Sara Wyant

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2012 -On Wednesday, the House of Representatives will start debating and voting on a new 2013 budget and establishing budgetary levels from 2014 to 2022.

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2012 -The Wendy’s hamburger chain became the latest foodservice provider to require its U.S. pork suppliers to make plans to phase out the use of sow gestation stalls.

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2012 -The Senate spent much of Tuesday wrestling with means to bring energy legislation to the floor, with dozens of amendments offered to modify a bill repealing oil industry tax breaks and using the savings to fund extensions of renewable energy tax credits.

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2012 -Senate Republicans were expected to offer legislation Wednesday to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from moving forward with its guidance document on Clean Water Act jurisdiction

Washington week ahead, Senate Finance Committee plans to markup Russian trade package to expand exports and remove Jackson-Vanik restricitions.List of House and Senate hearings and events. Corn Congress

Crop conditions are continuing to deteriorate, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) weekly crop progress report.

The House Agriculture Committee approved H.R. 6083, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2012 with a strong bipartisan majority of 35-11.

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2012 -Even though the odds of passing some type of immigration reform legislation before the November elections seem highly unlikely, a new survey of voters indicates that there is strong public support for allowing immigrant farm workers to legally work in the United States.

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2012 -Although the investigation to uncover the true circumstances around the collapse of MF Global and the subsequent $1.2 billion of misplaced customer funds is still progressing, regulators are proposing new rules to prevent another similar event, including a “Corzine rule”

WASHINGTON, March 28, 2012 -The largest ever U.S. agricultural trade mission to China has already paid dividends for some of the nearly 40 participating American companies, a senior USDA official said.