| | | | | |  | | By Garrett Downs | Presented by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) | With help from Meredith Lee Hill
| | — MA sat down with Robert Bonnie, the undersecretary of agriculture for conservation and farm production for an exclusive interview. — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ’s plans to shrink food assistance for impoverished Americans as part of the debt limit deal is already being met with doubt in the Senate. — Lawmakers return from recess this week to a packed schedule, including a House Ag Committee hearing with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan. HAPPY MONDAY, APRIL 17. Welcome to Morning Ag. I’m your host, Garrett Downs. Send tips to gdowns@politico.com and @_garrettdowns, and follow us at @Morning_Ag.
| | A message from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA): Help prevent the introduction and spread of diseases impacting animal and public health. The CDC estimates that over one million dogs are imported into the country every year. Currently, fewer than 1% of these dogs are inspected by any federal agency. Strongly supported by the veterinary community, the AVMA is urging Congress to pass the bipartisan Healthy Dog Importation Act (H.R.1184/S.502), which would ensure a dog is in good health when being imported into the United States. Learn more. | | | | | DEPARTMENT OF ACTION: The Agriculture Department is shifting its focus from building to executing its sweeping climate agenda, Bonnie said. “It’s all about execution for us,” Bonnie told MA in an exclusive interview, noting the department now has the resources it needs after rolling out the $3.1 billion Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program and scoring nearly $20 billion for carbon sequestration in the Inflation Reduction Act. The focus on action represents a shift in priorities for the USDA, which spent the large part of the last two years developing its flagship climate program and selecting projects to fund. It also comes as the agency is under increased pressure to quickly move the IRA money amid increasing threats from Republicans, who want to reallocate some of the money to other priorities in the upcoming farm bill. IRA money: Bonnie said he is confident USDA will be able to spend all of the money from the IRA. The funds will only be available until Sept. 30, 2031, meaning USDA has to use it or lose it before then. House and Senate Republicans targeting the IRA money say the USDA won’t be able to spend all of the money within the time frame, an assertion bolstered by estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. Bonnie’s view: “We all acknowledge that there’s a challenge to be able to dramatically scale up the amount of resources that we’re going to move for those practices,” Bonnie said. But he said the agency will take a number of steps to get the resources out the door. One of them will be streamlining enrollment in the program to ease producers’ entry into the programs and get the resources into their hands. Another will be relying on partners, like conservation districts and commodity groups, so the programs can reach more growers and landowners, Bonnie said. Enticing the private sector: Bonnie, asked about criticism that the USDA’s partnerships program isn’t sweeping enough, said part of the USDA’s work with the PCSC is enticing the private sector to start investing in climate-smart agriculture. “We’ve got a big task ahead of us and we’ve got to move quickly if we’re going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and into net zero by the middle of the century,” he said. “Government will play an important role … but we have got to figure out how to bring private resources in this.” What’s next?: While Bonnie said he can’t predict what policy will look like 15 years down the road, he said continuing to make investments in a voluntary, market-based approach to climate will keep agriculture at the table. He also said the agency needs to get the data to prove the strategy works. “If we can prove that it works, because we do the science and the inventory to be able to prove it, and if we can demonstrate that we can continue to produce food [and] fiber and do it in a much more efficient way … I think the policy will take care of itself,” Bonnie said.
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| | REPUBLICANS SPLIT OVER FOOD AID: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s new debt limit negotiating proposal set to be unveiled Monday morning will include broad moves to restrict food assistance for millions of low-income Americans, Meredith reports. But Republicans in the Senate doubt they’ll survive. Details: McCarthy’s initial list calls for expanding the age bracket for people who must meet work requirements in order to participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, while closing what Republicans say are “loopholes” in existing restrictions, according to two people who were granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. What they’re saying: While senators have signaled support for the proposals, they’re much less rosy about them actually becoming law. “I’m sure it won’t be easy,” said John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, noting his party will get a second bite at the apple later this year during the farm bill reauthorization process. A GOP Senate aide, who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations, was less diplomatic: “I mean, Godspeed. Get what you can. We’re going to live in reality over here.” Senate Republicans have been voicing similar skepticism since House Republicans began privately pitching new proposals to rein in SNAP last year, after they won back the chamber in November. Asked about the prospects for such measures in the next Congress, Sen. John Boozman (Ark.) the top Republican on the Agriculture Committee, which oversees SNAP, said in an interview a week after the 2022 midterms that the effort “would be difficult to pass in the Senate with 60 votes,” a nod to the threshold needed to overcome a Senate filibuster. And, given the GOP’s unexpectedly slim majority in the House, there’s no guarantee such controversial proposals could even get out of the lower chamber, Boozman pointed out. “You look at the margin in the House,” he said, “It might be difficult to pass it in the House.” Internal trouble: A move to toughen work requirements and shrink SNAP could alienate swing-district Republicans. But McCarthy also has to keep the support of the conservative wing of the party, which would like to see the program shrink. It’s a delicate tightrope walk for McCarthy and his team — so far they have avoided key defections by staying away from too much detail — for example, they have yet to outline a specific plan to close the so-called “loopholes” in the existing SNAP work requirements, which Republicans complain primarily blue states are using to waive some work requirements.
