Senate negotiators reached agreement on a stopgap spending bill Sunday to reopen the government and provide full-year funding for the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration.
The new continuing resolution also includes a one-year extension of expired farm bill programs.
“It looks like we’re getting very close to the shutdown ending,” President Donald Trump said as he returned to the White House Sunday evening.
Seven Democrats and Maine independent Angus King ultimately joined Republicans in voting, 60-40, Sunday night to advance the measure. The seven Democrats were Richard Durbin of Illinois, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, and Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire,
Senate Democrats had broadly demanded Republicans agree to extending expiring subsidies for Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies, but in the end got only the promise of a vote on the issue in December.
In a news conference late Sunday, Shaheen urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to return his chamber into session and quickly reopen the government. Cortez Masto said the vote to restore funding was critical because too many Americans were suffering.
“We were seeing lines to our food banks in northern Nevada, these were lines that I hadn't seen since the pandemic, and the stories were horrific," Cortez Masto said.
Kaine said Democrats were in a situation where "SNAP recipients were suffering and there was no guarantee we would ever get to an ACA solution. Now we've got robust SNAP funding and a guaranteed vote, not a guaranteed outcome, but a guaranteed vote on ACA tax credits.”
Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat who opposed the deal, said he believed Democrats should have held out longer. “We’ve reached different conclusions but I respect my colleagues [who support the CR] … There is no disunity in the Democratic Caucus about fighting for people’s heath care," he said.
"We've got big fights ahead of us," said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. "This is a rough night tonight, but we have to hold Republicans’ feet to the fire, make sure people understand the devastation that Trump has wrought on our economy and our healthcare system.”
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In addition to the USDA-FDA funding bill for fiscal 2026, the CR also includes compromise FY26 measures for funding the legislative branch, military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Due to the ongoing shutdown and an ongoing court battle It was unclear whether or when SNAP participants would get their full benefits restored heading into the weekend. On Friday night, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily stayed an order by a federal judge in Rhode Island that would have forced USDA to cover full benefits as of that day.
USDA told states on Friday it was to provide SNAP benefits, but the department reversed itself late Saturday with a new memo threatening states with penalties if they did provide full benefits to EBT processors.
The government informed the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals of the issuance of the memo on Sunday. In a notice to the court, Justice Department attorney Laura Myron said, "To the extent that States decided to submit their files early — knowing that Defendants had appealed the Court’s injunction and intended to seek a stay, and in the face of direction to the contrary — they are responsible for the consequences of that action."
Late Sunday night, the 1st Circuit denied the government’s motion for a stay of McConnell’s order.
“The record here shows that the government sat on its hands for nearly a month, unprepared to make partial payments, while people who rely on SNAP received no benefits a week into November and counting,” the court said. “In light of these unique facts, we cannot conclude that the district court abused its discretion in requiring full payment of November SNAP benefits to effectuate the October 31 TRO after the government had failed to comply with it.”
McConnell had sufficient discretion to determine that “the overwhelming evidence of widespread harm that a stay would cause right now, by leaving tens of millions of Americans without food as winter approaches, outweighed the potential monetary harm to the government” and child nutrition programs, “months into the future.”
Following that order, Jackson ordered the government "to provide the Court with notice of their intention to continue to pursue a stay of the District Court’s orders from this Court" by 11 a.m. Eastern Time.
With the government shutdown about to enter its sixth week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., ordered senators to return to Capitol Hill on Saturday, the chamber’s first working weekend since the impasse began..
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Friday proposed to resolve the impasse by ensuring Democratic support for a budget resolution if Affordable Care Act tax credits are extended for a year. “We need Republicans to just say yes,” he said.
On Saturday, Trump kept the heat on Republicans to end the filibuster. In a social media post, he said, “The Democrats are cracking like dogs on the Shutdown because they are deathly afraid that I am making progress with the Republicans on TERMINATING THE FILIBUSTER!”
In another post, he also called for revoking federal funding for Affordable Care Act policies, saying the money should “BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE.” Several GOP senators, including Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, Mike Lee of Utah, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, and Rick Scott of Florida, endorsed Trump’s idea on social media.
Thune and fellow Republicans rejected Schumer’s proposal out of hand. “He’s talking about throwing tens of billions more taxpayer dollars at a program that even Democrats admit has failed to lower health care costs,” Thune said.
Schumer on Saturday said his proposal was a matter of maintaining current funding levels and averting skyrocketing costs for middle class Americans, something he argues that more than half of Trump supporters want.
U.S., China begin implementing deal
Also this week, the United States and China take the first steps to climb down from escalating trade tensions on Monday, even as senior lawmakers still struggle to get details on the agreement.
U.S. tariffs applied to Chinese products fall by 10%; meanwhile, China is to lift a slate of agriculture specific retaliatory tariffs and slash the “baseline” retaliatory duty applied to all U.S. imports to 10%. Further, starting Monday, China will accept U.S. logs and reinstate export licenses for three major soybean exporters.
The steps are the first concrete actions both sides have taken since Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in South Korea at the end of last month, where the two reached a deal to de-escalate mounting trade tensions.
But the precise terms of the deal are still murky. The two sides have still not published details of the pact or a joint statement endorsed by both governments. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had suggested a final text could be signed last week, but no announcement landed.
It isn’t only the public that remains in the dark about the deal’s specifics. Of the five Ag and Finance Committee senators Agri-Pulse asked on Thursday and Friday, none had received a briefing from administration officials on the contours of the deal.
Senate Ag Chair John Boozman, R-Ark., told Agri-Pulse that he has been largely relying on media reports to determine what was included in the deal, with limited additional details from Agriculture Department officials.
“It's pretty vague,” Boozman said. The government shutdown has hampered efforts to get more information, he said.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told Agri-Pulse that he is working on getting more information on the deal.
“We don't have a full readout,” he said. But he stressed that the administration has, so far, been communicative with lawmakers about the state of ongoing negotiations.
“We have an ongoing dialogue, not only with USDA, but also with USTR,” Hoeven said Friday, referring to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. “Secretary Bessent and [USTR] Jamieson Greer have been very good about briefing us.”
Webinar looks at potential for waste to biofuels
On Wednesday, Agri-Pulse is sponsoring a webinar, “The Race for Renewable Fuels to Improve Rural Prosperity," with a focus on the potential for fuel feedstocks such as biogas.
Speakers will include Rod Snyder, principal and founder of Junction Strategies; Michael O’Laughlin, CEO of Vanguard Renewables; and Ben Kruger, senior vice president of Roeslein Renewables.
Here is a list of agriculture or rural-related events scheduled for this week in Washington and elsewhere (all times EDT):
Monday, Nov. 10
Western Growers Association annual meeting, through Wednesday, Coronado, California.
Joint annual meeting of the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board, National Milk Producers Federation and United Dairy Industry Association, through Wednesday, Arlington, Texas.The United Nations COP30 climate change conference, through Nov. 21, Brazil.
Tuesday, Nov. 11
1 p.m. - The Atlantic Council webinar, “From risk to resilience: The future of food security in the Americas.”
American Bankers Association annual agricultural bankers conference, through Friday, St. Louis.
1 p.m. – Agri-Pulse webinar, “The Race for Renewable Fuels to Improve Rural Prosperity.”
Thursday, Nov. 13
Friday, Nov. 14
10 a.m. – Washington International Trade Association webinar on “The Role of USMCA in Great Power Competition.”
Noon – USDA releases World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates.
For more news, go to Agri-Pulse.com.
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