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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
The House Appropriations Committee advanced a $27.2 billion spending bill for the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration that would provide significant new funding for conservation technical assistance, rural broadband and food safety.
The Agriculture Department would get $560 million more for rural broadband expansion, plus increases for research, food aid and combating animal and plant diseases, under a draft House spending bill for fiscal 2023.
The Biden administration is rolling out private sector commitments for an effort it says could lower the cost of high-speed internet for 40% of the households in the country.
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’s proposed budget for fiscal 2023 that would boost Agriculture Department spending by 9%, including significant increases for agricultural research and conservation technical assistance and a new round of funding for rural broadband expansion.
Congressional leaders announced agreement early Wednesday on a $1.5 trillion, government-wide spending bill for fiscal 2022 that includes new funding for rural broadband expansion and authorization of a cattle contract library at USDA to address concerns about market power in the beef sector.
In this opinion piece, Betsy Huber with the National Grange discusses the need to allocate broadband funding appropriately to reach the last mile of rural America.
The House ventures into the debate over livestock pricing this week, taking up a bill that would require USDA to compile data on cattle contracts, while congressional Democratic leaders try to find a way to raise the debt ceiling and finalize a Senate deal on their Build Back Better plan.
In part two of our articles on efforts to rebuild Rural America, we look at how rural leaders are looking at new ways to attract employees to live and work in small towns.
The Department of Agriculture is offering a fresh round of funding through its ReConnect program aimed at expanding broadband availability in rural areas.