The Water Table Podcast: discussion on current water management issues featuring Roger Ellingson.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-water-table/id1538507698
Category: Legislative Updates
The prices contractors pay for construction materials continued to increase in August while many firms report struggles to get those materials delivered on time, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America of government data released today. Association officials urged Washington officials to take steps to help address the challenges impacting the entire supply chain and driving the price escalations.
“July was the seventh-straight month of double-digit price increases for construction inputs,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “Adding to the challenge, contractors are struggling to pass along even a fraction of these added costs onto their clients.”
The Agriculture Department last week announced enrollment of 2.5 million acres of grasslands into the Conservation Reserve Program, twice as much acreage as last year's signup and a major step forward for the Biden administration's goal to sharply expand the program.
As Congress considers two massive spending bill – a comprehensive infrastructure bill and what some are calling a “human” infrastructure bill – below are two examples of how complex developing, crafting and passing major legislation has become. First the text than a comparison photo of a similar bill 30 years ago.
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Representatives of state farm bureaus, as well as individual farmers and ranchers, spoke out in favor of keeping the Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule in place at an online meeting today.
However, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers have already said they are concerned about the damaging effects of the 2020 rule on the nation's waters and are working towards developing a replacement.
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More than 60 groups are urging Democratic congressional leaders to prioritize climate-friendly agriculture, food systems and equity in their $3.5 trillion domestic spending package.
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While the political maneuvering continues in the House, industry and business groups reacted favorably to a massive, comprehensive, bipartisan highway, transit, water, broadband construction bill. Here’s some reaction: American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall on the Senate passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Climate change was one of a number of legislative priority issues discussed at the recent National LICA Legislative Committee meeting. Infrastructure and budget reconciliation bills include numerous provisions to reduce carbon emissions. A new report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns time is growing short to address global climate change, whose impacts are being seen in more extreme weather events such as drought and heavier precipitation, and changes to agricultural practices could take decades to have an impact on carbon emissions.
The report "is a code red for humanity," the United Nations panel said. "The alarm bells are deafening and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions are choking our planet & placing billions of people in danger."
The Census Bureau will release district level census data this week, the first step in the decennial redistricting process. But Republicans and Democrats have this lingering elation or dread -- depending on which side of the aisle you are on -- the GOP is already close to winning back the House even before one vote is cast in the 2022 midterms. Republicans need five seats to win back the majority. There already have been key Democratic retirements in Wisconsin, where Rep. Ron Kind called it quits, and in Illinois, where Rep. Cheri Bustos -- who chaired the DCCC last cycle -- retired. Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania is running for Senate, putting another swing seat in play.
The White House and Congressional leaders have turned up the pressure this week to package together a comprehensive - and expensive - plan to approve their legislative priorities.
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