The House is back

Presented by the National Pork Producers Council: Delivered every Monday by 10 a.m., Weekly Agriculture examines the latest news in agriculture and food politics and policy.

Sep 11, 2023 View in browser   By Garrett Downs Presented by With help from Meredith Lee Hill  QUICK FIX — The House gavels back in this week for the first time after a raucous end to the July session that saw the lower chamber’s Agriculture-FDA appropriations bill implode before the Rules Committee had a chance to vote on it. The chamber has little time to work out a stopgap spending measure to avert a government shutdown. — Meanwhile, the farm bill timeline remains a moving target as appropriations take center stage. —  MA caught up with the American Soybean Association to discuss the trade group’s top priorities for the upcoming farm bill. IT’S MONDAY, Sept. 11. Welcome to Morning Ag. I’m your host, Garrett Downs. Send tips to gdowns@politico.com and @_garrettdowns, and follow us at @Morning_Ag. A message from the National Pork Producers Council: Pass a farm bill that supports livestock farmers — this will allow lawmakers to prioritize funding to prevent devastating foreign animal diseases (FADs) from entering the United States. Pigs, farms, and the American food supply are at risk with FADs like African swine fever posing an increasing threat — that’s why it’s imperative for lawmakers, regulators, and the U.S. pork industry to work together to protect farmers’ livelihoods and the food supply. Visit www.NPPC.org/ProtectPork   Driving the day THE HOUSE IS BACK: The House gavels back in this week after a raucous end to the July session that saw the lower chamber’s Agriculture-FDA appropriations bill implode. As of Sunday, the committee has not given notice of a new time to consider the bill and remains in recess subject to the call of the chair. House Republicans appear poised to debate other appropriations bills this week, which all undercut spending numbers agreed to by House Republicans and the White House in the deal to raise the debt ceiling. Priorities, priorities: Government funding runs dry after Sept. 30. So, first on Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s long to-do list will be rallying his caucus around a continuing resolution — a stopgap resolution to keep the government funded past Sept. 30 and avoid a government shutdown. That itself will be a major lift. The ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus has vowed to oppose a CR that includes additional aid for Ukraine and doesn’t include a litany of their policy priorities. Democrats and the Senate would prefer a clean extension — a basic extension of last year’s spending bills through early December — that includes $40 billion in additional spending for Ukraine and other requests from the White House. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has backed the Ukraine request. Fear of the hook: Of course, McCarthy could and likely will need to strike a deal with Democrats — who control the Senate — to get a CR across the finish line. He has signaled he would like to include more money for border security in exchange for Ukraine aid. But angering the Freedom Caucus could hold dire consequences for McCarthy thanks to a deal he made to secure the speakership in January. Any one member of the House can begin the process to oust McCarthy, known as a “motion to vacate.”   SUBSCRIBE TO CALIFORNIA CLIMATE: Climate change isn’t just about the weather. It's also about how we do business and create new policies, especially in California. So we have something cool for you: A brand-new California Climate newsletter. It's not just climate or science chat, it's your daily cheat sheet to understanding how the legislative landscape around climate change is shaking up industries across the Golden State. Subscribe now to California Climate to keep up with the changes.     Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories. FARM BILL BATTLES MEANWHILE ON FARM BILL TIMING: As we’ve reported, House Ag Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) wanted to circulate text by early September. But now he’s said he won’t release text until GOP leaders schedule a week for the farm bill on the floor. Lawmakers have told Meredith they’d hoped there would be a sliver of floor time in November for the farm bill to hit the House floor. But with a possible government shutdown and rolling appropriations fight ahead — that looks increasingly unlikely. People familiar with the talks tell Meredith it’s unlikely the House farm bill’s text will come out in September, and they add Republicans and Democrats still need to hammer out negotiations around major pieces — including key parts of the nutrition title. In the Senate, the timeline is even further behind amid the looming shutdown and government funding fight. We asked Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) last week about whether the upper chamber’s farm bill text would be ready by November. She replied: “It’s going to be a while.” “There’s some big questions yet to get answered,” she added. As we’ve reported, those big questions center on whether there is any new money available for commodity support programs and other risk management tools for farmers, while Democrats are trying to prevent any efforts to move funding for food assistance and climate-related agriculture programs to other areas of the farm bill.   