A pair of fiscal 2020 spending packages that will boost farm disaster relief, extend the biodiesel tax subsidy and bolster ag inspections at ports and airports easily cleared Congress on Thursday.

The House overwhelmingly approved the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on a 385-41 vote Thursday, sending the new North American trade pact to the Senate, where it should pass easily early next year.

Mexico is withdrawing its objection to a labor provision in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that threatened to derail the USMCA approval process, which is expected to take a major step forward this week in the U.S. House of Representatives.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says negotiations to bring the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement to the House floor are ongoing, but procedural steps required once a deal with the Trump administration is secured could push a vote into the new year.

The Senate on Thursday cleared legislation raising the limit for farms to qualify for reorganizing their debts under agricultural bankruptcy law.

The Trump administration is in a hurry for Congress to ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, but many House Democrats showed Wednesday at a hearing that they won’t be hurried as they contemplate changes to the renegotiated North American trade pact.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt spent his Thursday either deflecting blame or pledging to do better as he answered questions from two panels of House members.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3, 2017 - The House GOP tax bill’s new rules for partnerships and other “pass-through” small businesses, together with new requirements for paying self-employment taxes, could significantly offset some of the legislation’s benefit to farms, experts say.