For now, congressional Republicans are focused on their struggle to pass President Donald Trump’s “one, big beautiful” budget bill. But House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., already is eying legislation on trade and further tax provisions.
Smith told the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., on Thursday that the priority would turn to opening new international markets, particularly for U.S. agriculture.
“We grow rice, corn, cotton, feed cattle in my district. And so we need more markets. You need to eliminate those nontariff barriers,” Smith said. “There's a lot of trade problems that we're going to have to discuss.”
Smith also said he hopes to secure bipartisan legislation to enact some tax provisions that didn’t make it into the reconciliation bill because of Republican opposition.
Take note: Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chair Adrian Smith, R-Neb., told Agri-Pulse Thursday that Congress can buttress Trump’s efforts to open new markets. “I think he understands that what he's doing can only last the length of his administration,” Smith said. Durable trade policy, he added, “will require legislative action.”
MAHA critics don’t understand pesticide use, Senate ally say
Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican who leads the Senate’s Make America Healthy Again Caucus, says he’s in communication with Casey Means, the controversial nominee to be surgeon general who links pesticide use to a long list of human health problems.
“The great news is, I can push back” on claims like the ones she makes, Marshall tells Agri-Pulse Newsmakers this week. “They have no idea what we’re doing out there when it comes to using less pesticides,” he says of pesticide critics.
Marshall says he also talks regularly with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
This week’s Newsmakers is available today at Agri-Pulse.com.
FDA commits to revamp chemical post-market review process
FDA plans to ramp up its review process for chemicals already on the market.
Speaking at the Food Safety Summit outside Chicago, Kyle Diamantas, acting deputy commissioner of the FDA’s human foods program, teased some of the department’s plans on chemical safety.
A new post-market review plan will include a modernized, evidence-based scheme to prioritize reviews of chemicals already in the food supply. FDA says that will be released soon for public comment
Diamantas said the agency will also be updating and releasing a final systematic post-market review process based off over 70,000 comments received last year. Finally, he said FDA will update the list of chemicals in the food supply prioritized for review.
EU officials want a better US deal than the UK
European Union officials are warning that a U.S.-EU deal along the lines of the U.S.-U.K. pact won’t be enough to stop the EU from retaliating.
“If the U.K.-U.S. deal is what Europe gets, then the U.S. can expect countermeasures from our side,” Benjamin Dousa, Sweden’s trade minister, said ahead of a trade meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
At a press conference, Polish official Michał Baranowski stressed that any agreement “needs to be fair and balanced.”
“We are frankly too big, too important to the U.S., to have a trade deal that is deeply unbalanced,” Baranowski said. But he added both sides are making “clear progress,” and that the EU now has a clearer understanding of what the U.S. wants.
Why it matters: The EU has indicated a slate of U.S. agricultural products will face new tariffs if the U.S. and EU can’t come to an agreement to prevent the return of a 20% reciprocal tariff.
EPA head says agency wants to catch up on SRE petitions
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin says the agency wants to quickly catch up on small refinery exemption petitions for biofuel mandates.
The first Trump administration granted dozens of these exemptions, which go to facilities that claim complying with the Renewable Fuel Standard would cause them undue economic harm. These can have an impact on biofuel producers if the exemptions lower the obligated volumes across the board.
There are 161 pending SRE petitions, according to EPA. Zeldin was asked about these during an appearance before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies.
“None of these were getting approved at all in the last administration,” Zeldin said. “So we want to get caught up, we want to get caught up as quickly as we can.”
Take note: EPA also sent its long-awaited proposal for biofuel volume obligations under the RFS to the White House Thursday morning. A unique coalition of oil, biofuel and farm groups has coalesced behind significantly higher RVOs, which it has recommended to the agency.
Meanwhile: Lawmakers asked Zeldin if the MAHA Commission would make any claims about the impacts of pesticides on health in its upcoming report.
Zeldin noted that he’s not the chair of the commission and could not speak to the positions of its other members. But in his personal view, and in his role at EPA, he said it’s important that any regulatory decisions about pesticides be made using “sound science.”
“It’s important to understand as a need for farmers, for agriculture, for our food supply, it’s important that we follow the science, that we use sound science in making decisions and that we understand and carefully deliberate and are thoughtful at EPA on this front,” Zeldin said.
Equipment on the National Mall
Excavators, skid loaders and bulldozers are on display for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers’ Celebration of Construction on the National Mall event. Policymakers and attendees can see advancements in emissions technology, alternative power sources, building materials and worker safety enhancements between the Capitol and Washington Monument today. (Lydia Johnson/Agri-Pulse photos)
Final words
“I look forward to getting whole foods back in the schools, getting rid of packaged foods.” — Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., speaking on Agri-Pulse Newsmakers about how the “Make America Healthy Again” movement will shape the upcoming dietary guidelines.
"If there was one winner out of the tax markup, I think it was rural America and farmers." — John Weber, principal at Monument Advocacy, also speaking on Newsmakers.
Rebekah Alvey, Philip Brasher, Lydia Johnson, Oliver Ward and Noah Wicks contributed to today’s Daybreak.
