Leaders of the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday named a 14-member working group, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, that is supposed to find solutions for the labor challenges facing farmers.
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Category: Legislative Updates
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The Essential Workers for Economic Advancement Act is a bipartisan attempt to provide a legal immigration option to meet projected future workforce needs and help secure the U.S. border.
The U.S. immigration system is broken, placing national security in jeopardy, leaving thousands of current construction workers’ uncertain futures in the hands of the court system, and leaving no legal option for lesser skilled immigrants to meet workforce needs. All these factors have contributed to the industry’s workforce shortage.
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Two key transportation committees – one in the House of Representatives and the other in the Senate – recently unveiled legislation that would reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration programs and funding for five years.
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The Debt Bill now under consideration by the Senate has implications for the outlook of the farm bill. Leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees say the debt limit agreement should remove SNAP work requirements as a potential sticking point in the upcoming farm bill debate, but also said the deal takes away some potential funding.
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The Debt Bill includes provisions supported by the construction industry to expedite the federal permitting process. The Associated General Contractors of America’s chief executive officer, Stephen E. Sandherr, issued the following statement:
“The debt limit deal announced over the weekend includes significant reforms to a federal permitting process that has, until now, been one of the main impediments to progress on many vital infrastructure projects. These reforms will reduce the time it takes to complete environmental reviews without weakening any of the strong protections built into the process.
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The Supreme Court’s Clean Water Act decision restricting the federal government’s jurisdiction over “adjacent” wetlands prompted warnings that millions of acres of wetlands could be at risk, but the ruling generated cheers from farm groups that have fought for decades to limit the interpretation of the 50-year-old law.
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Senate Agriculture Committee member Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and a bipartisan group of House members are proposing to revive a $5-per-acre subsidy program for cover crops that USDA offered for two years using pandemic assistance funding.
As with the temporary program, the proposed payments would work as subsidies for crop insurance premiums.
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Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, Chair of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Climate, Forestry, and Natural Resources, alongside U.S. Senators Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), members of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, introduced legislation to address the shortage of Technical Service Providers (TSPs) who help producers access USDA conservation programs through one-on-one assistance. This bill expands on the framework first envisioned in the 2018 Farm Bill. U.S. Representatives Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Jim Baird (R-Ind.) introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.
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Highway contractors, dealers, manufacturers, insurers and all channels of the infrastructure industry will converge on Capitol Hill next week to remind Congress of the significant needs to insure safe and efficient transportation systems.
The key talking points being used are:
• The Highway Trust Fund is still under construction and needs congressional support.
• Airports need a significant investment to keep up with the growing demand and increased technology.
• Regulatory obstacles remain and are costly and nonproductive.
• Congress should keep to its five-year commitment made in the $1.2 trillion infrastructure investment act.
President Joe Biden met with the four leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees Thursday to discuss a new farm bill. It was believed to be a general discussion on the size and timing of the farm bill reauthorization.
Senate Ag Chairwoman Deb Stabenow, D-Mich., told Agri-Pulse Wednesday that the late-afternoon gathering at the White House will be “a general meeting where he just wants to touch base with all of us and share his priorities and hear from us how it's going.” The Senate committee’s top Republican, John Boozman of Arkansas, told reporters that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack would also participate in the meeting. Politico first reported on plans for the meeting. Boozman said he looked forward to talking to Biden “about some of our things that we'd like to see in the farm bill, but probably more importantly, really get an idea of what he wants to see in the farm bill.”