Congress has less than a month to figure out funding for the 2021 fiscal year. The current continuing resolution expires December 11th.
The Senate proposed a bill, which includes $23 billion dollars for USDA. It is lower than what the House passed, but both versions fully fund various programs.
According to AFBF’s Ryan Yates, “It looks like the House and Senate will be moving forward to try to put together an omnibus Appropriations Bill, and certainly, they’ve got to get that done before the December 11th deadline... all indications show that that is something they’re going to attempt to do. The fallback, obviously, is a CR. So, again, if those negotiations crumble and they can’t come to a deal, then certainly they can fall back on a CR.”
He was speaking about a continuing resolution; it would extend funding at current levels, essentially kicking the can down the road.
When it comes to passing another stimulus bill, Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa says that Washington is looking at statistics for economic growth.
“If the economy continues albeit slower than it was in May, June and July, but the economy through the various statistics that we use each month to say the economy is growing or not growing, as long as they continue down the path that we’re going now, I think, there’s less chance of a stimulus,” Sen. Grassley states.
This would essentially leave all of the big negotiations for the new Congress when they convene in January.
Payments in the second round of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program have surpassed $9.5 billion dollars. More than 576,000 applications have been approved, and corn growers received the largest portion, at almost more than $2.6 billion dollars. Cattle producers follow that at more than $2 billion dollars.
Iowa has seen the largest assistance with farmers receiving more than $900 million dollars. Corn flattened by the derecho this year has been eligible for the program.
There is still one more month to apply.