Poll throws cold water on Biden’s rural tour

Presented by the American Heart Association: Delivered every Monday by 10 a.m., Weekly Agriculture examines the latest news in agriculture and food politics and policy.

Nov 06, 2023 View in browser   By Garrett Downs Presented by the American Heart Association With help from Meredith Lee Hill QUICK FIX — A new poll shows President Joe Biden losing support in states where his administration is carrying out a rural barnstorm. Some Senate Democrats told MA what he ought to do. — All four ag corners agree that a farm bill extension is coming. House Ag Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) said he believes the House will still aim to pass its farm bill in December, and told MA his view on “orphan” programs that will lose funding on Jan. 1. — The chair of the House Appropriations Agriculture-Food and Drug Administration subpanel wants to call it quits on his own bill. HAPPY MONDAY, Nov. 6. I’m your host, Garrett Downs. Send tips to gdowns@politico.com and @_garrettdowns, and follow us at @Morning_Ag.   A message from the American Heart Association: The USDA is working to make school meals more nutritious by lowering sodium levels to improve children’s heart health. Congress should reject any effort to undermine school meal nutrition standards, including the attempt to exempt cheese, a major source of excess sodium for kids, from the updated targets. Lawmakers should keep politics out of school meal sodium standards and take the “Cheese Carveout” off the table in the agriculture spending bill. Learn more: www.yourethecure.org/schoolmeals.   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. Driving the day President Joe Biden in Minnesota. | AFP via Getty Images BIDEN’S SWING STATE BLUES: A new poll from The New York Times and Siena College showed Biden losing to former President Donald Trump in key swing states — including those that the administration is blitzing to tout Biden’s rural achievements. The poll did not include Minnesota, where the president kicked off the rural tour last week. But it did include Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona — battlegrounds that key officials are visiting. Biden was trailing Trump in Michigan and Arizona, while holding a slight lead in Wisconsin. Democrats and the rural vote: As your host and Elena Schneider reported last week, Democrats are trying to lose by less in rural counties that Republicans have dominated in recent years. The administration is quick to tout the tens of billions of dollars it has spent on rural communities. The NYT/Siena poll casts doubt on whether that strategy is working. Voters in Michigan, where Deputy Agriculture Secretary Xochitl Torres Small visited last week, favored Trump by a five point margin. Biden also trails by five points in Arizona, where Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm visited to tout spending to build out rural electricity. A little help from his friends: MA caught up with several Democratic senators to discuss Biden’s rural strategy. Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat who has won statewide in Michigan since the 2000 election, said Biden needs to “tell the story [of how] this administration in everything they've done has really focused on small towns, rural America, [and] how do we increase jobs." Asked about her success in rural pockets of Michigan, Stabenow said: “I have been able to get significant support from small towns and rural communities because I connect with them and they know I'm fighting for them and getting things done.” And Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who is up for reelection in Pennsylvania, where Biden trailed Trump by four points in the NYT/Siena poll, said the administration needs to tout its “overwhelming record of investments in rural communities.” “I think it’s important people know that,” Casey said. “You gotta go there ... and you don’t just go there to talk about a record, you go there to listen and learn and to do everything you can to be responsive to their needs.” FARM BILL EXTENSION House Agriculture Committee Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) said the House should be "cautious" with how much it includes in a farm bill extension. | Francis Chung/POLITICO FARM BILL EXTENSION COMING: All four ag corners are now in agreement that an extension of the 2018 bill will be needed this fall, but none of them are giving up on a farm bill this Congress. Stabenow, Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), and Reps. Thompson and David Scott (D-Ga.) have all now called for an extension. While the 2018 bill lapsed in October, lawmakers see Jan. 1 as the true drop-dead date for the farm bill, as that’s when many major programs will revert to permanent law. Scott was the latest to publicly call for an extension. “While we continue the bipartisan effort on the House Agriculture Committee to craft a new farm bill, the extremism and cynicism that has taken hold of the broader House Republican Conference makes a five-year farm bill reauthorization by the year's end increasingly unlikely,” Scott said in a Friday statement. What an extension will look like: Thompson, the chair of the House Ag Committee, told MA he’s still planning to pass a House farm bill in December, in line with Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) plans. But Thompson said an extension will still be necessary as a “bridge” until the Senate finishes its work on the farm bill. Thompson said the House should be “cautious how much we put in an extension,” when asked about whether an extension would include additional funding for so-called “orphan” programs that will run out of funding on Jan. 1. “I don’t think we want to give the appearance that we don’t have a need to actually do our work and get a farm bill done,” he said. “One thing that will be critical from my perspective is the Dairy Margin Coverage [program]. But other things like the orphan programs, I think the incentive should be to do our job.” From the top: Johnson, who is still assembling his team, has yet to dive into detailed planning for the next farm bill, according to the three GOP lawmakers who’ve recently spoken with the new speaker, Meredith reports. But Johnson has been quietly “engaging some members” on farm bill issues, two House Republicans tell Meredith. The pair were granted anonymity to discuss internal conference matters. The new speaker and his team have been surveying some members about their positions on hot-button farm bill issues, including what type of new SNAP restrictions they would support, as GOP leaders try to chart out a path forward, according to one of the Republicans.   A message from the American Heart Association:   APPROPRIATIONS SEASON HARRIS’ VIEW: The House Ag-FDA appropriations bill shouldn’t get another vote on the floor, rather House Republicans should move directly into conference with the Senate, its author Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) told Meredith and our Jennifer Scholtes. What he said: "The House has already not passed the bill," said Harris, chair of the Agriculture-FDA funding panel. "That doesn't mean you don't go to conference with the Senate.” Harris suggested it's pointless for House Republicans to continue trying to advance the bill ahead of bicameral talks. “On the floor? I don’t see a reason to," he said. Why it matters: Harris’ comments run counter to Johnson’s plan to pass all 12 appropriations bills on the House floor. Johnson had proposed creating a working group to reach a consensus on the House’s Ag-FDA bill, which failed on the floor. Harris also appears to be acknowledging the reality that the House bill will never be repaired, due to the rift caused by a rider to block mail-delivery of the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide. Government funding will run out on Nov. 17 without another continuing resolution to keep the lights on until both Houses agree on a new full-year fiscal 2024 funding bill. Row Crops — A federal court tossed the EPA’s decision to ban the use of chlorpyrifos, prompting anger among environmental groups and glee among farm groups. — Democratic lawmakers are pushing for emergency WIC funds in a new CR, Marcia and Meredith report. — Farmers are teaching old tractors how to think for themselves, according to The Wall Street Journal. 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 American Heart Association: More than 90 percent of school-age children consume too much sodium, putting them at risk for high blood pressure and other health problems. Earlier this year, the USDA issued a strong proposal to make school meals more nutritious by lowering sodium levels to improve children’s heart health. Congress should reject any effort to undermine school meal nutrition standards in the agriculture spending bill, including the attempt to exempt cheese from the updated targets. With more than 30 million students eating meals at school each year, lawmakers should prioritize children’s health by taking the “Cheese Carveout” off the table and strengthening school meal nutrition standards. Learn more: www.yourethecure.org/schoolmeals.     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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