Noah Wicks

The 119^th Congress kicks off today at noon, with the swearing in of new members – and the election of a House speaker. After meeting with conservative holdouts Thursday, Speaker Mike Johnson was expressing confidence that he’s going to get re-elected relatively easily. Johnson told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow that he thought the voting would take just one ballot.

A lopsided snowpack changes the game * Captive audience law goes to court * Johnson faces tight margin in speaker vote

House GOP leaders were left searching for a way to avoid a government shutdown after the House soundly rejected the latest stopgap spending bill. FDA food chief sees some alignment with RFK, while senators form a MAHA caucus.

The future of $31 billion in disaster relief and economic assistance for farmers was in doubt  night after Elon Musk and then, Donald Trump, threatened the political future of any Republicans who voted for the 1,500-page bill that contains the funding. The Senate cleared a water resources bill intended to increase funding for inland waterway projects.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is withdrawing a proposed rule that would have only allowed crop cultivation and other farming practices on wildlife refuges that were unable to meet wildlife management objectives by mimicking natural ecosystem processes.

An individual in Louisiana has become the first patient hospitalized with a severe case of H5N1, and in another development Gov. Gavin Newsom declared an emergency in California's avian flu outbreak to expand the state's response. 

A year-end stopgap spending bill released Tuesday would authorize year-round sales of E-15, while also returning biofuel credits to some small refineries that applied for but were not granted exemptions in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Congressional leaders were nailing down the final details of a stopgap spending bill Monday night that was expected to include $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers, as well as a one-year farm bill extension, sources tell Agri-Pulse.

The Adverse Effect Wage Rate that farmers are required to pay H-2A workers is rising by an average of 4.47% nationally to $17.74 per hour, according to list of 2025 wage rates published in a Federal Register notice Monday.