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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Thursday, April 22, 2021
USDA is re-starting the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program and providing $6 billion in new forms of pandemic aid, tapping additional authority provided by Congress in December.
Ethanol industry advocates will be urging Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, or his likely successor, Tom Vilsack, to provide direct assistance to biofuel producers hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic, even though a new aid package wouldn't require the payments to be made.
Ethanol, corn, and biodiesel groups worry the Environmental Protection Agency will punt finalizing blending targets for the Renewable Fuel Standard to the new administration, which could delay action in a year of massive uncertainty.
Now that a COVID-19 vaccine could be on the horizon, the food and restaurant industry is appealing to the government to prioritize inoculating their workers.
The Environmental Protection Agency is requesting a one-month extension with the Supreme Court before it responds in a case that the agency's leader says has the potential to change how it allocates small refinery exemptions.
The tough farm economy, and the dim prospects for its improvement any time soon, has some lawmakers saying that it’s time to re-think U.S. farm policy.
The White House Office of Management and Budget on Friday completed its review of USDA’s plans to provide farmers with $16 billion in direct payments. That means USDA could announce signup for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program any day.
President Donald Trump’s historic move to ensure meatpackers stay open is being cheered by producers who are facing a collapse in livestock prices and, in some cases, having to kill their animals. But the industry will be closely watched to see whether the action worsens the outbreaks that have killed at least 20 packing plant workers.
Now that President Donald Trump has signed the historic $2 trillion economic relief package into law, work now turns to getting the money out as quickly as possible. “This doesn’t do anybody any good if it takes a long time,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on CBS Face the Nation on Sunday.