Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights. Saturday, March 25, 2023
Catherine_Tai_USTR_WaysandMeans_Ambassador_6.jpg

Lawmakers want action on Mexico’s anti-GM corn

News

Opinions

Read More Opinions

DriveTime

Hear More Drive Time

Newsmakers

View More Videos

Agri-Pulse Newsmakers: March 24, 2023: Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, Alexa Combelic, Joe Kakesh on WOTUS, biofuels and farm bill spending

The appropriations process is in full swing on Capitol Hill, and many ag policy issues are sure to be impacted by annual spending debates. House Appropriations Committee Republican Ashley Hinson of Iowa joins Agri-Pulse Newsmakers to discuss her priorities in the process as well as how the farm bill could be impacted by debt ceiling negotiations. 

Then, Alexa Combelic with the American Soybean Association and Joe Kakesh with Growth Energy offer their thoughts on pending Environmental Protection Agency action on a host of issues facing the biofuels sector.

Want to receive Newsmakers in your inbox every week? Sign up! http://eepurl.com/hTgSAD

Calendar of Events

View All Events

Ag by the numbers

Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer payments raised overall spending on USDA’s child nutrition programs in FY 2020

p-ebt-chart

In March 2020, as the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic forced the closure of schools nationwide, the provision of meals to children through USDA’s National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) was disrupted. In response, Congress authorized the creation of the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program to reimburse families whose children were eligible for free or reduced-price school meals for the value of the school meals their children missed due to pandemic-related school closures. In the first half of fiscal year (FY) 2020 (October 2019 through March 2020), spending on USDA’s largest child nutrition programs was about the same as in the first half of FY 2019 (October 2018 through March 2019). Those programs are the NSLP, SBP, Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), and the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). With the onset of the pandemic, spending on the NSLP, SBP, and CACFP fell to about $4.7 billion in the second half of FY 2020, a sharp decline compared to the roughly $9.9 billion spent on the programs over the same period in FY 2019. Although this decline was somewhat offset by about $3.9 billion in spending on SFSP in the latter half of FY 2020, overall spending on the four programs declined. However, P-EBT spending in the second half of FY 2020 amounted to about $10.7 billion, bringing total FY 2020 USDA expenditures on nutrition programs targeting children to $32.3 billion, or $8.7 billion more than all FY 2019 expenditures. This chart appears in the Amber Waves feature Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Transformed the U.S. Federal Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape, released October 4, 2021.