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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
Joe Biden is planning to start issuing a series of executive orders addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and other challenges, starting Wednesday as he take office as the 46th president in a capital city fortified like a war zone.
The outgoing Trump administration is tapping unspent USDA funding to provide coronavirus relief to contract producers for the first time while providing supplemental payments to hog farms. USDA also is adjusting payments calculations for many producers who have already received Coronavirus Food Assistance Program payments.
President-elect Joe Biden is out with a $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal that includes some significant new food assistance provisions, including an extension through the summer of the 15% increase in SNAP benefits provided by the COVID aid package enacted in December.
Lawmakers can now turn their eyes toward next Wednesday when Joe Biden will be inaugurated as president after Donald Trump was impeached by the House for a second time. The Senate won’t take up the impeachment before Trump leaves office.
Lawmakers have their focus on impeachment for now, but Democratic leaders are likely to try to pivot quickly over the next weeks as President-elect Joe Biden takes office. Climate policy as well as immigration and tax reform will be on the agenda for the Senate.
A surge of nationwide cheese demand driven at least in part by the Trump administration’s Farmers to Families Food Box program sparked wild swings in dairy markets and fueled a new debate over changes in federal milk pricing policy made in the 2018 farm bill.
USDA officials tell Agri-Pulse they are working “amicably” with the Biden transition team, which is paving the way for the incoming administration next week. On the international front, the transition team has been pressing USDA for details on the impacts of the “phase one” trade deal with China.
Prices for many commodities have risen sharply to levels not seen in several years. But the president of the nation’s largest farm group, the American Farm Bureau Federation, isn’t ruling out seeking additional federal relief in 2021.