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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Sunday, May 12, 2024
Congress returns from a two-week break with the deepening impeachment battle clouding prospects for budget and tax issues important to U.S. .agriculture, and there is continued uncertainty about when lawmakers will take up the U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade agreement.
The Senate is expected to clear a stopgap spending bill this week that will keep the government operating and trade-aid payments flowing to farmers after the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
In its latest effort to shrink enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the Trump administration is proposing to remove up to 3 million people from the rolls by tightening eligibility rules that allow many states to sign up people with incomes that exceed federal limits.
Almost one year ago, a report was published that highlighted astonishing findings: states were abusing federal loopholes to waive food stamp work requirements for as many able-bodied adults as possible.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue suggested to lawmakers that his department could soften the definition of able-bodied adults who are subject to food stamp work requirements, but he declined to budge from a USDA reorganization plan to relocate two research agencies out of the nation's capital.
Less than three months after signing the 2018 farm bill, President Donald Trump proposed a fiscal 2020 budget that would reopen the law to slash crop insurance and tighten commodity program eligibility limits while making deep cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
With President Donald Trump having dropped the threat for now of expanded tariffs, U.S. and Chinese negotiators continue work on details of an agreement that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping could potentially seal later this month in Florida.
Democrats on the Senate Agriculture Committee clashed with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue over his proposal to make it harder for states to get waivers from work requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The Democrats taking over House committees and subcommittees will push back hard against the Trump administration’s environmental policies and put a major focus on climate change, but ag groups will need to find allies on trade and other key issues.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients will receive their February benefits early under an action the Trump administration is taking to ensure it has the money to cover the cost of the assistance during the ongoing government shutdown.
