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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson won re-election as speaker of the House on Friday after laying out fresh plans for controlling federal spending. Following the vote, House Freedom Caucus members detailed a new list of demands, including restrictions on SNAP purchasing.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and some allies in his "Make America Healthy Again" movement are trying to get a toehold on Capitol Hill even as the food and agriculture industry worries about what role he could play in a second Donald Trump administration.
The top Republican on the Senate Ag Committee, John Boozman, has laid out his proposals for a new farm bill. For the most part they mirror the bill the House Ag Committee approved last month, which means the partisan divide over policy and funding is no closer to being resolved.
House Republicans are proposing more modest cuts to spending at USDA than GOP appropriators tried last year, but they also are attempting to block USDA's new regulations for the meat and poultry industry and slow down new food traceability requirements.
House Republicans step up their latest effort to cut domestic, non-defense programs this week as they release the fiscal 2024 spending bill to fund the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration.
Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee are set to push their farm bill through the panel this with week, but the big question is whether they will have the Democratic support they would need to give the mammoth legislation some momentum heading to the House floor.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is under fire again from House Republicans over the Commodity Credit Corporation, this time both for suggesting the CCC could be used to supplement farm bill funding but also for refusing to use it to make disaster relief payments to some California producers.
The House Agriculture Committee puts a focus this week on China and the potential threat it poses to U.S. agriculture, while Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack heads back to Capitol Hill to defend his spending priorities and policy implementation.
Congress averted a government shutdown that could have disrupted a wide range of federal services starting Sunday when the House and then the Senate approved a stopgap spending bill to keep agencies funded through Nov. 17.
Farmers going through difficult times financially would have fewer options for assistance if House Republicans’ spending plan for fiscal 2024 were to become law.
