Items Tagged with 'joe manchin'

Congress heads into an election year with clouds over two major pieces of legislation that are seen as critical to helping farmers benefit from efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Lawmakers also are expected to begin farm bill hearings this year, and they will have to keep the government funded for the rest of the fiscal year.

Some $80 billion in climate-related agriculture funding hangs in the balance as President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats try to save at least part of his $1.7 trillion Build Back Better spending package.

Congressional Democrats are punting the next battle over the debt limit until after the 2022 elections, checking off a key item on their long December to-do list, but chances for moving their Build Back Better bill through the Senate are looking less likely.

In a setback for President Joe Biden's climate priorities, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., withheld his endorsement of the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better bill, saying it would take time to study its long-term cost and potential impact on the economy.

The House Agriculture Committee is set to debate legislation today that would provide major increases in spending for agricultural research, clean energy and conservation programs.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee advanced the nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning to be director of the Bureau of Land Management after a sharply partisan debate over her truthfulness about a 1989 tree-spiking incident on an Idaho national forest.

Senate Democrats are proposing a tariff on carbon-intensive imports that critics say could increase farm production costs and invite retaliation by countries that would see the tax as unfairly protectionist.

Lawmakers return to work with Senate Democratic leaders determined to move both a bipartisan infrastructure package as well as an even bigger, partisan reconciliation bill ahead of the long August recess.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow is working to secure a historic increase in conservation spending as part of a climate and infrastructure package, creating a rift with the panel’s top Republican, who says she is prematurely trying to reshape farm bill programs without GOP input.

President Joe Biden pitches his $2.7 trillion infrastructure package to lawmakers from both parties this week, while Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will testify before House appropriators on the heels of Biden proposing a huge increase in spending for USDA.