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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Saturday, June 25, 2022
The federal government’s Drought Resilience Interagency Working Group is helping coordinate the distribution of $13 billion provided by the infrastructure bill as drought continues to hammer western communities.
The Interior Department is doling out more than $240 million for repairs to aging water infrastructure in the drought-ridden West, one of the first investments with ramifications for agriculture in the $1.5 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law enacted last year.
The Biden administration plans to use the month of April to highlight the investments and initiatives included in the 2021 infrastructure package, including a Monday event in Colorado aimed at forest fire management and a Tuesday visit to an Iowa ethanol plant.
President Joe Biden has signed proclamations to expand the perimeters of several national monuments, a move that will alter the management of millions of acres of western lands.
The House is close to finishing work on a seven-bill package of fiscal 2022 spending measures needed to fund USDA, EPA and other departments and agencies important to agriculture.
The Biden administration has been filling positions relatively quickly at departments and agencies other than USDA that have regulatory authority over agriculture, while some of Donald Trump’s nominees to similar positions ran into troubles during the confirmation process.
Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow is expressing optimism that the Senate will pass the Growing Climate Solutions Act today. But the Senate will first debate an amendment by Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee that would weaken a critical provision of the legislation, which is intended to speed development of ag carbon markets.
The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee and Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack are taking exception to the white farmers who are challenging a debt relief program for minority producers.
