Most states are going to get hit with a bill for SNAP benefits unless they can get their error rates down quickly. Under a provision in the Senate’s massive budget reconciliation bill only eight states would be exempt from sharing some SNAP benefit costs, based on the FY24 error rates.
The SNAP cost-share requirement would kick in for fiscal 2028 and be determined by either FY25 or FY26 error rates. States with error rates below 6% would be exempt from the cost-share. But the total amount of the cost-share goes up to 15% for states with an error rate of 10% or more.
Overall, the national SNAP error rate declined slightly in FY24, but it’s still far from prepandemic levels.
Six states would have to chip in 5% of the costs while 16 would be responsible for 10%. However, 21 states would be responsible for the maximum cost-share of 15%.
Grassley relents on payment limits
Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has tried for years to impose tighter limits and eligibility standards for commodity programs. He was prepared to offer an amendment on the reconciliation bill during Monday’s vote-a-rama but ultimately relented.
Senate Ag Chair John Boozman, R-Ark., agreed to work with Grassley to look into potential fraud and abuse of farm payments, and to study how payment limits are structured, a source says.
Follow our coverage of the budget reconciliation bill at Agri-Pulse.com.
Two House Ag Republicans will not seek reelection
Two House Ag Committee Republicans have announced they won’t be running for reelection next year.
Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, representing Omaha, will be stepping back to “dedicate more time to my family, my church, and the Omaha community,” he announced in a press release Monday.
Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, however, hopes to stay in politics. He is throwing his hat into the ring for governor of his state. The current governor, Larry Rhoden, has not said whether he will seek election. He succeeded Kristi Noem when she left to become secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Guidance on natural food dyes part of FDA’s priorities
Natural food dyes and upcoming traceability requirements are among FDA’s human food programs guidance priorities, according to its proposed 2025 guidance agenda.
By the end of the year, the human food program expects to release drafts or final guidance on various food safety, food additive and nutrition issues. These include some launched under the previous administration, like industry guidance for the upcoming food traceability rule.
The program will additionally release draft guidance for industry on natural food colors, specifically using fruit and vegetable juice as additives. This guidance follows the recent push led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to remove synthetic dyes from the food supply.
The agency also expects to release draft guidance on action levels for cadmium and inorganic arsenic in baby food, and action levels for opiate alkaloids on poppy seeds.
But something’s missing: One notable absence from the agenda is guidance on the “healthy” symbol and front-of-pack labeling proposed rule. An FDA spokesperson said the agency is still actively working on several nutrient content and labeling initiatives.
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“FDA posts its Human Foods Program guidance agenda to transparently share efforts underway, and it reflects our best projection of documents that we expect to actually publish as draft or final by December 2025,” the spokesperson said in an email.
USAID-State merger begins
Many of the remaining USAID employees are set to leave the agency today as the administration carries out the first phase of its plan to bring the agency under State Department control.
All but a skeleton group of USAID employees received reduction in force notices with termination dates of July 1. The remaining employees will wind down or transfer their operations to the State Department by Sept. 2.
Among the officials set to depart the agency later today are those working on ag innovation and food security. They had been hoping for an 11th-hour reprieve, but as of Monday afternoon they had heard nothing to suggest internal efforts had paid off.
The administration has said it will preserve U.S. food aid as part of the operations at State’s Office of Global Food Security. So, USAID officials working on these issues remain mystified over why the administration is letting them go.
Administration defends tariff gambit as Europe bristles
French President Emmanuel Macron denounced large countries’ use of tariffs to rebalance trade as economic “blackmail” in comments at a finance and development conference in Spain on Monday. He did not mention the U.S. or President Donald Trump by name, but the remarks were sufficiently pointed to draw a response from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“The president and the White House would certainly reject that characterization,” Leavitt told reporters. “Tariffs are an effective use of presidential power,” she added.
Take note: Canada’s scuttling of a planned digital services tax on Sunday after Trump threatened fresh tariffs is likely to further embolden the president in his use of tariffs and ongoing trade negotiations as a cudgel.
“It worked,” Everett Eissenstat, a former top Trump economic aide, told Agri-Pulse. “The president's going to continue to use leverage and find leverage to hit his objectives.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt briefing reporters on Monday. (Agri-Pulse photo)
House Ag Dems push USDA on quarterly ag trade report
Several House Agriculture Democrats have asked USDA to explain delays in the latest quarterly ag trade report, which projected no improvement for the rest of the fiscal year.
USDA’s Economic Research Service was expected to release the report on May 29. But it was delayed until June 2 and lacked the narrative that typically accompanies the outlook and can provide context.
In the letter, lawmakers expressed concern that the administration withheld the report because of “unflattering data.”
“Concerningly, holding back this report implies that the Administration is willing to withhold or possibly meddle with data that doesn’t comport with its worldview,” the lawmakers wrote. “In order to rebuild trust it is essential that you dispel any notion that you are allowing political interests to infect what should be objective, unbiased reports.”
USDA puts numbers on planting
USDA’s annual survey of planted acreage shows farmers are expecting to harvest 86.8 million acres of corn this year, a 5% increase over last year. Soybean acreage is down 4% to 82.5 million.
Cotton plantings are down 10% this year to 10.1 million acres. Wheat acreage is down 1% from last year to 45.5 million acres.
Grain stocks: The latest grain stocks report showed corn stocks down 7% from a year ago to 4.64 billion bushels. Soybean stocks are up 4% year over year.
USDA revising environmental review requirements
USDA is reworking its environmental review requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act.
NEPA requires federal agencies to review environmental impacts of major decisions. While agencies previously followed rules put in place by the White House's Council on Environmental Quality during the Jimmy Carter administration, the Trump administration rescinded those in May following two district court rulings that found CEQ lacked the authority to issue binding regulations.
The new regulations will apply to all USDA agencies and will include “common sense reforms” to prevent the NEPA process from causing unnecessary delays, a press release says.
Ag interns working in Washington, D.C., for the summer gathered at USDA June 30 for a lunch hosted by Agri-Pulse (Agri-Pulse photo; click on it for an item on LinkedIn).
Final word
“To show people how spoiled Countries have become with respect to the United States of America, and I have great respect for Japan, they won’t take our RICE, and yet they have a massive rice shortage. In other words, we’ll just be sending them a letter, and we love having them as a Trading Partner for many years to come.” — President Donald Trump, in a post on Truth Social, indicating Japan will be getting a letter setting tariff rates.
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