Week of June 18th,  2018
Mississippi River Basin News

   This Week in Washington
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House Farm Bill Passes 
213-211, Senate to Vote on Its Version Soon
 
The House passed its version of the Farm Bill 213-211 on June 21st, meeting its June 22nd target date almost as narrowly as the bill passed. Politico reported that "eight Freedom Caucus members flipped their votes from last month 
and voted in favor" of the bill. Twelve other Republicans and all of the Democrats present voted in opposition as well, but they collectively fell two votes short of the majority.
 
As for the Senate, following a nearly unanimous vote by its Agriculture Committee, the legislative body can now vote on its version of the Farm Bill. Senators have planned on voting before their recess for Independence Day according to Roll Call . Should it pass, members of both the House and Senate must form a conference committee and reconcile the differences between the 
two versions of the bill before its expiration date, September 30th. The 
committee will face the difficult task of negotiating whether or not to include 
work requirements in the Supplemental  Nutrition Assistance Program 
(SNAP), limits on farm subsidies, and changes  to the conservation title.
 
One key change to the conservation title is that the House's version of the 
Farm Bill increased the Conservation Reserve Program's limit to 29 million 
acres, has a gross income cap of $900,000 for farmers in order to obtain subsidies, and requires able-bodied individuals between the ages of 18 and 59 
to work in order to receive SNAP benefits. None of these provisions are 
consistent with the Senate's bill that only increased the CRP's limit to 25 
million acres, decreased the gross income cap to $700,000, and did not 
change SNAP's work requirements.
 
If the House and Senate cannot negotiate a Farm Bill in a conference session 
and the bill is not signed into law by the September 30th deadline, 
"agriculture policy would revert to 1938 and 1949 farm bill laws, ending 
many current farm programs and setting crop and dairy subsidy levels higher 
than current levels and far above market prices,"  Roll Call  reported. It is more likely, however, that the Farm Bill receives a year-long extension if the 
conference doesn't lead to a consensus bill.
 
For more information, please contact Eric Heath , Senior Policy Counsel for the Mississippi River Basin Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.


 
EPA Allows States to Oversee Coal Ash Disposal, Changes Grant Review Process
  
     Earlier this week, the Environmental
     Protection Agency allowed Oklahoma 
     to  issue permits "for [the] disposal of 
     toxic  ash from coal plants,"  The 
     Washington Post reported.
 
     Prior to this action, the agency's
     administrator, Scott Pruitt, had 
     expressed his intention to reverse the
     effect of an Obama-era rule that made 
it difficult for  coal plants to dispose of toxic ash for the sake of preventing groundwater contamination. Upon a state's request, the  EPA will now allow 
states to issue permits for coal ash disposal, adding  another action that 
highlights Pruitt's  goal to weaken environmental protection.
 
Administrator Pruitt believes state officials "are best positioned to oversee 
[such] management... [and] have intimate knowledge of the facilities and the environment in their state," but environmentalists are concerned about the implications that this cession of federal oversight could have.
 
The EPA has also changed how the grants it awards will be reviewed. EPA-
funded grants will now be reviewed by "relevant regional administrators or assistant administrations," according to The Hill . This comes after environmentalists' criticism of the agency's attempt to direct grant funding towards applicants with similar policy goals to those of the administration. 
The EPA previously required grant requests to go through an appointed 
senior press aid. This had resulted in a feeling that the policy, first 
implemented last year, made this process too political.
 
For more information, please contact Eric Heath , Senior Policy Counsel for 
the Mississippi River Basin Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.



Representatives Meet in Mississippi and Engaged with Small Business Owners, Workers
 
This past Monday, the House Committee 
on Small Business met in  Mississippi for a hearing titled "The Perspective of Rural Small Businesses in North Mississippi."  
The purpose of the hearing was to 
"highlight how rural  small businesses are faring in today's economy and the outlook going  forward."
 
According to the hearing's memorandum , 434,843 people in the state are employees of small businesses - nearly half of Mississippi's workforce. 87% of those employees are in the agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting 
industries. This document also explained that "a skills gap and lack of 
qualified potential employees, inadequate access to working capital, restricted access to broadband services, and a lagging infrastructure" restrict small businesses' economic growth. With this knowledge, the committee used this 
field hearing to listen to the individuals facing these problems in the northern 
part of Mississippi.





News from Around the Basin

Energy
 









 

 
Water Resource Management
 


🔗  "It's Getting Worse"









 
 
 
Agriculture
 
















 
 
 
Biodiversity, Wildlife, and Invasive Species
 










Swamp  





 
 
 
Infrastructure
 








 
 
 
Politics and People
 

"No"  



 
 
 
Selected Hearings from This Past Week
 







 
 
 
Other News
 


 
 
 
e-Newsletters, Publications, Journals, Multimedia
 






 

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