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.

Senate Republicans want to advance a fiscal 2020 domestic spending package as soon as this week that would include funding for departments and agencies critical to agriculture and the food industry. Meanwhile, House Democrats are closer to a deal on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement

Producers utilized a listening session featuring two of the most influential men in ag policy to express their displeasure with the state of affairs for rural America, putting them in a mode that varied between explanatory and defensive.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is trying to convince skeptical Democrats that the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement will do enough to address their concerns over drug pricing and enforcement of labor and environmental standards.

With one plant shutting down and others in danger of doing so, the biodiesel industry is sounding the alarm an expired tax credit has moved from a lobbying issue to an imminent threat to business.

The government shutdown is now in effect, but that doesn’t mean USDA officials aren’t still keeping the nation’s meat supply safe and doing many of the jobs that keeps agricultural commerce flowing. However, some farm payments may be delayed after the first week.