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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Monday, September 02, 2024
Republicans have so far focused their attacks on President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package on the scope of things it would fund – like home health care – that aren’t traditionally thought of as infrastructure. But Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is also drawing attention to the $174 billion the president wants to spend to shift Americans into electric vehicles.
President Joe Biden's $2.7 trillion infrastructure plan would address some long-standing needs in rural America with substantial new funding for roads, bridges, waterways and broadband, but the plan doesn't provide the major boost in farm conservation spending that many ag groups say is needed to get more farmers to adopt climate-smart practices.
House Democrats hold a fragile majority in Congress, and and party moderates, many in rural districts, say they hold the key to keeping that majority in 2022 because of their connection with Republican voters.
President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan is vague about a lot of details, including how $17 billion for waterways would be spent. But Tracy Zea of the Waterways Council tells Agri-Pulse that he expects at least $3 billion to be available for inland waterway projects. That could pay for replacing two sets of aging locks and dams on the upper Mississippi River system, he said.
President Joe Biden pushed back against Republicans who are arguing his infrastructure bill has unrelated items in it. Projects related to clean water, schools and high-speed rail all qualify as infrastructure projects, he said.
The top Democrat on the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee is not opposed to moving President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure bill through the reconciliation budget process if Republicans don’t come to the table.
President Joe Biden’s $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan offers many provisions that have long been priorities with farm groups, including a $100 billion plan to connect the entire U.S. to high-speed internet.
The nation’s farmers are set to plant 178.7 million acres of corn and soybeans combined this growing season, well below analysts' estimates, according to a USDA report released Wednesday.
Some advocates of the newly-enacted debt relief provisions for minority farmers have called it a form of reparations. But House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott, who is African American, strenuously objects to that characterization. He says the $4 billion just makes up for the fact that white farmers primarily benefitted from the billions of dollars in recent farm payments.
After last year’s lamb market collapsed around the biggest sales period of the year, producers are optimistic as retail prices hold steady and market prices climb, but a big question will be the reopening of restaurants.