Weekly Food & Agriculture Update 9.9
WEEKLY FOOD & AGRICULTURE UPDATE
September 9, 2019
A quick look at what’s happening in Washington, D.C. that’s impacting food and agriculture. If you would like to subscribe to the receive the updates right to your inbox, please contact Marissa Dake.
Big Picture Outlook
by Tara Smith
As children head back to school – complete with new backpacks and shiny new sneakers (do the kids even still call them that?) – Congress, too, is headed back to the grind. After five weeks of recess filled with Codel’s abroad, town halls back home, and maybe a family vacation here and there, Congress reconvened in Washington, DC on September 9.
They will have to hit the ground running in order to meet one of the most pressing issues – funding the government past the September 30 fiscal deadline. As you may recall, the House has already passed 10 of the 12 FY 2020 appropriations bills, with the Legislative Branch and Homeland Security bills outstanding. The Senate, on the other hand, chose not to work on their appropriations bills until after a budget deal was reached and topline numbers could be provided to the various Appropriations Subcommittees. Since a budget deal wasn’t signed until August 2 and recess began the same day, that means the Senate has not yet passed a single appropriations bill. It also means that Senate Appropriations staffers didn’t get much of a “recess” and have spent the last five weeks quickly drafting and negotiating their bills.
The path forward will be an attempt by the Senate to move at lightning speed – not something the Senate is typically known for. In the meantime, the House appropriators have signaled their lack of faith in the speed of the Senate by starting the drafting of a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government funded while the Senate passes their bills and rectifies differences with the House bills. Current expectation is that any CR will buy Congress another 30 to 60 days to package together an appropriations package to take us through the rest of the fiscal year.
But just because the appropriations process is likely to take up most of the oxygen in the halls of Congress, doesn’t mean it’s the only issue legislators are facing this fall. There are a multitude of other pressing issues – some of them with very real deadlines (…) keep reading.
The Week Ahead
- The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will hold a hearing entitled, “Legislating to Connect America: Improving the Nation’s Broadband Maps.”
MTA In Action
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A Quick Look Back
- Report: Farmers Prevented from Planting Crops on More than 19 Million Acres
- Trump White House Seeks to Assuage Farmer Unrest Over Biofuel Policy: Sources
- Philippines Confirms African Swine Fever, Culls 7,000 Pigs
- Trump Confirms Japan Ag Trade Deal
- Trump, EU officials announce deal to sell more American beef to Europe
- How the 2020 Democrats Would Overhaul Farm Policy