Feds scramble amid bird flu crisis

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

Apr 29, 2024 View in browser   By Grace Yarrow and Meredith Lee Hill QUICK FIX — Biden administration officials are rushing to avert a major public health crisis and a devastating economic blow to the U.S. dairy sector following the detection of bird flu particles in the nation’s milk supply. — FIRST IN MA: Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is pushing to withhold some federal financial support to Mexico unless the U.S. receives water guaranteed under a 1944 treaty. — EXCLUSIVE: Western state lawmakers are urging USDA to invest in drought relief and resilience, amid jockeying over drought funding in the farm bill. HAPPY MONDAY, APRIL 29. We’re your hosts Grace Yarrow and Meredith Lee Hill. Send scoops and banana bread recipes to gyarrow@politico.com and meredithlee@politico.com and follow us at @Morning_Ag.   THE GOLD STANDARD OF POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries—finance, defense, technology, healthcare, energy—equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists. Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced, and better sourced than any other—with teams embedded in the world’s most active legislative and regulatory power centers. From Brussels to Washington, New York to London, Sacramento to Paris, we bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY.     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 BIRD FLU RESPONSE: USDA has issued new guidance to states detailing testing requirements and restrictions on the movement of dairy cows under a new federal order that goes into effect today. The department told states that “while it is still unclear exactly how virus is spreading, the virus is shed in milk at high concentrations.” The FDA said Friday that it hasn’t found any live virus in a limited batch of the milk samples that initially tested positive for bird flu particles. As we’ve reported, the CDC wants to deploy federal response teams to farms across the country in order to survey the health of dairy cows and farm workers in person, according to two state agriculture officials. The CDC has conveyed some flexibility in conducting those surveys, which are 20 pages long, amid feedback from several state agriculture officials who’ve made clear they’d like that work done in another setting, not on the farms. 2024 implications: Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and other key Democrats in tough races this fall have raised concerns about the need for the federal government to readily address the outbreak and get its response right. The dairy industry across Wisconsin and the upper Midwest is already operating under razor-thin margins. The Dairy State in particular has already been hit by the loss of thousands of farms in recent years, leading to further consolidation in the sector. Hill response: The response will likely be a major issue for Congress to tackle in the upcoming FY 2025 spending talks. USDA can also tap internal funding for new emergency spending on testing. farm bill THE HOUSE DRAFT: The House farm bill draft is set to boost animal disease detection and response programs generally, but isn’t expected to include any new major provisions for avian influenza by itself, people familiar with the bill tell Meredith. Farm bill talks in the House are at a standstill, with G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) set to unveil his farm bill draft in the latter half of May as we’ve reported. Agriculture commodity groups as a whole are very supportive of the bill’s boost to farm programs, including crop insurance, reference prices and trade promotion, among other pieces. Unlike Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow’s (D-Mich.) proposal, the House farm bill won’t make producers choose between more affordable crop insurance and other farm safety net programs. Keep an eye on: House Ag ranking member David Scott’s (D-Ga.) team is privately asking key commodity and farm groups to avoid putting new public pressure on House Ag Democrats ahead of the upcoming farm bill markup, especially on the bill’s farm safety net provisions that are widely supported by commodity groups. Vulnerable Democrats in rural districts are weighing whether to break with their party over the bill, as we’ve noted. Several Democratic lawmakers have privately told us that there’s likely to be at least a few Democrats, and possibly more, who are set to vote for the GOP-led bill when it comes up in committee next month. Campaign trail: Meanwhile, the Democratic candidates challenging Scott in his GA-13 district in the upcoming primary discussed key issues in the race’s first debate yesterday, including questioning Scott’s ability to “show up” for the newly-redrawn district amid questions about his health. Scott, like in recent years, did not participate in the debate. Water Wars FIRST IN MA: Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is working to withhold a portion of U.S. funding for Mexico from the State Department’s budget if Mexico does not release more water as required in a 1944 water treaty, a Cornyn spokesperson confirmed to MA. Cornyn is working with the Senate Appropriations Committee on that request after engaging with Secretary of State Antony Blinken “multiple times” to compel Mexico to deliver the water. Background: As we reported last week, Mexico’s slow delivery of water to the United States under the terms of the treaty is prompting officials and lawmakers to explore new enforcement options, including a new approach from the State Department. DEALING WITH DROUGHT: Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and 30 other lawmakers urged USDA to invest more in drought relief in the western U.S. in a letter first shared with Morning Ag. The group specifically asked for additional resources for water forecasting, water conservation and watershed restoration under the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Forest Service. Farm initiatives to upgrade water infrastructure and build soil health are also critical, they wrote. The Biden administration expressed “significant interest” in supporting drought recovery in 2021, the lawmakers wrote. “We call for the Department to bolster this commitment and use its discretionary authorities to fill gaps or develop new partnerships to improve the efficiency and resilience of the water supply.” Local POV: Pete Kolbenschlag, director of the Colorado Farm & Food Alliance, highlighted the importance of using allocations in the farm bill and Inflation Reduction Act to allow agricultural producers to adapt for long-term drought resilience and water conservation. “The most important thing from our perspective we can be doing is investing in things like watershed resilience, watershed health, and restoring these places so that they have greater capacity to store and boost water systems overall,” Kolbenschlag told MA.   DON’T MISS POLITICO’S ENERGY SUMMIT: The future of energy faces a crossroads in 2024 as policymakers and industry leaders shape new rules, investments and technologies. Join POLITICO’s Energy Summit on June 5 as we convene top voices to examine the shifting global policy environment in a year of major elections in the U.S. and around the world. POLITICO will examine how governments are writing and rewriting new rules for the energy future and America’s own role as a major exporter. REGISTER HERE.     AROUND THE AGENCIES CATTLE REGULATIONS: USDA on Friday announced stronger animal disease traceability regulations for certain cattle and bison to more effectively respond to foreign animal diseases. With the new final rule, the U.S. will be able to request foreign trading partners to recognize disease-free regions rather than cutting off trade with the U.S. as a whole. ‘Tremendous threat’: About 11 percent of the U.S. cattle herd will be affected by the new rule, according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. “Our industry faces a tremendous threat from the risk of a future foreign animal disease on American soil,” NCBA President Mark Eisele said in a statement. Not everyone is happy: Critics of the rule say that the new requirements are “cost-prohibitive” for independent cattle producers and represent “government overreach.” Some GOP lawmakers have also expressed alarm about the plan. “The beneficiaries of this rule are not cattle producers or consumers,” said Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF USA, which represents independent cattle producers. “Instead, this rule is intended to benefit multinational beef packers and multinational eartag manufacturers who will profit at the expense of cattle producers and consumers.” Row Crops — Native American tribes are reversing years of cattle industry consolidation by opening meat processing plants, Investigate Midwest reports. — ICYMI: Officials took a major step toward cracking down on salmonella, one of the most common causes of acute foodborne illness. — Co-chairs of the Congressional Labor Caucus applauded the DOL’s new protections for farmworkers receiving H-2A visas in a statement to MA. THAT’S ALL FOR MA! Drop us a line: gyarrow@politico.com, meredithlee@politico.com, marciabrown@politico.com, abehsudi@politico.com and ecadei@politico.com.   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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