Philip Brasher

Government payments to farmers are forecast to hit their highest level in more than a decade because of the trade assistance being provided to producers this year, and the total could go even higher if Congress, as expected, authorizes a new round of disaster aid.

The government is reopening for at least three weeks and the Agriculture Department plans to jump-start work on implementation the 2018 farm bill, a task that was interrupted just as it was beginning in December.

President Donald Trump agreed Friday to end the five-week-old partial shutdown of USDA and other major departments and agencies, essentially bowing to demands from Democrats that the government reopen while negotiations on border security continue.

The budget impasse that has closed down most of USDA and other agencies important to agriculture for more than four weeks reaches a new stage this week as Senate Republicans force a vote on President Donald Trump’s latest proposal to congressional Democrats.

A House-Senate agreement on USDA’s fiscal 2019 budget includes non-binding language that raises concerns about the cost of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s plan to move the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture out of the nation’s capital.

A supplemental appropriations bill that includes $3 billion in agricultural disaster aid passed the House over Republican opposition on Wednesday after Democrats attached a provision that would reopen the government without resolving the impasse with President Donald Trump.

Iowa Rep. Steve King, who represents one of the most agriculturally intensive districts in the nation, is being stripped of his House committee assignments, including senior positions on the Agriculture and Judiciary panels, as punishment for his latest racially insensitive comments.