SENATE PASSES $40B IN AG CASH: The Senate on Sunday passed the Inflation Reduction Act along party lines — a massive climate, tax and healthcare bill packing a nearly $40 billion agriculture title. What's new: Senate Democrats made a few last-minute ag-facing additions to the bill. First, they added $4 billion for drought resilience, which would be directed to the Bureau of Reclamation. Democrats also snuck in $3.1 billion in relief funds for "distressed" borrowers of USDA loans and $2.2 billion to administer aid to farmers who have experienced discrimination from USDA before Jan. 1, 2021. What's old: The bill would dump $20 billion into various existing oversubscribed USDA agriculture programs to reduce environmental impact. This includes: — $8.45 billion for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) — $6.75 billion for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) — $3.25 billion for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) — $1.4 billion for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) It also seeks to bolster rural clean energy and economic growth with a $14 billion spend in rural development. This includes: — $9.7 billion in grants and loans to dole out to rural electric cooperatives for renewable energy projects — $1.965 billion to the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) — $1 billion for forgivable Section 317 loans for electric generation from renewable energy resources for resale to rural and nonrural residents — A provision for direct pay credits for rural electric cooperatives investing in renewables, which would bring the tax-exempt entities into parity with for-profit counterparts that have reaped renewable energy tax credits for years — $500 million for biofuels infrastructure And, the bill funds $5 billion for fighting wildfires and boosting carbon sequestration projects via climate-smart forestry. Heard from the lobby: Jim Mulhern, the CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, said the bill is a "game-changer" and "will better position dairy farmers to effectively implement the dairy sector's Net Zero Initiative and fulfill its 2050 environmental stewardship goals." A number of ag groups also praised the biofuels provisions. However, the American Farm Bureau Federation was opposed to the bill, with president Zippy Duvall saying it "has serious concerns about the proposed increase in taxes on American businesses at a time when the country is entering a recession." AMAZON'S NEWEST PLAY: This spring, the company's senior officials and in-house lobbyists held discussions about infant formula with lawmakers on Capitol Hill and officials from the federal government, Meredith and Marcia reported over the weekend . Amazon lobbyists also discussed online purchasing restrictions for federal nutrition benefits — which are used to buy at least half of the country's formula and billions of dollars worth of other groceries — with officials across the White House, FDA and other parts of the federal government, people familiar with those conversations say. Context : Amazon's foray into formula lobbying shows how the e-commerce giant stands to benefit from the industry shake-up that the ongoing formula shortages have triggered, particularly the potential to draw a larger share of the billions in federal dollars that go to programs designed to help close to 50 million lower-income Americans. That could allow Amazon to compete more directly with Walmart.com, its biggest e-commerce rival. "Formula is the perfect product for Amazon," said Austin Frerick, deputy director of the Thurman Arnold Project at Yale University, an antitrust law program. Among other things, he noted that it's non-perishable and valuable for attracting return customers — something the company, which currently controls just over 2 percent of the U.S. grocery market, could use. "I think they want a bigger food play and more of your food dollar," Frerick added. "Because that's what Walmart has." Amazon stands to gain: Although the government has enabled SNAP users to spend those dollars online, WIC — a federal program used to buy about half of all baby formula — can currently only be used in-store. The USDA budget for nutrition, which covers WIC and SNAP, totals more than $130 billion per year, billions Amazon wants to unlock for online spending. GLOBAL FOOD PRICES COOL, SLIGHTLY: After hitting an all-time high in the immediate aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, food prices have been slowly coming down since, POLITICO's Eddy Wax reports. Details: In July, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's food price index recorded its steepest drop since prices started falling, losing 8.6 percent compared to June, with the cost of vegetable oils, cereals, sugar, meat and dairy all falling. Prices also dipped slightly after the announcement of a U.N.-led agreement to protect Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports late last month. The FAO said the Black Sea agreement has contributed to wheat prices dropping 14.5 percent, while prices for all cereals dropped 11.5 percent between June and July. However, cereals prices remain some 17 percent higher than they were this time last year, and wheat prices in particular are some 25 percent higher.
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