No images? Click here USDA Announces $100 Million in Supply Chain Funds On Monday, October 4, 2021, as part of the Administration’s efforts to address food system challenges arising from the pandemic, as well as those going back decades, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA will establish a new program to provide $100 million in the form of loan guarantee to improve the resiliency of the food supply chain. The funding would leverage hundreds of millions more in lending through community and private sector lenders to expand meat and poultry processing capacity and finance other food supply chain infrastructure. Secretary Vilsack said the program would “reduce the risk to bankers and others who are providing the financing for such things as mobile processing facilities or cold storage capacity expansion, or producer groups establishing a co-op to brand or market their product.” USDA is preparing to issue a notice soon to announce eligibility requirements and the application window. GCCA will keep you updated as USDA releases more information in the coming weeks. Read the full announcement HERE.
Pelosi Resets Target for Infrastructure Vote Democratic lawmakers continue to look for a path forward for their economic agenda, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) eyeing a vote sometime this month on a Senate-passed $550 billion infrastructure bill. House leadership originally planned to vote on the infrastructure bill on September 27 but held off in the face of opposition of progressives who want to first pass a larger tax-and-spend package using the budget reconciliation process. Democrats did avoid a government shutdown by passing a continuing resolution to fund the government into December. And with a long-term surface transportation reauthorization included in the stalled infrastructure bill, Congress also passed a short-term 30 day authorization to keep those programs going through the end of October. Pelosi has now stated they need to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill before that short-term authorization expires in a letter she sent to her caucus last week. OSHA Seeks to Revive Obama-Era Injury, Illness Reporting MandateThe Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Friday, October 1, 2021, advanced a proposal to undo a Trump-era rule change that undid an Obama administration regulation. OSHA is once again asking that establishments with 250 or more employees annually file with the agency two documents they are already required to fill out. One is OSHA Form 300, commonly called the OSHA log, which lists every on-the-job illness or injury that required more than first aid to treat or led to at least one day of missed work. The other is Form 301, a detailed report on each recordable injury or illness. The Obama administration enacted the filing requirement in 2016 only for the intervening Republican Trump administration to axe that mandate in 2019. Unions and worker advocacy groups supported the filing requirement while businesses largely objected to having their safety and health records made public. The notice of proposed rulemaking doesn’t affect an ongoing OSHA requirement that establishments submit Form 300A, an annual summary of a workplace’s injury and illness cases. There’s no set timetable for when the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a unit of the White House Office of Management and Budget, will complete its review of the renewed proposal or for its publication in the Federal Register. If you have not yet participated in our grassroots campaigns, but would like to take action to oppose the PRO Act or oppose the harmful tax hikes in the American Job’s Plan, click the Take Action tab above now.
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