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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Saturday, January 04, 2025
The 119th Congress kicks off today at noon, with the swearing in of new members – and the election of a House speaker. After meeting with conservative holdouts Thursday, Speaker Mike Johnson was expressing confidence that he’s going to get re-elected relatively easily. Johnson told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow that he thought the voting would take just one ballot.
A $42 billion federal program to provide “internet for all” hit a milestone recently. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration said Nov. 19 it had approved plans from all 56 states and territories outlining how they will use their grant money to ensure no resident is without high-speed internet. The program, however, continues a target of criticism.
The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the funding mechanism for the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund is unconstitutional.
USDA has directed crop insurance companies to expedite loss adjustments necessary to make payments to producers impacted by Hurricane Helene, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Friday.
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 way fees are collected from telecommunications companies for the Universal Service Fund, which defrays the cost of phone and internet access in rural areas, is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court has ruled.
Ongoing partisan battles over nutrition assistance and Inflation Reduction Act funding have received all the attention but there are plenty of other policy disagreements in the approaches that leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees are taking on a new farm bill.
President Joe Biden’s budget request for fiscal 2025 proposes new loan flexibilities for farmers and makes another stab at getting Congress to make permanent a $5-an-acre subsidy for cover crops while also boosting ag research and other climate-related spending.
Internet service providers will soon be competing to provide high-speed, broadband internet service to the most remote and hard-to-reach areas in the country.
