Late Thursday night, the House voted down its fiscal 2024 Agriculture appropriations bill, 191-237. It’s unusual for an annual appropriations bill to be defeated on the floor, and the Ag bill is usually one of the least controversial. But the FY24 Ag measure contains deep cuts across USDA and FDA and also includes restrictions on the abortion drug mifepristone that cost critical GOP votes.
Some 27 Republicans, including House Ag Committee members such as Frank Lucas of Oklahoma, Randy Feenstra of Iowa and Tracey Mann of Kansas, joined Democrats in voting against the measure.
It was the only one of four spending bills the House considered Thursday to be voted down.
Key USDA export sales reports set to stop with shutdown
A government shutdown is looming this weekend with congressional leaders still far from a deal on a stopgap spending bill.
USDA still hadn’t posted its shutdown plans as of Thursday. But Trade Undersecretary Alexis Taylor previewed some of the impact of a shutdown in a conference call with reporters from Chile, where she’s been on a trade mission this week.
She says USDA would have to suspend its daily and weekly export sales reports and also may cancel a planned trade mission to Malaysia and Singapore. The shutdown would force the furloughing of employees needed to set up and execute the trip.
The export reports “are a critical tool for market intelligence for our exporters,” Taylor said.
By the way: Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., announced Thursday afternoon that she had tested positive for COVID and would be isolating. She had voted earlier on advancing a Senate vehicle for a stopgap spending bill.
Conservatives mount attacks on U.S. food aid
The U.S. government’s primary food-aid programs have been under attack this week during debate on a pair of fiscal 2024 spending bills for USDA and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The votes showed that anti-aid conservatives are still a minority of the GOP conference, but if their ranks continue to grow it could create some problems for the programs.
On Thursday, the House defeated, 86-346, an amendment by the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., to zero out USAID’s International Disaster Assistance account, which funds cash-based emergency food assistance.
“What about the folks all across the country dealing with floods and fires? There isn't any money in the United States of America for them, but heaven forbid we’ve got to make sure we're all around the globe helping all those folks at the expense of the people in America,” Perry argued.
The House earlier defeated a GOP proposal to zero out Food for Peace, USDA’s flagship aid program. But that only came after Republicans amended that FY24 funding bill for USDA to cut $1.2 billion from Food for Peace. Some Republicans are frustrated that Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack plans to use his Commodity Credit Corporation authority for $1.1 billion in food-aid purchases.
USDA’s response: Taylor says food aid programs are vital to U.S. farmers as well as the world’s “most vulnerable and food insecure” people. “We buy U.S. commodities and are spreading that product all over the world. Cutting these programs also has an impact on our agricultural economy,” she said.
DOJ reverses course on Agri Stats
The Justice Department’s new lawsuit against data sharing firm Agri Stats comes more than 10 years after the department ended an earlier investigation of the firm.
“In 2012 the DOJ closed an investigation of Agri Stats and now 10 years later it finally acts,” said University of Wisconsin law professor Peter Carstensen. “How much loss to consumers, workers and farmers would have been avoided if they had sued back then.”
The facts haven’t changed, Carstensen continued, but added, “There is better understanding of the harms information exchange schemes create.”
The company, which has been sued repeatedly in class-action suits brought by pork and poultry purchasers, denies the DOJ allegations, citing the dropped investigation.
Carstensen, who was a lawyer at DOJ, said he has been trying through the Freedom of Information Act for a year and half to find out the results of that investigation. “So far I have gotten nothing,” he says.
Trade mission hits pork facility, Chilean port
Agri-Pulse’s Spencer Chase has been in Chile this week, reporting on the USDA trade mission.
The U.S. delegation spent their day Thursday learning – quite literally – how the sausage is made.
A group of government officials and commodity organization leaders ventured to a packing plant that churns out various brands of ham, sausage, hot dogs and other processed pork products using some meat that was imported from the United States. All told, the facility produces about six metric tons per month.
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The group then headed to the Valparaiso, where a pre-clearance facility operated by USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service offers the chance for goods imported from the country to bypass Customs and Border Protection inspection once arriving in the United States.
The trade mission wraps up today with a trip to a Chilean winery and the largest pork and poultry production facility in the country.
No near-term relief in sight on Mississippi River
Soy Transportation Coalition Executive Director Mike Steenhoek says water levels on the Mississippi River could continue to decrease in October after dropping to near-low levels sooner than last year.
Steenoek said during an Agri-Pulse webinar on Thursday that October tends to be a dry month. What precipitation that may pass over the Mississippi River region will likely get soaked up by the ground, which is currently dry due to “angry-looking” drought conditions, he added.
American Soybean Association economist Scott Gerlt warned that shipping delays could make it “very difficult for us to price our beans competitively on the world market.”
Mexico drives US corn trade in latest USDA weekly data
The Mexican livestock feed industry is buying a lot of U.S. corn. The latest weekly data from USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service shows total net export sales for the week of Sept. 15-21 at 841,800 metric tons for delivery in the current 2023-24 marketing year, with 261,500 tons of that is destined for Mexico.
That data doesn’t include the substantial daily sale announced by FAS Monday. Mexican buyers contracted about 1.7 million tons of U.S. corn for delivery in 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Take note: China was the primary foreign market driving U.S. soybean trade for Sept. 15-21. Chinese buyers contracted for 581,200 tons of 2023-24 soybeans – most of the 672,200 tons that were sold.
He said it. “We know things are changing. And if we continue to play politics with something that is science-based, it's not going to solve the problem.” – Illinois Democratic Rep. Eric Sorensen, a former TV meteorologist, speaking on Agri-Pulse Newsmakers about the need to address climate change.
Newsmakers will be available today at Agri-Pulse.com.
