Senate negotiators look to finalize and advance a bipartisan infrastructure bill this week, while the House debates a package of appropriations that would sharply increase funding for USDA, EPA and other departments and agencies important to agriculture.

Now that farmers and the companies and consultants who support them have embraced the need for field-level data collection and have adopted myriad methods for gathering it, ag leaders say the industry has reached the critical juncture of figuring out what to do with all that information.

The House Agriculture Committee unanimously advanced a bipartisan bill Wednesday authorizing $43 billion to expand rural broadband service nationwide by dramatically increasing USDA's expiring loan and grant program.

The House is pressing ahead with a partisan infrastructure bill this week at the same time there is uncertainty about the future of a freshly minted, $1.2 trillion agreement between President Joe Biden and a bipartisan group of senators.

House appropriators are proposing to steer new Agriculture Department funding into tackling climate change and expanding rural broadband service under a fiscal 2022 spending bill released Thursday.

President Joe Biden has selected Xochitl Torres Small, a former member of the House Ag Committee, as undersecretary of rural development at the Agriculture Department.

President Joe Biden this week releases his first full budget, detailing both his short-term and long-term spending priorities, while he remains far apart from Senate Republicans on a deal around infrastructure spending.

The Senate Finance Committee is focusing today on how to fund a massive infrastructure package. The witnesses at today's hearing will include Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association, who will be offering some options for structuring funding mechanisms.