Politics

RSS

Undersecretary Richard Fordyce said USDA isn’t in a hiring freeze, as lawmakers pressed him on staffing reductions at FSA and NRCS during a House Ag Committee hearing.

The Trump administration is asking Congress to package year-round E15 and $11.1 billion in additional farmer aid in a nearly $90 billion spending package for the Iran war. 

Only nine states had payment error rates in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program below 6% in fiscal 2025, USDA has announced, which would allow them to avoid paying a portion of SNAP benefits starting in October 2027. Another six, as well as the District of Columbia, were above a higher threshold that gives them a two-year delay.

On the first day of the Great American State Fair Thursday, President Donald Trump will host a White House Rose Garden dinner honoring farmers, ranchers, cattlemen and growers from across the country and featuring appearances by top administration officials and lawmakers. 

Partisan fighting over nutrition aid policy is threatening to derail efforts to pass a Senate farm bill. 

Former officials at USDA who dealt with New World screwworm as it advanced closer to the U.S. push back against criticism of the Biden administration's efforts leveled by Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins. 

The Center for Biological Diversity has sued USDA to release records about potential behind-the-scenes interests of President Donald Trump’s executive order to increase production of glyphosate. 

Senate Agriculture Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., is optimistic on the prospects for E15 and additional farmer aid to pass Congress. 

The Senate Agriculture Committee's five-year "farm bill 2.0" would bolster key farm and rural development initiatives while sidestepping the most controversial food and ag issues of the day. 

 As policy watchers await a draft farm bill from the Senate Agriculture Committee, lawmakers also need to focus on passing year-round E15, weighing in on California’s Proposition 12, and getting more economic aid into the hands of crop growers, American Farm Bureau Federation’s John Newton says. The Trump administration’s record-high biofuel-blending rules are a clear economic win for rural America, says Clean Fuels Alliance America CEO Donnell Rehagen.