A message from the National Pork Producers Council:   FARM BILL Q&A SOYBEAN Q&A: MA caught up with Christy Seyfert, the executive director of government affairs at the American Soybean Association, to talk about the group’s farm bill priorities. This interview’s questions and answers have been edited for clarity.  MA: What are ASA’s top priorities for the farm bill? Christy Seyfert: Number one would be improving the Title I farm safety net for soy. We need the farm safety net to be more responsive, to be more predictable. We lived through the China trade war, and it was extremely difficult for farmers to experience a Title I farm safety net that provided very little in terms of the safety net. With geopolitical volatility and the other major market disruptions we've had during the life of this current farm bill, we think it makes a lot of sense to improve this Title I farm safety net to provide a meaningful and predictable safety net for challenging times that might be ahead. Then there are the programs we’d like to protect in the farm bill. One of them is the crop insurance program, it is the most important and effective component of the farm safety net for soybean farmers. It’s got to remain affordable; it’s got to remain effective. We know that there are a number of policymakers who may want to change crop insurance or reprogram crop insurance resources to other priorities. We don't want to see that happen. Checkoff programs would be very important for us to protect as well. The checkoff program provides a very high return on investment. We’ve seen an amendment offered in the Ag-FDA appropriations bill that we are working very hard to defeat because it would take away a lot of farmer-funded support for finding new uses for soy and promoting soy. That’s very problematic not only in the ag approps sense but also in the farm bill. MA: What are soy growers hoping for in terms of farm bill timing and a potential extension? CS: We’re part of the Farm Bill for America’s Families campaign, and we’re all pushing to get the farm bill done by the end of the year. We would love to see that happen. Clearly, the appropriations process will be a significant priority of Congress when they return in September. But my sense is even with those questions out there the committee staff are working hard behind the scenes to be ready when the time is right to unveil a draft and to move forward with committee markups. So I don't feel like the appropriations process has hindered their ability to continue working behind the scenes. We really want, as I mentioned, a new and improved farm bill by the end of the year, but we certainly recognize the challenges that exist to seeing that happen. MA: What can the farm bill do for soybean growers in terms of trade? CS: China is our top destination for soybeans, but that's also the case with many, many other ag products. We want to keep them as a strong commercial trading partner. However, we recognize the need to always diversify and expand our trading opportunities, and so increased resources in the Market Access Program and the Foreign Market Development Program would be extremely helpful.   DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO APP: Stay in the know with the POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS – DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID.     Row Crops — Russia on Saturday stressed again that it was not willing to rejoin the Black Sea grain deal unless its demands are met, our Giorgio Leali reports. — The Senate Agriculture Committee GOP says farm income will see the sharpest decline in recent history. Despite the decline, however, farm income will remain high compared with historical figures. — Few can agree on what regenerative agriculture actually means, The Guardian reports. THAT’S ALL FOR MA! Drop us a line: gdowns@politico.com, meredithlee@politico.com, marciabrown@politico.com, mmartinez@politico.com, abehsudi@politico.com and ecadei@politico.com. A message from the National Pork Producers Council: The U.S. Pork industry delivers more than bacon. American pig farmers provide affordable, sustainable, and healthy food around the world. A pillar of the U.S. economy: • 96% of U.S. pig farms are family-owned. • Pork production adds $57 billion+ to the U.S. economy. • The pork industry supports 610,000+ U.S. jobs. • $7.6 billion of pork was exported in 2022. • Pork exports account for more than 25% of U.S. production. Advocating for all U.S. pork producers, NPPC: • Supports the renewal and expansion of key farm bill programs that protect against foreign animal diseases. • Supports a federal solution to the sweeping issues posed by the Supreme Court’s decision on California Proposition 12. • Advocates for market access negotiations within the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. • Seeks labor reform to improve the H-2A visa program to provide visa access to year-round industries. Visit www.NPPC.org/ProtectPork     Follow us on Twitter Emily Cadei @emilycadei Adam Beshudi @ABehsudi Meredith Lee @meredithllee Garrett Downs @_garrettdowns Marcia Brown @Marcia_Brown9   Follow us

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