Items Tagged with 'Marco Rubio'

Food aid and other humanitarian assistance remains stalled in ports and warehouses despite State Department waivers that were supposed to clear the way for delivery of the products, a senior Senate Democrat told Agri-Pulse on Thursday.

The Trump administration’s gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development has has delayed food aid shipments and left the assistance without needed oversight to ensure it’s not wasted or diverted, the USAID inspector general says.

The State Department is allowing the shipping and distribution of food aid to resume, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., announced. Some $560 million worth of commodities had been stalled ports around the world following the gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

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.

President Donald Trump announced sweeping duties on Canada, Mexico and China over the weekend, triggering a trade conflict with the U.S.’ largest agricultural trading partners.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has his first public appearance before the Senate today to discuss his nomination as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Federal shipping regulators say agricultural trade was particularly affected by last year’s drought in the Panama Canal and that the situation could worsen if the bidding process for access to the critical channel is not amended.

More Senate confirmation hearings are on tap today. President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head EPA, former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, will appear before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, selected to be interior secretary, will testify before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. 

In his confirmation hearing Wednesday, Sen. Marco Rubio discussed trade frictions with Mexico, the U.S.-China strategic rivalry and the president-elect's concerns over Chinese actions around the Panama Canal.