Articles by Bill Tomson

USDA is using a new round of coronavirus relief funding to help farmers who serve local markets and socially disadvantaged producers. Food banks also will benefit from the $1 billion in funding that USDA is allocating.

A veteran senior Senate staffer, Fitzhugh Elder, will be taking over as GOP staff director for the Senate Agriculture Committee next month, sources tell Agri-Pulse. He will replace Martha Scott Poindexter, who’s moving to the U.S. Dairy Export Council.

​President Joe Biden’s proposal to eliminate stepped-up basis and tax capital gains at death has run into opposition from a key Democrat. The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Georgia Democrat David Scott, says the tax plan could hurt farmers even though the tax liability would be deferred as long as a family farm stays in operation.

The Biden administration is testing an idea for promoting cover crop adoption that has proven popular in some states - offering farmers a subsidy on their crop insurance premiums.

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.

Lawmakers are going to be looking into concerns that meatpackers are using their market power to drive down prices paid to producers.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai spoke with China’s top trade official Wednesday night in an “introductory virtual meeting” as the Chinese continue to make big purchases of U.S. agricultural commodities and the U.S. farm sector counts on strong trade to continue.

Many of the nation’s top farm groups have endorsed Janie Simms Hipp to become USDA’s general counsel ahead of her Senate confirmation hearing today.

The Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service is now forecasting an even higher record-breaking year for U.S. agricultural exports in fiscal year 2021.