Washington Insider-- Wednesday

By DTN's Washington Insider

Here’s a quick monitor of Washington farm and trade policy issues from DTN’s well-placed observer.

Another US Gov’t Shutdown Could Impact USDA Reports, Farm Program Payments

Some Washington analysts and publications think Congress will be unable to reach a budget agreement, nor apparently approve a continuing resolution (CR) measure, in time to halt a government shutdown.

During the last government work halt in 2013, USDA canceled its Crop Production and WASDE reports, and farm program payouts that year were delayed. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has stressed there will be no such development under his watch. But several Republican senators in the 2016 presidential race, some say, may want to use the funding bill as a means to get attention to their conservative agenda.

The last time a shutdown occurred was from October 1 through 16, 2013, which curtailed most routine operations because neither legislation appropriating funds for Fiscal Year 2014 nor a continuing resolution for the interim authorization of appropriation was enacted in time. Regular government operations resumed October 17 after an interim appropriations bill was signed into law.

During the 2013 shutdown, USDA canceled the October Crop Production report, and the WASDE. Farm program payments that year were not made until Oct. 24, 2013. Regarding USDA reports during the shutdown, a USDA spokesman initially said, “NASS will not issue any reports on days the government is shut down. We would assess the timing of any affected report releases after the government shutdown ends.” NASS later canceled the Crop Production report for October – the WASDE was also canceled.

Animal information was also sparse in 2013 during the shutdown, including how many animals were slaughtered, their weights, and how much meat was put on the market, and the prices paid by wholesale buyers.

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Heavier Trucks Could Be Allowed on Interstate Highways

Heavier trucks could be allowed on interstate highways, under a House proposal by Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wis., that would increase the allowable gross vehicle weight limit. The proposal would give states authority to increase allowable weight limits on interstates from 80,000 pounds to 91,000 pounds, as long as the vehicle has six axles and meets configuration standards.

The Coalition for Transportation Productivity, a coalition of shippers and manufacturers, has been pushing Congress to increase the maximum weight allowed on Interstate highways. That group has said it supports the weight increase for six-axle vehicles. The American Trucking Associations has long supported increasing allowable truck weights.

But trucking groups are not unanimous in their support. Lane Kidd, a spokesman the Trucking Alliance for Driver Safety and Security, a group of trucking companies that have voiced opposition to extending trailer lengths, was critical. “Alliance transportation companies are working to pass laws and regulations that can mean higher wages and a safer work environment for truck drivers, and neither longer double trailers or heavier truck weights would likely do either,” Kidd said.

Lane also said truck drivers nationwide don’t support longer heavier trucks. “But unfortunately the market pressures if these proposals pass may not give them a choice,” he said.

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Washington Insider: Full Congressional Agenda

Now that Congress is back, it is getting plenty of advice about how to do the nearly impossible—quickly. Lawmakers have scheduled only 12 legislative days in which to find a bipartisan compromise to keep the government open, vote on one of the most contentious foreign policy matters in recent years, reconcile the future of funding for Planned Parenthood and roll out the red carpet to receive Pope Francis—among other things.

Finally, the dispute over the Iran nuclear accord seems to be drawing to a close and a resolution to disapprove the deal will be debated in both chambers this week. Democrats say they have 36 votes in the Senate backing the accord, and will try to add five more. Experts suggest that this means that the Iran accord will go into effect.

The other major fight is over spending. Congress must either come to a broad new agreement that lifts current legal spending caps as President Obama wants, or pass a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government open for the rest of the fiscal year after current spending laws expire on Oct. 1. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told the press last week that he expects a continuing resolution.

However, some conservative Republicans say they will oppose any spending bill that provides federal health care money to Planned Parenthood which they charge illegally profits from sale of tissue from aborted fetuses to researchers—a charge Planned Parenthood denies.

The Republicans, who now are trying to shift Planned Parenthood funds to other health clinics used similar tactics in 2013, when they refused to vote for a bill that did not include the delay of the Affordable Care Act and a repeal of a tax to pay for it, leading to a 16-day government shutdown. Republicans also tried to stop the President’s executive actions on immigration by threatening the funding of the Department of Homeland Security. Both efforts failed for lack of support from Democrats and President Obama.

This fight is being promoted by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a Republican candidate for president. However, critics suggest that Republicans have no alternative strategy should their plan to defund Planned Parenthood pass the House but fail to get the support it needs in the Senate or from the White House--which happened last time.

“In 2013 we offered no alternatives to Obamacare,” said Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., who has spent the recess drumming up support for the plan. He said that while earlier budget hostage efforts offered no alternatives to the president’s plan, but moving Planned Parenthood money to other women’s health clinics that do not provide abortion services is both “good policy and good politics.”

While both McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, have repeatedly said there would not be another government shutdown, they must decide if they want to go through the exercise of trying to use the spending bill to attack Planned Parenthood and go to the brink once again.

There is another factor at play now in the form of strong Republicans support for lifting the spending caps for defense—a change Democrats say they will not make unless other domestic spending gets a lift, too. And, the president says he will veto spending bills that do not raise caps on domestic spending.

There also is at least a suggestion of bipartisan support for getting rid of the sequester altogether, a shift the Congressional Budget Office recently estimated would create 500,000 new jobs in 2016.

And, there’s more. By the end of the year, Congress needs to find a way to fund the nation’s highway program, deal with some tax measures and then return to the broader, longer-term spending question—certainly a full agenda.

For now however, many observers suggest that there is strong interest it just keeping the government going, with as little drama as possible. “I am very concerned,” said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Penn. “I don’t think we need to go do a replay of 2013. It would be an enormous tactical and strategic blunder.” And, if the leadership has its way, that is probably what will happen. Still, even that low bar for success may involve a difficult and contentious fall political season, Washington Insider believes.

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(GH/CZ)

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