Items Tagged with 'Senate Finance Committee'

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai continued her defense of a Biden trade agenda that does not so far include traditional free trade agreements with other nations, but several senators strenuously pushed back, arguing that the U.S. is being left behind on the international stage as China pushes forward with new tariff-slashing pacts.

President Joe Biden will release his fiscal 2023 budget on Monday, just six months before the new budget year begins, while Senate leaders search for a way to move a bill aimed at relieving port bottlenecks.

The Biden administration’s proposed Indo Pacific Economic Framework, an effort to strengthen economic ties and improve trading conditions with countries like India, the Philippines and Vietnam, got some praise during a Tuesday Senate hearing, but much of the time was spent discussing what it would not accomplish - new market access for U.S. ag.

Following a failed attempt by the Trump administration to freeze farmworker wages for two years, the Labor Department is proposing to go back to setting minimum wage rates for foreign workers the same way it had been for 30 years.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott tells Agri-Pulse that he wants to make sure that carbon markets are going to be workable for farmers and won’t harm food production.

House Democrats look to finish pulling together their $3.5 trillion tax and spending package this week, despite a fierce internal struggle over the taxes they need to pay for it and delays in finalizing $94 billion in agriculture provisions.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, a top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, says Democrats can’t pass a tax proposal that is raising alarms with farmers. That includes a transfer tax on inherited assets that would nullify the benefits of stepped-up basis.

After weeks of negotiations, the Senate moved quickly this week to pass a bipartisan infrastructure package Tuesday that was quickly followed by a party line vote early Wednesday morning to advance a $3.5 trillion budget framework.

Democrats on the Senate Agriculture Committee have started meeting privately to start dividing up $135 billion in new spending that would be authorized by the partisan, fiscal 2022 budget resolution the Senate is considering.