From now until December 20, Congress has a full plate of issues to deal with before the Republican trifecta takes hold of political Washington in January. All the items on the agenda are fraught with varying levels of political risk.
House Ag Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson is ready to move another extension of the 2018 farm bill, acknowledging to reporters that lawmakers are unlikely to consider the measure in the lame duck session. “We’re prepared for an extension,” Thompson said.
Donald Trump’s cabinet picks are coming fast and furious, but the ag community is still waiting for the president-elect to pick someone to lead USDA.
President-elect Donald Trump has picked former Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy as transportation secretary.
“During his time in Congress, Sean was a respected voice and communicator in the Republican Conference, advocating for Fiscal Responsibility, Economic Growth, and Rural Development. Admired across the aisle, Sean worked with Democrats to clear extensive Legislative hurdles to build the largest road and bridge project in Minnesota History,” the Trump transition team said in a statement.
The chairman and CEO of Deere and Co., which has been the target of tariff threats by President-elect Donald Trump, on Thursday strongly defended his company’s record of manufacturing farm equipment in the United States and exporting it to other countries.
“We rely heavily on our highly skilled employees in the U.S.” to “design and build … the most technologically advanced equipment in the world. And as a result of that, greater than 75% of all products that we sell in the U.S. are assembled here in the U.S.," Deere Chairman and CEO John May said on the company's quarterly earnings call. May jumped in to answer a question about Trump's tariff threat when it came up on the call.
The 2018 farm bill extension expired on Monday, September 30. Here is what the Farm Bureau is saying about impacts on farmers.
The economic relationship between Wisconsin family farms and the rural communities that surround them is changing. This Wisconsin study tells the story of what is happening to farms across the country.
As a long-time highway lobbyist, I used to say Democrats were quick to spend the money but add regulations to the programs while Republicans cut regulations and were difficult to build support for new investment. The Road Builders took a look at what is currently happening. We know investments have gone way up.
The federal government runs out of money in 85 days. The House and Senate easily cleared a short-term spending bill Wednesday, kicking the contentious debate over federal spending to the lame-duck session of Congress.