A marathon three-day hearing on the future of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement kicks off today, with testimony from agricultural groups.
Over 100 witnesses representing industries across the U.S. economy will weigh in on the value of USMCA and potential reforms the U.S. should pursue as part of an upcoming review.
Today, officials will hear from representatives of the U.S. corn, soybean, grain, beef, fruit and vegetable sectors, among others. The hearing comes following a public comment period in which ag groups and family farmers provided written comments on the deal.
Take note: Many ag-state lawmakers are supporters of the deal and its benefits for U.S. ag exports, but want adjustments ensuring partners are meeting their commitments.
“We don't want to blow it up,” Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., told Agri-Pulse Tuesday. Panetta co-led a bipartisan letter with more than 100 House lawmakers this month urging the Trump administration to avoid weakening the deal.
“We realize how important it is, especially to our farmers and producers,” Panetta said. He added there are ways to improve the deal but said the deal’s shortcomings should not be grounds for scrapping it altogether.
Thune unveils nominations package, including Callahan for ag negotiator
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., introduced a resolution to approve dozens of nominees for administration posts, including President Donald Trump’s pick for the top ag trade negotiator.
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Julie Callahan, who is up for chief ag negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, is among the 88 nominees for senior positions. Jeffrey Goettman, who has been tapped as a deputy USTR, is also part of the nominations package.
Agri-Pulse reported last week that Thune was assembling his third nominations package. He filed cloture on the package, which means it could come to floor for a final vote before the end of next week.
Take note: Senators changed nominations rules earlier this year to allow multiple nominees to be confirmed in a single vote. The nominees only need a simple majority for approval, and not the usual 60-votes.
The U.S. Capitol Christmas tree (Agri-Pulse/Lydia Johnson photo) State, federal leaders formalize new Chesapeake Bay agreement
State and federal leaders from the Chesapeake Bay region on Tuesday formalized an agreement guiding bay restoration efforts through 2040.
Members of the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council — which includes the governors of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, the mayor of Washington D.C., and EPA officials, among others — solidified a restoration plan that commits states to reducing nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment pollution in the basin.
While it sets a 2040 deadline, the agreement requires states to conduct a midpoint check in 2033.
Take note: At the meeting, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) was elected as the new chair of the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council.
Data show DRP losses at Farm Credit Administration, DOJ antitrust division
The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has seen 50 of its employees take buyout offers, while the Farm Credit Administration has lost 18 employees, according to two different datasets obtained by Agri-Pulse through a Freedom of Information Act request.
All 18 of the Farm Credit Administration employees who left the agency under the Deferred Resignation Program chose to leave during the first round of buyouts.
Meanwhile, 25 employees in DOJ’s antitrust division left in the DRP’s first round, and another 25 left during its second round.
Take note: The DOJ did not provide a geographic breakdown of employees who accepted DRP offers, though the Farm Credit Administration did.
Seven of the FCA employees who took buyouts were located in Virginia, while four were in Colorado, four were in Texas, two were in California and one was based in Minnesota.
ERS reschedules reports, says only data will be available for others
The Economic Research Service missed another pre-shutdown deadline Tuesday for one of its reports, this time by failing to release the farm income forecast.
That forecast will not be published or rescheduled, but ERS said “subsequent releases will contain the latest data available.”
ERS said on its website it would reschedule the food security report scheduled for release in October, and a trade outlook report that was supposed to come out last month.
The food security report will be the last during the Trump administration, which said in September it was canceling it.
As with the farm income forecast, ERS said it would not reschedule releases for some reports but would provide the latest data. Among others, those include reports on livestock and meat international trade and season average price forecasts.
Dems seek rescission of H-2A wage rule
Twenty-nine House Democrats want the Trump administration to rescind its new H-2A rule, saying that farmworkers brought to the U.S. under the program stand to lose $2 billion or more per year in wages.
“Farmworkers perform a physically demanding job in difficult conditions and keep our country fed,” they said in a letter to Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. “Despite this, they are already one of the lowest paid workers in the U.S., making 40% less than comparable nonagricultural workers.”
Rollins threatens loss of SNAP funds for certain states
Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins on Tuesday again warned states that have failed to provide data on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients.
At a cabinet meeting, Rollins said USDA “will begin to stop moving federal funds into those states until they comply, and they tell us and allow us to partner with them to root out this fraud and to protect the American taxpayer.”
A preliminary injunction is in place prohibiting that type of action from USDA. The states that have withheld the data are the plaintiffs.
The department clarified Rollins’ remarks. In a statement, a USDA spokesperson said, “We have sent Democrat States yet another request for data, and if they fail to comply, they will be provided with formal warning that USDA will pull their administrative funds.”
The statement also said USDA has set up a “SNAP integrity team to analyze not only data provided by states, but to scrub all available information to end indiscriminate welfare fraud.
[Twenty-eight] states and Guam joined us in this fight; but states like California, New York, and Minnesota … keep fighting us.”
Meanwhile, House Ag Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig reacted to Rollins, saying the secretary “continues to spew propaganda, attacking a food assistance program which 42 million Americans rely on to feed their families.”
Final word
“We're talking about selling more soybeans, selling more corn, getting more of our products out. But when we really think about how to solve for this idea that for so long, our farmers, many of them, have been farming for government checks instead of moving their product around the world, these trade deals change that forever. And it isn't one trade deal or two trade deals, it's dozens of trade deals. And so talking about rural prosperity and bringing the Golden Age back to rural America, which has been lost for too long.” – Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, speaking at the cabinet meeting Tuesday.
Oliver Ward and Noah Wicks contributed to today’s Daybreak.
