Articles Tagged with ''FDA''

Four Senate Republicans are introducing a bill today that could stop the Labor Department from increasing the wages that farmers must pay H-2A workers in many states. The minimum wage rates are set by an adverse effect wage rate, or AEWR, that the department sets each year based on a USDA survey that typically comes out each November.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., insists that Democratic leaders are on track to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill this week while also reaching agreement on President Biden’s Build Back Better bill.

The House Ag Committee is slated to take up seven pieces of legislation today, including some priority issues for the top two members of the committee.

Laura Batcha, the longtime leader of the Organic Trade Association, plans to step down in the spring of 2022, and Michael Torrey Associates has welcomed Julie McClure to its team as a director of government affairs.

Rod Snyder has been picked to be the Environmental Protection Agency’s new agriculture adviser, and former Rep. Xochitl Torres Small has been confirmed by the Senate to become the Agriculture Department’s undersecretary for rural development.

House and Senate Ag Committee Republicans are urging the Food and Agricultural Climate Alliance to join them in calling on Democrats to hold public hearings ahead of considering ag spending in the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill. Committee Chairman David Scott, D-Ga., has announced a business meeting for Friday to consider the reconciliation package.

The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service is acknowledging that it has a deal that satisfies the European Union’s demands for new import requirements on U.S. dairy.

The Senate's proposed fiscal 2022 funding bill for the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration would provide $7 billion in disaster assistance to cover producers' losses in 2020 and 2021.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow says she’s “very optimistic” that substantial new funding for farm bill conservation programs will be included in the $3.5 trillion spending agreement that Democrats have announced. Stabenow has been seeking $50 billion in new conservation funding to promote climate-friendly farming practices.

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened global hunger, according to a new report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The FAO estimates that as many as 811 million people faced hunger in 2020, an increase of as much as 161 million people over 2019.