July 9, 2024

Contents

• What We’re Watching
• Notable News
• This Week’s Legislation
• Upcoming Hearings
• Contact the Team

The TAG newsletter will pause for recess next week. We will resume on July 23.

What We’re Watching

Congress 

Appropriations

Congress returns this week after the Fourth of July recess, heading straight into appropriations markups and hearings. This week, the House will markup up the remaining six appropriations bills through the full Appropriations Committee.  The House Interior and Environment and the Energy and Water Development Fiscal Year 2025 bills will be marked up on Tuesday, while the Agriculture-FDA bill will move on Wednesday.

The Interior and Environment bill would provide total funding of $38.478 billion, which is $72 million less than FY24, including a funding cut for the Environmental Protection Agency and rescinds $55 million provided to the Department of the Interior from the Inflation Reduction Act. The Energy and Water Development bill would provide $59 billion, $999 million above FY24, with $24.9 billion allocated to non-defense spending. It also mandates transparency on the implementation of the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) and prohibits modifications to the Corps of Engineers nationwide permits for oil and gas development.

The Ag-FDA bill provides a total of $25.8 billion, 1.3% lower than FY24, with $22 billion for the Department of Agriculture and $6.75 billion for the Food and Drug Administration. The bill includes a provision that would create a pilot program to restrict foods that can be purchased on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as well as rollbacks for poultry and livestock producer regulations, funding for the Food Safety and Inspection Service for meat and poultry inspectors, rejecting funding requests for climate hubs, and additional funding for animal health and specialty crop programs. A full summary can be found here.

The Senate Appropriations Committee will skip Subcommittee markups and move straight to full Committee markups for three bills including the Ag-FDA Fiscal Year 2025 bill on Thursday. Other markups have not been announced yet but are set to continue throughout this month. Despite progress on the FY25 appropriations process in both Chambers, a stopgap funding measure will almost assuredly be needed to hold government funding steady until at least after the November elections.

Presidential Election

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump held a debate on Thursday, June 27 – the first between both candidates this election cycle – and the earliest ever for a Presidential debate. The night kicked off with a question to both candidates on food prices, where President Biden pointed to higher prices from the Trump administration and corporate greed from large food and retailers.

Following President Biden’s debate performance, a number of Democratic members of Congress have called for President Biden to step down. Reps. Angie Craig (D-MN), Don Davis (D-NC), and Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez (D-WA), all vulnerable Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee, have voiced their support for the President to step down ahead of the Democratic National Convention. Other Democratic Senators and members of Congress have held calls with leadership on asking the President to step down, however many members have yet to make a statement. The performance from the debate will continue to take up conversations throughout the remainder of the week as the Republican and the Democratic National Conventions are both approaching soon. 

Administration

SCOTUS Overturns Chevron Deference

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to overturn the Chevron deference doctrine, which required courts to defer to reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes that an agency administers. Rolling back this doctrine will make it harder for any Administration to act on a vast array of policy areas, including environmental protection, public health, workplace safety, and consumer protections. The Chevron doctrine has become a major precedent for lower courts and provided administrations with the authority to issue stronger rulings

OSHA Announces Heat Standard Proposal

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed a new heat standard that would require employers to develop plans for protecting workers from heat. This comes as many parts of the United States are facing record heat waves and affects both indoor and outdoor workers. It would set 80 degrees Fahrenheit as the initial heat trigger and 90 degrees Fahrenheit as the high heat trigger, with different water and cooling standards for each.

SNAP Error Rate Penalties Distributed

The USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) released their Fiscal Year 2023 SNAP Payment Error Rates and has issued financial penalties to states that have not complied. The states that received penalties are Pennsylvania, Maryland, Oregon, Alaska, Hawaii, Washington DC, and Delaware. Error rates are not the same as SNAP fraud – the error rates are representative of how states determine eligibility and benefit amounts from unintentional mistakes. USDA has also included requests for additional funding and policy measures to improve payment accuracy and state administration of the program.  

OIRA Releases Regulatory Agenda for 2024

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has released an updated Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions by agency, which can be found here. It includes rules to be drafted by the agencies in the coming months, which includes climate warming gases, pollution, environmental conservation, food additives, front-of-pack labeling, and food imports.  

USDA Calls for Nominations for the Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee

The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has opened nominations for the Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee, which was established to develop recommendations on issues affecting the produce industry. Nomination packages must be submitted by September 3, 2024.

EPA Raises Atrazine Concentration Equivalent Level

EPA announced the decision to raise the concentration equivalent level of concern (CE-LOC) for atrazine from 3.4 parts per billion (ppb) to 9.7 ppb. The CE-LOC is “the level at which atrazine is expected to adversely affect aquatic plants”, thus being the indicator for when additional mitigations are required when using the chemical. Read more from Agri-Pulse here.

Notable News

• US will gradually resume avocado inspections in conflictive Mexican state, ambassador says – AP News 
• AI is touching your food – maybe most of it – by solving the food industry’s unique supply-chain challenges – Fortune  
• USDA announces $60 million program to combat food deserts -WDTV 
• See how this green hydrogen plant converts water into clean fuel – Washington Post 
• What it means for the Supreme Court to throw out Chevron decision, undercutting federal regulators – AP News 

This Week’s Legislation

• Representatives Wittman (R-VA-01), Dingell (D-MI-06), Kiggans (R-VA-02), and Thompson (D-CA-04) introduced the America’s Conservation Enhancement Reauthorization Act of 2024 which invests into natural resources, wildlife, and habitats.  
• Representative Stefanik (R-NY-21) introduced the Protecting Mothers and Infants’ Access to Milk Act which counters the Biden Administration rule which limited access to milk for the Women, Infants, and Children programs. 
• Representatives Huffman (D-CA-2), Moylan (R-Guam-AL), Case (D-HI-01), and Peltola (D-AK-AL) re-introduced Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act which updates law over federal fisheries management and conservation through the Magnuson-Stevens Act. 

Upcoming Hearings

Tuesday, July 9

• 9:00 AM: House Appropriations will hold a Full Committee markup titled Fiscal Year 2025 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, and Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Bills 
• 10:30 AM: House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce will hold a hearing titled “The Fiscal Year 2025 Federal Trade Commission Budget” 
• 2:00 PM: House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries will hold a hearing over 4 legislative bills titled “Water Rights Protection Act of 2024”; “Nutria Eradication and Control Reauthorization Act of 2024”; “America’s Conservation Enhancement Reauthorization Act of 2024”; and Discussion Draft of “ESA Amendments Act of 2024.” 

Wednesday, July 10

• 9:00 AM: House Appropriations will hold a Full Committee markup titled Fiscal Year 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies, and Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration Bills, and Revised Subcommittee Allocations 
• 2:00 PM: House Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing titled “Examining the Consequences of EPA’s Actions on American Agriculture” 

Thursday, July 11

• 9:30 AM: Senate Appropriations Committee will hold a markup titled “Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2025”, the “Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025”, and the “Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025” 

Contact the Team

Feel free to contact Michael Torrey, Tara Smith, Cassandra Kuball, Barbara Patterson, Katie Naessens, Julie McClure, Nona McCoy, Danielle Nelson, Ashley Smith, Olivia Lucanie, Caroline Snell, Heath Brandt, or Tracy Boyle with any questions or comments.

Food and agricultural organizations that need the right results in Washington, D.C. can trust Torrey Advisory Group to put its relationships, reputation, and expertise to work on your issue. Since 2005, the firm has successfully provided legislative and regulatory guidance, issues management, and association management services to a wide variety of clients. Learn more about us at torreydc.com.