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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Robert Califf has been narrowly approved to lead the Food and Drug Administration, giving the agency a Senate-confirmed commissioner for the first time in over a year.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee advanced the nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning to be director of the Bureau of Land Management after a sharply partisan debate over her truthfulness about a 1989 tree-spiking incident on an Idaho national forest.
The Senate is finally set to vote today on sending Tom Vilsack back to USDA for a new stint as agriculture secretary, more than a month after Joe Biden became president.
USDA’s 97th annual Ag Outlook Forum kicks off this morning, and for the first time the meeting will be held online. USDA’s new chief economist, Seth Meyer will provide the department’s annual forecast for crop and livestock production this year.
USDA officials tell Agri-Pulse they are working “amicably” with the Biden transition team, which is paving the way for the incoming administration next week. On the international front, the transition team has been pressing USDA for details on the impacts of the “phase one” trade deal with China.
The battle over control of the Senate could pivot on several Republican farm-state seats. Democrats’ hopes to expand their House majority could be shaped by whether they can hold onto rural districts they carried in 2018 and pick off some GOP incumbents.
Montana GOP Sen. Steve Daines is struggling to lock up a second term in a race that could shift the policy focus of a major farm-state seat and help determine control of the Senate.
With President Donald Trump sliding in the polls, a handful of Senate seats in farm states he won handily in 2016 are increasingly at risk as Democrats look to win control of the chamber in November.
