The House Agriculture Committee is undergoing a wholesale overhaul with a new roster that is heavy with first-term lawmakers and significantly more diverse than what the panel had when heading into previous farm bill debates.
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Category: Legislative Updates
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AGC CEO Stephen Sandherr and members of AGC’s Government Affairs staff met with the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Administrator, Shailen Bhatt, on January 24 to discuss top industry priorities including, among other things, ongoing implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program, ongoing supply chain constraints, and work zone safety.
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A special committee on China created in the Republican-controlled House will spend part of its time investigating Chinese investments in U.S. agriculture and the risk they could pose for food security.
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There are over 91,000 dams in the country that serve many purposes. Dams are classified by hazard potential. A high-hazard-potential rating does not imply that a dam has an increased risk for failure; it simply means that if failure were to occur, the resulting consequences would likely be a direct loss of human life and extensive property damage. Over the last 20 years, the number of high-hazard-potential dams has more than doubled as development steadily encroaches on once-rural dams and reservoirs. Although the number of high-hazard-potential dams has increased, the overall percentage of these dams protected by an Emergency Action Plan has increased as well. As of 2018, 81% of such dams had a plan on file, up 5% from 2015.
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The American Farm Bureau Federation signed an agreement with Deere and Co. that is designed to let farmers and independent mechanics identify and repair problems with Deere equipment. The deal stops short of enabling farmers to modify equipment.
A memorandum of understanding between the nation’s largest farm organization and Deere “will ensure farmers everywhere are able to repair our own equipment,” AFBF President Zippy Duvall told delegates to the group’s annual convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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The legal battle is on over the Biden administration’s new “waters of the U.S.” rule. Some major farm groups joined with the oil, real estate and construction sectors to file a lawsuit Thursday evening seeking to block implementation of the rule that redefines the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act.
The lawsuit says the rule extends federal jurisdiction to a “staggering range of dry land and water features—whether large or small; permanent, intermittent, or ephemeral; flowing or stagnant; natural or manmade; interstate or intrastate; and no matter how remote from or lacking in a physical connection to actual navigable waters.”
The plaintiffs include the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National Corn Growers Association, American Petroleum Institute, Associated General Contractors of America and the National Association of Realtors.
The Supreme Court is currently considering a case that could force the Biden administration to modify the new WOTUS rule.
Prices for Some Key Components Have Already Begun Rising in January While New Buy America Requirements Will Inflate the Cost of Many Materials, Construction Association Officials Caution
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Washington filled back up quickly after the holidays as Congress convened, or tried to, right after the New Year. After a few days of getting the rust off, finding their offices and trying to pick a Speaker, work will soon launch to address key issues facing the country. As of now, no Speaker has been elected.
For LICA members, a new farm bill must be passed this year. The House Agriculture Committee has a new chairman, Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA), who is already taking his colleagues out to get feedback from farmers on what a new bill should look like. Senate Ag chair Debbie Stebenow (R-MI) announced this week that she will not seek re-election in 2024.
In addition to the farm bill, a key theme I will be watching this year is the new House majority’s commitment to reduce federal funding. Both the farm and highway bills annually require a significant amount of federal funds to achieve their program commitments. Stay tuned.