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Democrats struggling to deal with voter concerns about inflation are using a cattle markets reform bill to make the case that corporate CEOs are to blame for rising prices.

With the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 advancing quickly in Congress, shipping experts have begun to turn a critical eye toward the Federal Maritime Commission – the agency responsible for regulating overseas trade.

The Biden administration has all but ruled out tariff-slashing market access deals when it comes to its proposed Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, but the U.S. ag sector still hopes the agreement will include a trade pillar that boosts exports to rapidly growing markets that are home to a patchwork of regulatory restrictions and non-tariff trade barriers.

Legislation that would bring sweeping reforms to the way cattle are bought and sold had its day on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, but the bill’s prospects going forward remain bogged down in the complicated politics of the beef industry and Capitol Hill.

Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse, a GOP leader of congressional efforts to curb foreign influence in U.S. agriculture, has returned $17,500 in campaign donations to political action committees representing the Chinese-owned agribusiness companies Smithfield Foods and Syngenta.

Leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees say farmers’ repeated need for disaster assistance will be an issue as lawmakers write the next farm bill.

Agricultural shippers should not have to pay the price for increasingly unreliable railway service that is pushing American farmers and ranchers to the breaking point, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Jewel Bronaugh said Tuesday at an emergency hearing held by the Surface Transportation Board.

Members of the Senate Agriculture Committee queried a long list of witnesses Tuesday to determine whether or not a pair of bills before the panel would advance competition concerns for the nation’s beef producers.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is headed to Germany next month for meetings with the other G7 agriculture ministers.

Ahead of a key Senate hearing this week, economists at Texas A&M University have finished their analysis of a revised bill that would mandate levels of cash trading in the cattle markets.