the groups say they’re asking the Biden administration to take more action.

The Transportation and Energy departments plan to distribute $5 billion to states for the construction of electric vehicle charging stations over the next five years, officials said Thursday.

The Biden administration is turning up the heat on ocean shipping companies to stop denying cargo space to U.S. agricultural goods and indicating the federal government may take action.

Whether it's backlogs at ports delaying the arrival of containers from China, congestion at railroad hubs, or slowdowns at American manufacturing plants, farmers and ranchers are seeing rising prices and mounting delays for machinery, spare parts, packaging material, inputs and other supplies they need to bring in their crops and market their commodities.

The Agriculture Department says it will spend more than $4 billion to address supply chain issues in the farm sector highlighted by the COVID pandemic and the recent cyberattack on meatpacker JBS.

Congress is out this week, but Biden administration officials say they’ll continue to work with Senate Republicans toward an infrastructure deal. To recap, Republicans came back with a counter-offer last week of close to $1 trillion, which is still far under Biden’s last proposal of $1.7 trillion.

With the Agriculture Department expected to soon release its strategy for tackling climate change, the top Senate Ag Committee’s top Republican is doubling down on his opposition to a USDA-run carbon bank.