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Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee are set to push their farm bill through the panel this with week, but the big question is whether they will have the Democratic support they would need to give the mammoth legislation some momentum heading to the House floor.

Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee are proposing to spend more than $50 billion to shore up commodity programs and crop insurance, including a reference price increase of nearly 20% for soybean producers. But Republicans are relying on help from the chairman of the House Budget Committee in covering the cost of the increased subsidies, according to committee aides.   

USDA says it’s confident that your hamburger is safe to eat, announcing results of tests showing that cooking patties to an internal temperature of 145 or 160 degrees – medium and well-done – killed the H5N1 virus.

The cost of eating at home fell 0.2% in April after supermarket prices were flat for two straight months, helping offset continued inflation in housing and energy costs. 

Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee are proposing to raise Price Loss Coverage reference prices by 10% to 20% depending on the commodity, while also providing increased income protection to growers under the Agriculture Risk Coverage program and crop insurance, according to a section-by-section summary released Friday.

The Agriculture Department is making a wide range of resources available to dairy farmers whose herds are affected by avian flu, including reimbursing them for the cost of personal protective equipment and development of biosecurity plans, in part to gather more information about farmworker health.

The avian flu outbreak has been “all-consuming” for the Food and Drug Administration, which is concerned about the possibility that the virus could mutate and spread to humans, says Jim Jones, the agency's deputy commissioner for human foods.