Federal Ag Spending Bills to be Considered this Week

Politico’s Meredith Lee Hill and Grace Yarrow reported Monday that “amid election controversy and campaign buzz, appropriations leaders will convene this week to start to hammer out key spending plans. The coming weeks are a critical time for lawmakers to push funding bills ahead of August’s recess. The Senate Appropriations Ag-FDA subcommittee will mark up its fiscal 2025 spending bill on Thursday.”

Lee Hill reported in a different article that “Senate appropriators are set to unveil their fiscal 2025 Ag-FDA spending bill in the coming days, ahead of what’s expected to be another bruising federal spending clash with House Republicans.”

“Democrats have already expressed staunch opposition to the House GOP’s agriculture spending bill, which includes spending cuts and a controversial pilot program to test restrictions on the types of foods recipients can buy with their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits,” Lee Hill reported. “The House Appropriations Committee is set to vote on that bill July 10.”

In the Senate

Politico’s Caitlin Emma reported last week that the Senate will start this week “with three fiscal 2025 measures and overall funding totals for a dozen appropriations bills. Bypassing subcommittee markups, the full Senate Appropriations Committee will take up its Legislative Branch, Military Construction-VA and Agriculture-FDA spending bills on July 11, in addition to a dozen subcommittee allocations known as the 302(b)s.”

“Like last year, Senate Democrats and Republicans have not reached an agreement on overall funding levels for 12 appropriations bills, and the numbers will likely pass the committee along party lines,” Emma reported. “The spending bills that flow from those totals, however, are expected to pass the committee with bipartisan support.”

In the House

Emma reported that “six bills — including the Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior-Environment, Energy-Water, Labor-HHS-Education, Transportation-HUD and Agriculture-FDA measures — are headed for full committee markups (this) week, while GOP leaders in the lower chamber aim to pass their Legislative Branch funding measure on the floor.”

The House’s Ag-FDA spending bill was approved last month by a party-line vote of the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee. Subcommittee Chair Andy Harris said at the time that the “$25.9 billion measure would rein in wasteful spending on Biden administration priorities while maintaining core programs across the Department of Agriculture,” E&E News’ Marc Heller reported. “‘We’re not appropriating ‘Monopoly’ money,’ Harris said at Tuesday’s markup, where the measure passed on a voice vote. There were no amendments, leaving that possibility for the full (Appropriations) committee.”

Bloomberg Law’s Skye Witley, Alex Ruoff and Nyah Phengsitthy reported in mid-June that “the Agriculture-FDA funding proposal published Monday would allocate $25.9 billion in discretionary spending in fiscal 2025, $355 million less than the $26.2 billion allocated in the current year, according to a GOP summary of the measure.”

“Harris’ bill would cut the climate hubs program at the USDA, reduce certain agricultural research and fund the Rural Energy for America Program — which helps farmers install more efficient energy systems — at 90 percent below the Biden administration’s budget request,” Heller reported. “Like last year’s failed proposal, the bill approved Tuesday would eliminate urban agriculture programs and also cut off the USDA’s moves on diversity, equity and inclusion.”

“The Natural Resources Conservation Service, which runs many conservation and climate-oriented programs, would see an $11.9 million cut, to a total of $903 million,” Heller reported. “Harris proposed an increase for meat and poultry inspections at the Food Safety and Inspection Service.”

Hoosier Ag Today’s Eric Pfeiffer reported that “the GOP bill would boost both SNAP and WIC, but only to account for inflation and allow states into a SNAP voluntary pilot to restrict unhealthy food choices. And the bill rejects any new program funding, taking aim at the bureaucracy as Harris did for FY 2024.”

“The FY 2025 proposal boosts funding for … meat and poultry inspectors, emerging pest control, and the ReConnect broadband program,” Pfeiffer reported. “It also improves tracking of foreign ownership of U.S. farmland and directs NASS to reinstate its July cattle and county crop reports.”