The Trump administration may announce payments to struggling American farmers this week, while the Senate faces a partisan showdown on expiring Affordable Care Act premium subsidies and will also consider several nominations important to agriculture.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has said the administration's “bridge payment” plan for growers would be disclosed this week. The administration in September moved $13 billion from a fund previously used to fund tariff assistance to the USDA secretary’s office.
Speaking on CBS News' Face the Nation on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the payments would be needed "because the Chinese actually used our soybean farmers as pawns in the trade negotiations.
He said the administration would "create this bridge, because. … agriculture is all about the future. Yo’ve got to start financing for planting next year when things will be very good.”
Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden says in an interview for Agri-Pulse Newsmakers that a “wide variety” of commodities would be eligible for payments. He said the department would use all the available funding for the plan.
The assistance is meant in part to help farmers contending with fewer exports amid President Donald Trump’s hawkish trade policies. But House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., said he expects the aid to address slumping ag commodity prices, not just diminished sales from the retaliatory tariffs.
Democrats to get promised vote on insurance subsidies
Democrats seek to hold Republicans accountable this week for their vow to allow a vote on extending Affordable Care Act tax credits that, without intervention, will expire at the end of this month and send health-care insurance premiums significantly higher. The promise was made during negotiations last month to end the record-long, six-week federal shutdown. Republicans so far have not offered a counterproposal.
The issue is important for many in agriculture. Although only about 8% of the general population gets health insurance on the individual market – largely made up of the ACA marketplaces – the percentage for certain professions is much higher. KFF estimates 27% of all farmers use the independent marketplace.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats will force Republicans to vote Thursday on a bill to extend the credits by three years. “It’s going to be one of the most important votes,” he said.
Thune told reporters last week that the measure isn’t serious and “obviously designed to fail.”
When the legislation is voted down, as expected,“then we will, if they want to have a serious conversation about a real solution, that can get underway,” Thune said. “But, you know, we haven't decided yet exactly what we're going to do.”
A main sticking point between the parties is the Hyde amendment, which limits federal funding for abortions.
On Friday, the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that the Democratic ACA subsidy extension would add almost $300 billion to federal budget deficits.
“With the national debt as large as the economy and interest payments costing $1 trillion annually, it is absurd to suggest adding hundreds of billions more to the debt,” the group’s president, Maya MacGuineas, said in a statement.
Key Trump trade pick nears confirmation
Trump’s pick to helm U.S. agricultural negotiations is likely to be confirmed this week, despite a nominations package with dozens of administration appointments having hit a minor roadblock.
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Thune filed a resolution last week to bring a vote on 88 nominees to the Senate floor, including Trump’s pick for chief ag trade negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Julie Callahan. The Republican leadership changed Senate rules earlier this year to allow for multiple nominees to be considered with a single vote.
But last week, a procedural vote on the package failed because one of the nominees did not qualify for confirmation via a simple majority vote.
Thune re-filed the package on Thursday without that nominee – a pick to lead national drug control policy – but with others added. The new 97-nominee bundle is set to come to the floor this week. John Walk’s nomination for USDA inspector general is part of the package, as is Mindy Brashears' nomination to be USDA undersecretary of food safety.
Once approved, the latest nominations package will bring the total number of Senate confirmations in Trump’s first year above 400.
“That far outstrips total confirmations by this point in President Biden’s term, and in President Trump’s first term as well,” Thune said.
House to consider Secure Rural Schools Act reauthorization
On Tuesday, the House is expected to consider a bill to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools Act, which provides funding to counties and schools to offset revenue lost from their inability to tax Forest Service lands.
Congress created the SRS program in 2000 to make up for declining timber sales, which had previously been used to support counties and schools in forested counties. While the program was traditionally reauthorized every three years, the most recent version expired at the end of fiscal 2023 and has not yet been reauthorized.
The Senate passed a reauthorization bill in June by voice vote. A bipartisan group of 89 House members last week urged Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., to put the bill up for a vote in their chamber.
Jaime Green, the superintendent of Trinity Alps School District, which is located in a heavily forested part of northern California, sees the bill as an early Christmas present. He told Agri-Pulse passage would ensure 4,400 school districts and 740 counties "are going to have the funding they need to run."
Here is a list of agriculture or rural-related events scheduled for this week in Washington and elsewhere (all times EST):
Monday, Dec. 8
National Grain and Feed Association annual Country Elevator Conference, through Tuesday, Indianapolis.
USA Rice Outlook Conference, through Tuesday, New Orleans.
California Farm Bureau annual meeting, through Tuesday, Anaheim, California.
8:30 a.m. – USDA releases backlogged export sales for week ended Nov. 6.
2 p.m. – USDA issues U.S. trade data update
Tuesday, Dec. 9
11 a.m. – USDA releases annual report on U.S. farms and ranches
Noon – USDA releases monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) and Crop Production report.
1 p.m. – The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy hosts webinar, “Shaping the Future of Food: 2025 in Review and Looking Ahead.”
Wednesday, Dec. 10
Annual Almond Conference, through Friday, Sacramento, California.
10 a.m. – House Agriculture Committee holds “Member Day” hearing, 1300 Longworth.
10 a.m. – The Atlantic Council hosts a virtual event with USTR Jamieson Greer on “one year of a new global trade system.”
10 a.m. – The International Food Policy Research Institute webinar, “The Economy-wide Impacts of School Meal Programs in Ghana and Malawi.”
Thursday, Dec. 11
8:30 a.m. – USDA publishes backlogged export sales for week ended Nov. 13
10 a.m. – House Agriculture Committee hearing on CFTC reauthorization, 1300 Longworth.
Friday, Dec. 12
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