No images? Click here USDA Announces $3 Billion Investment in Agriculture, Animal Health, and Nutrition On Wednesday, September 29, 2021, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a comprehensive set of investments to address challenges facing America’s agricultural producers. These include assistance to address challenges and costs associated with drought, animal health, market disruptions for agricultural commodities, and school food supply chain issues. Specifically, USDA has announced $500 million to provide relief from agricultural market disruption, such as increased transportation challenges, availability and cost of certain materials, and other near-term obstacles related to the marketing and distribution of certain commodities, as part of Secretary Vilsack’s work as co-chair of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force. These funds are made available via the Commodity Credit Corporation rather than COVID-19 relief funds and designed to complement a suite of programs USDA is implementing in response to COVID-19. Read the full announcement HERE. U.S. Debt-Limit Measures May Run Out in Late October The U.S. Treasury is likely to exhaust its ability to borrow as soon as late October, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in the latest warning to lawmakers following their failed efforts to address the debt ceiling last week. Barring an increase or suspension of the debt limit, the Treasury will run out of cash along with special measures to avoid a federal payments default by late October or early November, the nonpartisan CBO said in a report Wednesday, September 29. That echoes the calculation the CBO provided in July and compares with the Treasury’s estimate of Oct. 18, released by Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday. A two-year suspension of the debt limit expired July 31, prompting Treasury to commence special measures -- including halting new investments into several federal employee retirement funds -- to conserve cash. Once those measures to pay government debts are exhausted, the U.S. would enter a technical default and be forced to delay making payments to lenders. With Republicans attempting to force Democrats to use an involved parliamentary procedure to boost the debt limit on their own, a partisan impasse has been hit on the matter. Congress Clears Funding Bill to Avert U.S. Government ShutdownOn Thursday, September 30, 2021, the House and Senate cleared a stopgap spending measure to avert a federal government shutdown as funding was scheduled to run out on October 1st. The bill passed after Democrats dropped an earlier attempt to tack on a debt-limit suspension to the bill in face of implacable Republican opposition to that measure. Senate Republicans blocked a version of the bill containing the debt ceiling language on Monday, September 27. The federal government will be kept open through Dec. 3 under the measure. The bill also contains $28.6 billion for states recovering from hurricanes and wildfires as well as $6.3 billion to resettle refugees from the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Advocacy to be Highlighted at IARW-WFLO Convention This Week!We are looking forward to seeing those attending the IARW-WFLO Convention this week in Austin, Texas! As part of GCCA’s continued focus on advocacy the Convention will feature a Government Affairs Track including sessions with the Advocacy Team and key GCCA partners who will provide the latest on policy and legal issues. We look forward to seeing you there! |