Farm groups are urging the House to approve the Senate-passed budget bill and get it to President Donald Trump’s desk. Vice President JD Vance cast the deciding the vote on the legislation Tuesday after a marathon vote-a-rama. 

Keep in mind: The Senate-passed bill includes some enhancements over the House version. Those include a provision that will ensure row crop producers get the highest payment from either the Agriculture Risk Coverage or Price Loss Coverage program, regardless of which program they signed up for this spring. 

The Senate bill also would allow producers to sign up for both ARC and the supplemental coverage option on crop insurance.

“We now urge the House to pass the bill and get it to the president’s desk for his signature to ensure America’s farmers and ranchers can continue putting food on the table for America’s families,” Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said in a statement after the Senate version passed. 

USA Rice Farmers Chair LG Raun said, “We urge the House of Representatives to take up and pass this bill with the key ag investments before the 4th of July.”

For an analysis of the bill’s impact on payments for 2025 crops, check out our weekly newsletter today.

Meanwhile: Anti-hunger groups are continuing to urge House members to oppose the reconciliation bill due to cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. 

The Senate bill includes a slightly scaled-back version of the House’s original proposal to shift some of the program’s costs to states based on SNAP error rates. Crystal FitzSimons, president of the Food Research & Action Center, says this is an “unprecedented” cost shift that many states are already warning will result in cuts to the program. 

“Calling today’s outcome disappointing doesn’t begin to cover it. It’s devastating,” FitzSimons says. 

The Senate did include a carveout that would give states with the highest SNAP error rates a longer runway before implementation. 

Given some of the last-minute changes, House Agriculture Committee ranking member Angie Craig, D-Minn., said her colleagues may not even fully understand what they are voting on. “This bill was a disgrace when it left this chamber. Most of you haven’t read it to know that it is even more of a disgrace now that it’s back,” Craig said during her opening statement at the House Rules Committee hearing.

Japan won’t ‘sacrifice’ ag sector for U.S. deal

The Japanese government says a deal with the U.S. won’t come at the expense of the country’s agriculture sector. Trump suggested on Monday that Japan’s reluctance to accept U.S. rice exports could kill chances of securing a deal before next week’s reciprocal tariff deadline.

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At a press conference Tuesday, Japan’s top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa stressed that agriculture is “the foundation of the nation.”

“We will not engage in talks that would sacrifice the agricultural sector,” he said. Still, he said negotiators would continue to talk to U.S. officials to find a path forward. Akazawa didn’t specify whether rice is part of ongoing U.S.-Japan negotiations. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has previously indicated that potatoes are.

Take note: European Union Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič is flying to Washington today for another round of talks with U.S. counterparts. An EU spokesperson pushed back on suggestions that the visit is a “make or break moment” to avoid trade issues ahead of the deadline.

The spokesperson said both sides are working in “the same direction.” “Meeting this July 9 deadline is the goal,” they added.

Trump again floats plan to give farmers ‘responsibility’ for farmworkers

Trump on Tuesday echoed past comments about giving farmers “responsibility” for undocumented immigrants working on their operations.

During a visit to an immigrant detention facility in Florida, Trump said “we have a great feeling for the farmer and for others in the same position and we’re going to give them responsibility for people."

"We’re going to have a system of signing them up so they don’t have to go — they can be here legally,” Trump told Fox News. "They can pay taxes and everything. They’re not getting citizenship, but they get other things." 

Judge orders stop to further HHS downsizing

Judge Melissa DuBose of the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island has ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to halt all reorganization efforts while a case over their legality continues.

DuBose found that in a March 27 directive to consolidate the agency’s 28 divisions into 15 and lay off nearly 10,000 employees, several of the agency’s programs were sent “into a rapid freefall away from their statutory obligations."

Take note: The plaintiffs alleged 90% of employees at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health received notices alerting them that they were likely to be laid off, but more than 300 of these have since been revoked, NIOSH director Jon Howard told the court. 

Still, the judge noted that the revocation covered less than half the approximately 873 NIOSH employees who received termination notices.

Federal climate change website stops operating

The federal government’s main climate change website has stopped working. Among the documents that no longer can be retrieved from globalchange.gov is the latest national climate assessment, prepared by federal government scientists and posted on the web in 2023.

The move follows the Trump administration’s decision in April to stop funding future assessments. The next version was due to be released in 2028.

“Hiding these congressionally mandated reports won’t make climate change go away, but it will leave Americans uninformed and unprepared,” said Howard Crystal, legal director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s energy justice program. “We’re looking at taking legal action to protect the public’s right to accurate information about the climate crisis.”

The 2023 report that was here can now be found here, at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s website.

Final word

“I don’t buy the idea that people have died because of anything I have done.” – Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., when pressed by a reporter about the impact of the administration’s deep cuts to U.S. food and medical assistance.

Rebekah Alvey, Philip Brasher, Oliver Ward and Noah Wicks contributed to today’s Daybreak.