The agriculture spending bill for 2018 will be debated this week by the U.S. House Appropriations Committee after a week long holiday recess.
While the bill disregards President Trump’s proposed massive cuts to the USDA and other programs important to agriculture, it does lower USDA, FDA and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission budgets by $876 million. The bill does not cover mandatory spending like crop insurance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program which is mandated by the farm bill.
The House Interior-Environment subcommittee is also expected to work up its budget for EPA, the Forest Service and Interior Department this week.
Specialty crop programs in the next farm bill will be addressed midweek during hearings hosted by the House and Senate Ag Committees in D.C.
Source: brownfieldagnews.com