Articles by Rebekah Alvey

House Ag Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson is ready to move another extension of the 2018 farm bill, acknowledging to reporters Monday evening that lawmakers are unlikely to consider the measure in the lame duck session. “We’re prepared for an extension,” Thompson said. 

Donald Trump’s cabinet picks are coming fast and furious, but the ag community is still waiting for the president-elect to pick someone to lead USDA. 

Lawmakers are stepping up their work this week on a package of disaster aid and relief for commodity price declines as they head toward having to pass another extension of the 2018 farm bill. Deputy Agriculture Secretary Xochitl Torres Small is scheduled to testify at a Senate hearing on disaster aid needs. 

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vocal critic of U.S. food systems and federal nutrition scientists, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and take on the "industrial food complex."

John Thune’s elevation to Senate Republican leader is being welcomed by many ag, biofuel and conservation groups. No Senate majority or minority leader has come to the job with a background in ag and biofuel policy as deep as the South Dakotan’s since, well, Thune unseated then-Democratic leader Tom Daschle in 2004.

Senate Republicans on Wednesday elected South Dakota Sen. John Thune, who has a deep background in agriculture policy, as the chamber's next majority leader. Thune, who is a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and currently holds the No. 2 GOP role as minority whip, defeated Texas Sen. John Cornyn on the second ballot.

Senate Republicans are slated to pick their new party leadership this morning in a closed-door, secret ballot election.  

Those in the agriculture industry believe that conservation programs will be largely unaffected by the incoming second Trump administration, with the fate of remaining Inflation Reduction Act conservation funding in the hands of Congress.

Lee Zeldin, who served as a congressman from Long Island for eight years before leaving to run a tight but unsuccessful race for governor of New York in 2022, is likely to be the next administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Kip Tom, who leads President-elect Donald Trump’s ag coalition, says he expects the transition team to move much more quickly to fill cabinet positions. Whether Tom is going to be in it, perhaps as agriculture secretary, remains to be seen. He served as U.S. ambassador to the UN agriculture and food programs during the first Trump administration.