Items Tagged with 'Affordable Care Act'

Whole milk would return to school lunch cafeterias under a bipartisan bill set for final congressional action this week in the House as lawmakers wrap up their work for the year. The Senate is expected to confirm the Trump administration’s top agricultural trade negotiator.

Angie Craig, D-Minn., the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, says the $12 billion farmer aid package is just a temporary fix for the farm economy unless President Donald Trump changes his trade policy.

The Trump administration may announce payments to struggling American farmers this week, with producers and lawmakers eager for details on how the aid will be handled. The Senate faces a partisan showdown on extending expiring health coverage subsidies and will consider several nominations important to agriculture.

Both the Senate and House are back at work this week with a backlog of unfinished business and fallout from the government shutdown to tackle.

The longest government shutdown in history is nearing an end after Senate negotiators agreed on a new stopgap spending bill. The Senate voted Sunday night to advance the legislation, clearing the path for approval, despite the opposition of most Democrats. 

Senate negotiators released a stopgap spending bill Sunday evening that would reopen the government and provide full-year funding for the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration. Also this week, the  United States and China take the first steps to climb down from escalating trade tensions.

Farmers who are already navigating a generally weak farm economy are bracing for something else beyond their control – significant increases in health insurance premiums.

The partial government shutdown that has forced the furlough of half USDA’s workforce, including most of the field staff that directly serves farmers, is dragging into another week and may delay the announcement of an emergency farm aid package.