WASHINGTON, June 16, 2016 - Republicans are pressing ahead
with election-year fights over the Clean Water Act, the California drought and
other environmental issues as lawmakers took to budget negotiations later this
year. The Senate Appropriations Committee today will debate an
Interior-Environment spending bill that includes a provision blocking the EPA
from implementing its “waters of the U.S.” rule should a court stay be
lifted.
The House Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, advanced its
version of the Interior-Environment bill yesterday after voting over Democratic
objections to include provisions aimed at proving more irrigation water for
California’s Central Valley. The language would roll back some endangered
species protections that have restricted water supplies. Similar provisions are
included in a spending bill for the Army Corps of Engineers.
Vilsack taking hands-off approach to GMO labeling talks. It
appears that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack won’t be intervening in the
Senate’s negotiations over biotech labeling. Vilsack told Agri-Pulse Editor
Sara Wyant during an appearance at Fair Oaks Farm in Indiana yesterday that he
would “continue to do what is most helpful. Sometimes what’s most helpful is
staying out of the way” and letting the senators negotiate and responding to
their questions.
Vilsack didn’t provide any clues as to how close a deal
might be. But he made clear that the farm groups will have to accept some kind
of national labeling standards. The industry can’t take a "position
against mandatory labeling,” he said, because “companies have already made the
decision” to label their products due to the Vermont law that takes effect July
1.
Industry officials are holding a conference call with
reporters today to try to turn up the heat on Senate Agriculture Committee
leaders to reach an agreement.
One of the officials who will be on the call, Chuck Conner,
president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, expressed
frustration earlier this week with the ranking Democrat, Debbie Stabenow of
Michigan. Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran, who talked to co-op officials yesterday,
also pointed the finger at Democrats. Moran said they appeared to be trying to
run out the clock. Stabenow argues that she’s only one vote.
Pressure mounts for House vote on catfish. House
Republican leaders are under bipartisan pressure to schedule a vote on killing
USDA’s catfish inspection program. Some 169 House members have signed a letter to
the leadership asking for a vote on a resolution to kill the rule under which
the program is operating. The Senate approved the resolution of disapproval May
25.
GOP leaders are getting pressure from the other side of the
issue, too. A coalition of food safety and consumer watchdog groups sent a
separate letter to the leadership, arguing that catfish inspection is better
than it was when the Food and Drug Administration had the others. The groups
that signed that letter include Consumers Union and Food and Water Watch.
Whither WOTUS? Looking for a fifth Scotus vote. A
lawyer for the foundation that successfully
challenged the government’s enforcement of the Clean Water Act says
there are likely at least four Supreme Court votes against the WOTUS rule
should the case get there. Todd Gaziano of the Pacific Legal Foundation was
co-counsel for landowners who recently won the right to challenge wetlands
determinations by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The case didn’t directly involve the WOTUS rule, which is
being challenged at the lower court level. But Gaziano says last month’s ruling
showed that the four most conservative justices are clearly frustrated with how
federal agencies are interpreting the Clean Water Act. “We don’t necessarily
know where the fifth vote would come from,” Gaziano said at a forum yesterday
sponsored by his group and the Heritage Foundation.
Deidre Duncan, a lawyer for the coalition of farm and
business groups that is fighting the WOTUS rule, says the Supreme Court
decision will cause the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to “think twice” about
the decisions they make on whether something is a regulated stream or wetland.
School nutrition directors join fight against nutrition
bill. School nutrition directors have been sharp critics of some of the
Obama administration’s child nutrition standards. But the School Nutrition
Association has now united with supporters of the standards to fight the child
nutrition reauthorization bill that Republicans are moving through the
House.
SNA says that a pilot program in the bill that would allow
some states to run meal programs on their own would result in funding cuts that
schools can’t afford. According to SNA and anti-hunger groups, states would
lose at least two different funding streams, a reimbursement for schools that
are certified as meeting federal nutrition standards and a subsidy that schools
receive for students who pay for their own meals.
California would lose an estimated $78 million if it
participated in the pilot, and Texas would give up $72 million. Georgia would
lose another $30 million.
The pilot program was inserted at the bill because of
demands from conservatives who want to get the federal government out of school
nutrition. The legislation has no chance in the Senate, and the School
Nutrition Association’s opposition could cost it some votes in the House, too.
“This is basically an idea that nobody likes,” said Jim Weill, president of the
Food Research and Action Center.
Eric Branstad to lead Trump’s Iowa campaign. Eric
Branstad who ran the ethanol industry’s advocacy effort in Iowa ahead of the
presidential caucuses, will be directing Donald Trump’s campaign in Iowa, reports
National Review. Branstad, the son of Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, told Agri-Pulse in
March that Trump was a “great listener” who asked insightful questions about
the ethanol business before endorsing the Renewable Fuel Standard.
He said it. “I think there is a compromise available.
Folks just have to be willing to give a little bit.” - Agriculture Secretary
Tom Vilsack on the biotech labeling negotiations.
Spencer Chase and Bill Tomson contributed to this
report.
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