Farm Bill Text Released
On Thursday, the House Agriculture Committee finally released the text for their version of the Farm Bill - the omnibus bill that authorizes, inter alia, major agriculture, conservation, and food safety programs generally every five years.
This version of the bill overhauls the conservation title by incorporating the Conservation Stewardship Program into the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. The former gives long-term incentives for farmers for improving conservation practices, while the latter provides financial and technical assistance to implement conservation practices. The House text also increases from 24 million acres to 29 million acres the amount of land available to participate in the Conservation Reserve Program, though it limits the total payments for land rentals under the program to 80% of county rates.
Prospects for the bill's passage are murky. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway said he was optimistic about passing the bill out of the House and Paul Ryan also put his support behind the text. The Agriculture Committee's Ranking Member, Collin Peterson, has repeatedly expressed doubt that the bill could make it out of the House and Nancy Pelosi has been whipping a "no" vote from House Democrats. The primary reason for the Democratic opposition is the bill's proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Republicans hope to scale back entitlement spending in the bill by implementing stricter standards for SNAP eligibility.
The House Agriculture Committee is scheduled to markup its version on Wednesday, April 18th. The Senate has yet to release its own version of the Farm Bill and is unlikely to do so until at least next month. If the House and Senate cannot come to an agreement on a unified bill text, the existing Farm Bill will likely be extended with level funding for another year. A similar extension occurred before that version of the bill passed in 2014.
With general expectations of massive upheaval in the November midterms, negotiations on the Farm Bill in a year's time will almost certainly take on a number of new dimensions.
Next week's newsletter will dive into the specific funding levels of this Farm Bill compared to the 2014 version. Until then, the full 641 pages of text are available
here
and a section by section summary prepared by the committee can be found
here
.
Trade Developments
Early this week, rumors began to circulate that the U.S. Department of Agriculture would use the Commodity Credit Corporation to help farmers, particularly of pork and soy, impacted by increasing trade tensions with China. The CCC was established during the Great Depression to support farmers and stabilize the price of produce.
Later in the week, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that he had worked with appropriators to include language in the recent omnibus spending bill that would lift restrictions on the CCC so that it could use its funds to aid farmers if a trade war came to fruition.
When President Trump pitched this idea on Thursday to a group of Republican lawmakers representing a number of farm states, they responded forcefully. Iowa governor Kim Reynolds stated simply "our farmers don't want welfare - our farmers want to work and win." This led the President to consider alternative options.
Later that day, he prompted his chief economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, and his top trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, to revisit the U.S.'s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. Negotiated by the Obama administration and signed but ultimately not ratified, the TPP was a trade pact between the U.S. and eleven other countries including Canada and Mexico and designed to put pressure on China to change its trade tactics.
President Trump campaigned against the TPP as a "terrible deal." He indicated that he would not rejoin the agreement unless the deal was "substantially better" than what President Obama had negotiated. It remains unclear if the other TPP countries would make any concessions to the Trump Administration, though Japan expressed a desire for the U.S. to reenter the pact as it currently exists.
Ratifying the TPP would open up major foreign markets like Japan and Australia for U.S. farmers to export their products. It would also change the dynamics of the ongoing NAFTA renegotiations, as both Canada and Mexico are in the TPP. If the Trump administration did in fact pursue the TPP, it would likely necessitate a change of negotiating priorities and strategy on NAFTA. This is possibly one reason that Lighthizer canceled his planned trip to Lima, Peru, for the Summit of the Americas where he planned to meet with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts to discuss the NAFTA renegotiations.
Proposed Repeal of the Clean Water Rule
After receiving a flood of public comments from individuals and organizations, including the Northeast-Midwest Institute, the Trump administration has announced that it will give more detail as to why it wants to replace the Obama-era Clean Water Rule.
The Rule essentially determines what bodies of water and wetlands fall under the Clean Water Act's protections. These safeguards include requirements for federal discharge and dredge-and-fill permits, state water quality certifications, and a number of other protective measures.
The Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will not issue a final rule as of now, instead opting to put together another proposal as an addendum to the previous proposal. The addendum will "provide the public with additional clarity on the scope of the agencies' efforts," according to a statement by the two agencies.
The NEMWI's comments on the matter are available
here
and an announcement on the matter is available
here
.
Cochran and the Mississippi
The organization American Rivers identified the Big Sunflower River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, as the most at-risk river in the U.S. This dire warning came in the wake of an attempt by Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran to revive a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program to curb flooding in the Mississippi's delta region.
The Environmental Protection Agency had vetoed the project in 2008, but Senator Cochran included appropriations language in the recent omnibus spending bill that directed the Corps to begin the project without delay. The language was ultimately removed and Senator Cochran is heading into retirement, though a number of environmental groups remain concerned that similar language could resurface in upcoming legislation.
The project would have reduced flooding of the Big Sunflower River to protect row-crop farmers in the area. Environmental groups argue that the project would decimate the ecosystem of the surrounding wetlands and ultimately harm other property further downstream.
Senate Confirms Andrew Wheeler for Deputy EPA Administrator
On Thursday the Senate confirmed Andrew Wheeler as Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Wheeler previously served at the EPA over twenty years ago and has recently worked as lobbyist for Murray Energy, a coal mining firm. He also worked as an advisor for Senator James Inhofe, a noted climate change skeptic.
Wheeler is now second-in-command at the agency, which would ultimately put him in charge if Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is fired. As discussed in last week's newsletter, Pruitt has faced sharp criticism from Democrats for his questionable spending habits and policy decisions as head of the EPA.
Inter-Agency Memo
On Monday, fourteen federal agencies - including the EPA, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Energy - signed an agreement to reduce the time required for environmental reviews on key infrastructure projects.
The Trump administration heralded the change as a necessary step towards streamlining federal infrastructure projects and eliminating redundancies. Environmental groups and Democrats expressed concern that the agreement was merely an attempt to weaken environmental protections in the guise of good government.
Pompeo
Confirmation Hearing
On Thursday, current Central Intelligence Agency Director and former Congressman from Kansas Mike Pompeo faced an often hostile confirmation hearing to become the new Secretary of State.
Before the hearing even began, however, over two hundred environmental groups sent a letter urging the Senate to reject Pompeo due to his views on climate change. Due to the role of the State Department in international negotiations like the Paris Agreement, the groups were concerned that Pompeo would hamper progress to address a shifting climate on the international stage.
It remains unclear if Pompeo will receive enough "yes" votes from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to make it to a vote by the full Senate. A number of Democrats and Republican Senator Rand Paul have voiced opposition to his nomination.
