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A backed-up food supply chain and a bottlenecked legislative process await senators as they return to Washington next week, and the desires for the next round of coronavirus assistance are already piling up.

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign is gearing up a rural campaign effort that’s designed to look more like Barack Obama’s winning campaign in 2008 than Hillary Clinton’s historically poor showing in rural districts that cost her critical swing states.

The number of people facing hunger is on the rise around the world because of the global COVID-19 crisis, and humanitarian organizations and farm groups are pushing for the Trump administration to boost donations of rice, wheat and other commodities.

An executive order expected to be signed Tuesday at the White House would call on meatpacking plants to remain open during the coronavirus pandemic, but critics say it is forcing workers back into a dangerous environment.

The leader of the House Agriculture Committee says he wants to see more money go into USDA’s Commodity Credit Corp., but he’s willing to oppose a funding increase without conditions giving Congress more authority over how the money is spent.

Top lawmakers say Congress is looking at providing more money for payments to farmers to offset losses from the coronavirus pandemic.

Meat and poultry plants continue to close because of COVID-19 as fears grow of possible shortages.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Friday sent official notice to Congress that the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement will be ready for implementation on July 1, the final step in the long process that will ensure that most agricultural tariffs between the three countries remain at zero.

The Small Business Administration on Monday will start accepting new applications for the Paycheck Protection Program, using more than $300 billion in new funding provided by a coronavirus relief bill President Donald Trump signed into law Friday.

More than 30 Republican and Democratic House members are proposing to include an additional $50 billion in aid to farmers in the next COVID-19 economic relief bill.