Ben Nuelle

A fiscal 2022 funding bill for USDA and the Food and Drug Administration is headed to the full Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill, which was approved Monday evening by the committee’s Agriculture subcommittee, includes about $7 billion in supplemental assistance for farmers who have been affected by drought and other natural disasters.

The Senate's proposed fiscal 2022 funding bill for the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration would provide $7 billion in disaster assistance to cover producers' losses in 2020 and 2021.

Senators spent the weekend finalizing the details of the massive bipartisan infrastructure bill and will now start debating amendments.

USDA is providing a fresh update on its plans for issuing some widely anticipated new regulations.

A bipartisan infrastructure deal is alive and well after the Senate voted 67-32 Wednesday evening to begin debate on the measure. An agreement was reached earlier in the day on the package’s final details.

The House is close to finishing work on a seven-bill package of fiscal 2022 spending measures needed to fund USDA, EPA and other departments and agencies important to agriculture.

President Joe Biden is pushing new rail regulations that lower rates for ag shippers, but the railroads say the rules designed to spur competition among major railroads would increase their costs and ultimately backfire on customers.

The House Agriculture Committee today takes up legislation that would authorize up to $8.5 billion in aid for disasters in 2020 and 2021. The nine-page bill builds on provisions of the temporary WHIP programs that started in the wake of the 2017 hurricanes and wildfires and then expanded as WHIP+ in 2018 and 2019.

Republicans and Democrats both say they are close to wrapping up the final details of a bipartisan infrastructure package for the Senate to consider.

The House Agriculture Committee will vote next week on a bill that would extend a popular ag disaster program, WHIP+, for two years. Lawmakers have been working on revisions to the Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus, which provided assistance to producers for losses in 2018 and 2019.