Ag Policy Blog

Using $10.7 billion in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, USDA on Tuesday will lay out two new loan and grant programs for rural electric cooperatives and other rural power providers. The projects will look to help rural areas convert more energy to low-carbon...

When former U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, was in Congress he tried multiple times to get language in what became the 2014 and 2018 farm bills that would have prevented states from blocking agricultural products from outside their state if those products had been approved by...

The four principal leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees came out of a meeting Thursday with President Joe Biden and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issuing identical 86-word statements declaring they are going to push ahead for a "2023 farm bill."

Politico reported earlier Wednesday that President Biden had invited the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Agriculture committees to come to the White House to discuss the farm bill.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack launched the AIM for Climate initiative at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November 2021. He is co-hosting a summit this week with the minister of climate change and environment in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In...

The Republican senators stated in their three-paragraph letter to Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., that they would not vote for cloture on any bill that raises the debt ceiling "without substantive spending and budget reforms." They did not detail any specific cuts.

The U.S. Senate voted 50-48 to support a resolution overturning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) rule that lists the lesser prairie chicken as a "threatened" species in parts of Kansas, Colorado and Oklahoma while also designating the bird as "endangered" in parts of...

The Biden administration "dipped into billions from the CCC" for programs "that were not within the scope of eligibility, I don't believe," said Rep. Glenn "GT" Thompson, R-Pa., referring to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's $3.1 billion Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative. Still...

USDA is providing loan payment relief as part of $3.1 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act to help distressed farm-loan borrowers. Since the IRA passed last fall, USDA stated the department has provided roughly $1.1 billion in aid to more than 20,000 distressed farm-loan...

The White House on Tuesday officially declared President Joe Biden would veto the House debt limit bill if it reaches his desk. The House bill rolls back tax credits for a long list of renewable energy programs from the Inflation Reduction Act, including multiple tax credits for...

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Wednesday introduced the Limit, Save and Grow Act, with a long list of GOP demands to raise the national debt limit by $1.5 trillion. Among the provisions, the bill would repeal several green-energy tax credits that were extended or...

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., outlined a one-year increase in the debt-ceiling in a speech to the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. McCarthy sought to paint President Joe Biden as unwilling to negotiate as the president has called on Congress to raise the debt...

EPA's administrator will testify next Wednesday before a House Agriculture Subcommittee while the chair and ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee are seeking more money to write the next farm bill.

The Biden administration on Wednesday made its most aggressive move toward pushing the country to electric vehicles with EPA proposals for tighter vehicle emission standards for both light- and medium-duty vehicles, as well as heavy-duty trucks used in construction and hauling...

With roughly 80% of agriculture relying on reliable rainfall to produce a crop, non-irrigated agriculture will face greater challenges in a warmer climate with shifting rain patterns, American Farmland Trust cites. Projected yield losses will cross with the need to increase food...

President Joe Biden on Thursday vetoed a Congressional Review Act bill that had passed Congress in March and would have forced EPA to withdraw the latest iteration of the Clean Water Act waters of the U.S. rule. The president of the American Farm Bureau Federation criticized...

Lawmakers from both parties are dropping bills they hope become markers for the next farm bill debate. Senators in North and South Dakota have introduced a bill to change how USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service handles wetland determinations. House members...

The Biden administration announced $1 billion in REAP funding on Friday with USDA opening a series of quarterly application windows over the next two years for grants as well as a continuous application window for guaranteed loans.

USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) on Thursday announced it would expand Margin Protection plans for farmers in 1,255 counties for soybeans and 1,729 counties for corn production. The expansion will happen for the 2024 crops.

Senators voted Wednesday to overturn the waters of the U.S. rule in the EPA under the Congressional Review Act, following a House vote earlier this month. President Joe Biden is expected to veto the measure, but waters of the U.S. will continue to be a complicated political rule...