Ben Nuelle

The Senate Agriculture Committee’s top Democrat is insisting the next coronavirus relief bill contain more money for food assistance.

The Trump administration’s rewrite of National Environmental Policy Act regulations “upends virtually every aspect of NEPA and its longstanding practice, contradicts decades of court interpretations of NEPA’s mandates, and undercuts the reliance placed on NEPA by the public, decisionmakers, and project proponents,” a lawsuit filed Wednesday says.

Agreement on a new coronavirus relief package could be several weeks away, but a key GOP senator is signaling some give on one major sticking point in the negotiations.

A key senator involved in developing the Republican coronavirus relief package for farmers defended the broad authority it gives to USDA to spend $20 billion in farm aid, but he said the Trump administration likely will need to provide assurances about how the money will be spent.

We’ve been telling you for days that Senate Republicans want to give USDA maximum flexibility in how to do the next round of coronavirus relief. And that’s exactly what the new GOP proposal would do.

After several days of delay, Senate Republicans today are supposed to take the wraps off their $1 trillion coronavirus relief package.

We have some more clarity on the Senate GOP plan for helping farmers cope with the coronavirus, although Republicans were unable to roll out their full bill on Thursday as originally planned.

The House takes up legislation today to fund USDA, FDA and other agencies for fiscal 2021, and Democrats will use the debate to target President Donald Trump’s effort to address the coronavirus-related slowdowns in meatpacking.

Democrats and Republicans are a long way yet from agreeing on a new coronavirus relief package. But a member of the Senate GOP leadership, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, tells Agri-Pulse the Republican proposal will include $20 billion in new spending authority for USDA under its Commodity Credit Corp. account.