The budget impasse that has closed down most of USDA and other agencies important to agriculture for more than four weeks reaches a new stage this week as Senate Republicans force a vote on President Donald Trump’s latest proposal to congressional Democrats.

A House-Senate agreement on USDA’s fiscal 2019 budget includes non-binding language that raises concerns about the cost of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s plan to move the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture out of the nation’s capital.

New Democrats on the House Agriculture have been announced, giving the committee a handful of new members with both urban and rural backgrounds. 

A new report published Wednesday urges a “radical transformation of the global food system," recommending humans cut their red meat and sugar consumption in half and eat a diet much heavier in plant-based foods.

A supplemental appropriations bill that includes $3 billion in agricultural disaster aid passed the House over Republican opposition on Wednesday after Democrats attached a provision that would reopen the government without resolving the impasse with President Donald Trump.

EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler plans to issue a rule allowing year-round use of E15 by the summer driving season, provided the government shutdown ends in a “reasonable” length of time.

About half the Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency offices will reopen temporarily during the government shutdown, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced Wednesday.