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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Saturday, September 21, 2024
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy meets with President Joe Biden this week as Republicans push for a deal pairing spending cuts with a debt ceiling increase, while the Congressional Budget Office will release new economic projections that could make it easier – or harder – for lawmakers to write a new farm bill.
Most members of the House Agriculture Committee, and many on Senate Ag, face a steep learning curve on farm bill issues, which poses a challenge for ag groups as they try to shape the legislation in coming weeks.
Farmers like Caleb Ragland are missing out on a big part of the farm bill’s safety net, and lawmakers are struggling to figure out what to do about it.
Controlled environment agriculture leaders see legislative updates and regulatory changes as key ways to help the expanding industry deliver local, healthy foods that also offer nutritional, environmental and economic benefits.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow told farm groups Tuesday that costs for fertilizer and diesel fuel have dropped sharply since last year, undermining a key argument the organizations are making for increasing support rates in the major commodity programs.
A Senate Agriculture subcommittee holds two hearings on the farm bill this week, while House members plan to keep getting input on the the legislation while back in their home districts.
Groups representing producers of U.S. row crops are far from united on what Congress should do to improve commodity programs, even as the House and Senate Agriculture committees look to start writing a new farm bill in coming weeks.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson is leaving the door open to trying to tighten SNAP eligibility rules in the farm bill if Republicans fail to get a debt-limit deal with President Joe Biden to expand the program’s work requirements.
House Republicans will try to pass a plan to raise the debt ceiling that would cut domestic spending, expand SNAP work requirements and gut the biofuel and clean energy tax incentives that are the centerpiece of President Joe Biden climate policy.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said Wednesday the debate over SNAP work requirements should take place during the farm bill debate, not as an issue for negotiations over the government’s debt ceiling.