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The House Appropriations Committee approved a funding bill Wednesday for the Agriculture Department, Food and Drug Administration and Commodity Futures Trading Commission that would boost spending by more than 10%, including hefty amounts for ag research and climate-change-related programs.

Farmers are expected to plant more corn, soybeans, and wheat acres than last year, but official estimates from a USDA report released Wednesday came in below trade expectations, which sent futures prices soaring.

The infrastructure spending deal that President Joe Biden struck with a bipartisan group of senators could go a long way toward addressing critical agriculture needs, from improving waterways to making high-speed internet universal and fixing many crumbling bridges and roads.

States in the West and the High Plains are currently facing what Brad Rippey, a USDA meteorologist in the Office of the Chief Economist, calls the “most expansive” drought the U.S. has seen since 2012 and 2013.

Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., has introduced the Recognizing and Ensuring Taxpayer Access to Infrastructure Necessary for GPS and Satellite Communications Act, or the RETAIN Act, which would require Ligado, an American satellite communications company, to compensate all GPS and satellite communications users affected by their new 5G services.

Fruit harvests in Washington are complicated as temperatures are predicted to peak at 115 degrees this week, a record-breaking high this early in the season.

Cattlemen’s Heritage Beef Company plans to build a new beef packing plant in western Iowa, adding to the sector’s processing capacity amid calls for greater expansion and diversification of ownership.

The House is pressing ahead with a partisan infrastructure bill this week at the same time there is uncertainty about the future of a freshly minted, $1.2 trillion agreement between President Joe Biden and a bipartisan group of senators.

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of small refineries seeking relief from the Renewable Fuel Standard, delivering a major blow to biofuel groups in a long-running legal battle over the governance of the nation’s ethanol and biodiesel policy.

House appropriators are proposing to steer new Agriculture Department funding into tackling climate change and expanding rural broadband service under a fiscal 2022 spending bill released Thursday.