Congressional Republicans return from their two-week recess facing the herculean task of finding agreement on a budget reconciliation bill that can enact President Donald Trump’s tax and spending priorities. Trump, meanwhile, is searching for trade deals, and USDA’s top trade nominee will get his confirmation hearing.
Ahead of the recess, Republicans pushed through passage of a budget resolution that provides widely different instructions for House and Senate committee when it comes to spending cuts, essentially punting the tough Senate-House compromises until later in the year. Still, adoption of the resolution allows both chambers to start work on a reconciliation measure.
The House Education and Workforce Committee, which is charged in the fiscal 2025 budget resolution with identifying $330 billion in cuts, is set to meet Tuesday to consider its piece of the reconciliation bill. The committee hasn’t released a draft or identified where the cuts may come.
Other major cuts will have to be identified by the House Agriculture Committee ($230 billion) and Energy and Commerce Committee ($880 billion), but neither panel has scheduled committee action.
House Ag will almost certainly try to make most, if not all, of its cut from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Energy and Workforce is expected to target the Medicaid program for cuts, a concern for rural health providers.
Cuts as large as the House is preparing face significant opposition in the Senate. The Senate Ag Committee is only charged with cutting at least $1 billion over 10 years, but that is considered a placeholder figure.
Using the reconciliation process allows Republicans to move a bill through the Senate with a simple majority.
Lindberg to face Senate Ag
Meanwhile this week, U.S. trade negotiations with a raft of trading partners are set to continue, after global trade and finance officials were in town last week. South Korean and U.S. negotiators are set to meet this week to hash out the “scope and format” of trade discussions, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
Speaking Sunday on CNN's State of the Nation, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins expressed confidence that Trump is closing in on new trade deals.
"I'm not in the room. I'm not negotiating the trade deals. But my understanding is, we should have several this week that are coming forward that are very, very close. China is a very important one. Every day, we are in conversation with China, along with those other 99, 100 countries that have come to the table," she said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters last week that negotiations with the east Asian nation may be proceeding “faster than I thought.” The Koreans “came early, they came with their A game and we will see if they follow through,” he said.
The U.S. already has a trade agreement with South Korea, which Trump updated during his first term in office. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, however, has still identified a slate of trade barriers it wants gone – including decisions on pending requests for expanded market access for U.S. blueberries, cherries, apples, pears, carrots, strawberries, frozen raspberries, blackberries and California stone fruits.
Bessent has also suggested that negotiations with India could be even further along the pipeline, after Vice President JD Vance and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a roadmap for negotiations during Vance’s visit to India last week.
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The Trump administration’s trade policy approach will also face scrutiny on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, when Senate Agriculture Committee members grill Trump’s pick for trade undersecretary at USDA, Luke Lindberg. If confirmed, Lindberg would join the administration from the America First Policy Institute, the Trump-aligned think tank Rollins founded.
The America First Policy Institute has backed a trade policy approach that uses reciprocal tariffs to spur tariff reductions among trading partners and the reduction of barriers to U.S. ag trade.
Lindberg, who is a son-in-law of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is also a supporter of using free trade deals to secure greater market access for U.S. agriculture. He criticized the Biden administration for its retreat from negotiating broad FTAs and has highlighted the untapped trade opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa. Republicans are expected to probe Lindberg on market access opportunities overseas, while Democrats hammer the ongoing threats tariff pose to U.S. agriculture.
California regulations in House GOP cross-hairs
Also this week, House Republicans will take aim at a series of environmental regulations backed by California Democrats. The House will consider a series of Congressional Review Act resolutions, one of which would overturn endangered species status for the San Francisco Bay-Delta Distinct Population Segment of the Longfin Smelt.
The longfin smelt gained federal endangered species status last July. This spring the protections have upended California’s water deliveries to farms and cities, as the state cuts pumping operations in half for two months.
Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., calls the listing “another example of out-of-touch environmental policies making it harder to store and deliver water in California.
The resolution needs to be approved by majorities of the House and Senate and signed by the president to overturn the ESA designation.
Other CRA resolutions being teed up for House votes would target a series of Clean Air Act waivers the Biden administration provided to California for regulations intended to reduce transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions.
California gained approval from the Biden administration last year to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars and pickups by 2035. While the state has pulled back on its sales ban for diesel trucks, it already has a federal waiver for requiring manufacturers to sell an increasing percentage of zero-emission trucks, with the goal of as much as 76% of sales by 2045. California has also received approval for reducing nitrogen oxide emissions in trucks, buses and off-road vehicles.
The Government Accountability Office ruled that the CRA process couldn’t be used to overturn the waivers. The Senate parliamentarian affirmed that opinion, but Senate Republicans could decide to overrule it.
In March, California’s Democratic senators, Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, joined the Environment and Public Works Committee’s top Democrat, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, in criticizing EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin for pursuing the CRA repeal of the waivers.
“By ignoring decades of precedent and the plain text of the Congressional Review Act, the Trump EPA is attempting to sell out our nation’s public health and environmental protections to the same polluting industries that bankrolled much of Trump’s campaign,” the senators said in a joint statement.
Here is a list of agriculture- or rural-related events scheduled for this week in Washington and elsewhere (all times EDT):
Monday, April 28
North American Agricultural Journalists annual meeting through Tuesday, Washington.
4 p.m. – House Rules Committee meeting to consider floor rules for Congressional Review Act resolutions on the longfin smelt designation and EPA waivers for California vehicle standards, H-313 Capitol.
4 p.m. – USDA releases Crop Progress report.
Tuesday, April 29
Institute of Food Technologists Food Policy Impact 2025 meeting, through Wednesday.
10:30 a.m. – House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee member day, 2362A Rayburn
3:00 p.m. – Senate Ag Committee Hearing to consider the nominations of Luke Lindberg of South Dakota to be USDA undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs and Devon Westhill of Florida to be assistant USDA secretary for civil rights, 216 Hart.
Wednesday, April 30
Animal Ag Alliance Stakeholders Summit, through Friday, Arlington, Virginia.
International Fresh Produce Association Retail Conference, through Thursday, Dallas.
9:30 a.m. – Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee meeting to consider the nominations of Andrea Travnicek to be assistant secretary of the interior, water and science; Tristan Abbey to be administrator of the energy information administration; Leslie Beyer to be assistant secretary of the interior, lands and minerals management; and Theodore Garrish to be assistant secretary of energy, nuclear energy, 366 Dirksen.
10 a.m. – Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, “Building on the IIJA’s Successes: Identifying Opportunities to Strengthen Water Infrastructure Programs,” 562 Dirksen.
Thursday, May 1
8:30 a.m. – USDA releases Weekly Export Sales report.
10:00 a.m. – Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing to consider the nomination of Paul Dabbar to be deputy secretary of commerce, 253 Russell.
Friday, May 2
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