WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2015 – Congress returns
to work with a long list of unfinished business to deal with this fall,
including the budget, a long-term highway bill and a reauthorization of child
nutrition programs.
The Iran nuclear agreement will dominate
lawmakers attention in coming days. The House is scheduled this week to debate
a resolution of disapproval of the agreement, although the White House already
has sufficient Democratic support in Congress to upheld a veto of the measure.
The fiscal year ends Sept. 30 and the
Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which authorized the Agriculture Department to
raise school nutrition standards, expires the same day. Highway funding expires
at the end of October.
Congress is expected to pass a continuing
resolution this month to keep the government running while Republican leaders
negotiate with the White House over spending levels. “We’ll be discussing
with the president how to resolve our differences,”
Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in an interview with Agri-Pulse.
Agriculture has a big stake in the
spending negotiations in part because Republicans want to use the fiscal 2016
legislation to block key parts of the administration’s regulatory
agenda, including the rule re-defining the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act.
Implementation of the “waters of the
United States” rule (WOTUS) began in August in all but 13 states where it was blocked
by a judge’s ruling. “We’re going to continue to work to try to stop it,”
McConnell said of
the rule.
Reauthorizing child nutrition programs
isn’t urgent - the meal
standards won’t be affected by the expiration of the law - but passing a
reauthorization bill that maintains the standards would provide them some
permanency.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack this
week will step up the administration’s effort to preserve the standards. He
will appear at a National Press Club Newsmaker news conference on Tuesday to make
his case, joined by representatives of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the
American Academy of Pediatrics.
“There is growing acceptance for those
healthier meals, so we want to continue that progress going forward,”
said Pew’s director of child
nutrition, Jessica Donze Black.
The chairman and ranking Democrat of the
Senate Agriculture Committee, Pat Roberts of Kansas and Debbie Stabenow of
Michigan, have been trying to work out details of a new bill, and Roberts has
scheduled a markup for Sept. 17.
Vilsack told Agri-Pulse last week that he is “cautiously
optimistic” that Congress can agree on a bill, but he made clear that he is going
to insist that the standards aren’t lowered.
Also this week, the department will release its barometer of hunger in the country, the Household Food Security report, which will say whether any progress was made last year in reducing food insecurity. The percentage of U.S. households that were food insecure was unchanged from 2012 to 2013.
Vilsack on Wednesday will deliver the keynote address at the 2015 National Rural Assembly, a conference that focuses on way to reduce rural poverty and bolster rural development.
About 140 people representing advocacy groups, rural development organizations, universities and government agencies, have signed up for the conference. There will be a special focus on getting foundations to provide more money to needed projects.
Here’s a list of agriculture- or rural-related
events scheduled for this week in Washington and elsewhere: (If you'd like more insider information about what's happening on Capitol Hill for farm, food and rural issues, sign up for a free trial subscription to Agri-Pulse: http://www.agri-pulse.com/Free-Trial.asp )
Monday, Sept. 7
Labor Day
Tuesday, Sept. 8
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman meets with the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations and with the chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly, Sinh Hung.
11 a.m. - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack appears at National Press Club Newsmaker news conference.
4 p.m. – USDA releases
weekly Crop Progress report.
Wednesday, Sept. 9
All day - National Rural Assembly, Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill.
All day - Meeting
of USDA’s National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods, Residence Inn by
Marriott, 333 E St. SW.
9 a.m. - USDA
releases annual Household Food
Security in the U.S. report.
9:45 p.m. - Vilsack
speaks at the National Rural Assembly.
10 a.m. - House Science, Space and Technology Committee hearing on the EPA and the Animas River spill, 2318 Rayburn.
Thursday, Sept. 10
All day - National
Rural Assembly.
All day - National
Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods.
Vilsack tours the
University of Illinois energy farm at Champaign and hosts a national press call
to make an announcement on biofuels.
8:30 a.m. – USDA releases Weekly Export Sales.
10 a.m. - House
Science, Space and Technology subcommittee hearing on vulnerabilities of U.S. power supply, 2318
Rayburn.
Noon - Cato
Institute sponsors panel on “E-Verify: The Impact
of National Employment Verification on Work, Privacy, and Liberty,” B-340 Rayburn.
Friday, Sept. 11
All day - National
Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods.
Vilsack speaks at Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food funding conference in Chicago, hosted
by USDA’s Rural Development
office in Illinois, the Illinois Farm Bureau and others.
9 a.m. - House
Space, Science and Technology subcommittee hearing, “State Perspectives: How EPA’s Power Plan Will
Shut Down Power Plants, 2318 Rayburn.
Noon - USDA
releases Crop Production report and World Agricultural
Supply and Demand Estimates.
(Jeff Nalley contributed to this report.)
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