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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
House GOP leaders are struggling to nail down the votes they need for their budget blueprint. A key message for more moderate members is that the final spending cuts won’t be as great as the budget resolution now calls for.
In an effort to save the Food for Peace program amid the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, farm-state Republicans have proposed to move the program to the Agriculture Department. But aid experts and USAID veterans say it would take USDA years to build the expertise it needs.
A 90-day suspension and stop-work order on most U.S. foreign aid has snagged some anti-hunger and agricultural development efforts while stalling shipping of some agricultural commodities, although emergency food assistance can still be distributed.
House Republicans are targeting nutrition assistance for possible funding cuts as they look for ways to pay for other policy priorities, raising questions about how such reductions could affect Democratic support for a new farm bill.
Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse, a member of the Appropriations Committee, and five newly elected Republicans will join the House Agriculture Committee in January to fill seats vacated by committee departures on the GOP side.
Negotiations over a package of market relief assistance for farmers reached an impasse Saturday after Democratic leaders rejected the latest GOP proposal, and several major farm groups called on lawmakers to oppose a stopgap spending bill if the economic aid is omitted.
Leaders of the Senate and House Ag committees were featured at the annual Friends of the National Arboretum dinner Tuesday night in Washington – and both were separately expressing some optimism about getting a new farm bill yet this year.
Records show USDA inspectors found about 92 instances of noncompliance between Jan. 1, 2022 and Aug. 1, 2023 at the Boar’s Head Jarratt, Virginia plant now associated with a major listeria outbreak that has left nine dead.
The House Agriculture Committee is pressing USDA for transparency on its decision to consolidate contractors for the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservation, a move that has resulted in food shortages in participating tribal communities.
The House Agriculture Committee’s farm bill would boost the federal budget deficit by $33 billion over 10 years, according to an official cost estimate released Friday by the Congressional Budget Office, which refused to change its stance on a budget offset intended to fund changes to commodity programs.
