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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Major farm states are likely to lose influence in the U.S. House because of population shifts that are expected to result in lost seats across the Midwest as well as in Pennsylvania and New York.
Joe Biden is planning to start issuing a series of executive orders addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and other challenges, starting Wednesday as he take office as the 46th president in a capital city fortified like a war zone.
Lawmakers have their focus on impeachment for now, but Democratic leaders are likely to try to pivot quickly over the next weeks as President-elect Joe Biden takes office. Climate policy as well as immigration and tax reform will be on the agenda for the Senate.
Prices for many commodities have risen sharply to levels not seen in several years. But the president of the nation’s largest farm group, the American Farm Bureau Federation, isn’t ruling out seeking additional federal relief in 2021.
The 117th Congress is officially underway with the swearing in of new members Sunday. The House includes a number of new members who could play a role in shaping food and agriculture policy, considering its importance to their districts.
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.
For the second straight year, Democrats threatened but ultimately backed down from blocking Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue from getting a fresh pot of money to make payments to farmers.
A new bill would ban two widely used classes of pesticides and allow citizens to petition the Environmental Protection Agency for designations of pesticides as “dangerous,” which could lead to suspension of their registrations.