| | | | GO INSIDE THE 2023 MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE: POLITICO is proud to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider" newsletter featuring exclusive coverage, insider nuggets and unparalleled insights from the 2023 Global Conference, which will convene leaders in health, finance, politics, philanthropy and entertainment from April 30-May 3. This year’s theme, Advancing a Thriving World, will challenge and inspire attendees to lean into building an optimistic coalition capable of tackling the issues and inequities we collectively face. Don’t miss a thing — subscribe today for a front row seat. | | | | | | | | | LAWMAKERS RETURN: The House and Senate return to work this week after a two week recess, and the Agriculture Committees have packed schedules. Here’s what we’re watching: Regan to testify: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan on Wednesday will testify before the House Ag Committee, where he will almost certainly be peppered with questions on pesticides and herbicides. The agency has been battered by farm-state members of both parties for banning the use of chlorpyrifos, a common pesticide, on food. Lawmakers, particularly Republicans, have also been eager to get Regan in front of the committee. In previous hearings, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack said his agency disagreed with EPA’s decision on chlorpyrifos, but told lawmakers the authority rests with EPA, not USDA. Nutrition hearing: The Senate Ag Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics and Research Subcommittee on Wednesday will hold its first hearing. It’ll be the subcommittee Chair John Fetterman’s (D-Pa.) first time holding the gavel. Califf’s back: Food and Drug Commissioner Robert Califf on Wednesday will testify before Senate appropriators on the president’s budget. While lawmakers of both parties will likely want to hear from about the issues at FDA that helped spur on the baby formula crisis and the ongoing reorganization, there will likely be a partisan split on whether to grant the FDA more resources. Democrats have argued the agency needs more resources to avert future crises, while Republicans have largely said the agency shouldn’t get the money it has asked for and have called for accountability. Conservation: The Senate Ag Conservation, Climate, Forestry and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Thursday will hold a hearing on the farm bill’s conservation programs. Four of those programs received a nearly $20 billion boost in the Inflation Reduction Act.
| | | | A message from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA):   | | | | | — Ukraine criticized a decision by the Polish government on Saturday to ban imports of Ukrainian agricultural goods, including products intended for other countries, saying it violated a prior agreement between the two countries, our Bartosz Brzezinski reports. — While federal lawmakers are discussing SNAP, state lawmakers in Iowa are advancing a bill to limit access to the program at the state level, The Washington Post reports. — The U.K. is more isolated from intelligence on food supply chains post-Brexit, which could lead to scandals like the 2013 horsemeat scandal, The Guardian reports. THAT’S ALL FOR MA! Drop us a line: gdowns@politico.com, meredithlee@politico.com, marciabrown@politico.com, abehsudi@politico.com and ecadei@politico.com.
| | A message from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA): Combat illicit xylazine while preserving legitimate, veterinary use
Xylazine is an important FDA-approved animal sedative used to facilitate the safe handling and medical treatment of many species. This drug is utilized in almost every sector of clinical practice and is especially important for safe cattle handling, given there is no practical alternative for sedation in cattle.
Illicit xylazine is increasingly being found with other illicit narcotic drugs such as fentanyl and heroin. Now lawmakers are looking to address this issue with additional enforcement tools to target those trafficking illicit xylazine.
The Combating Illicit Xylazine Act (H.R. 1839/S. 993) would make illicit xylazine subject to penalties under the federal Controlled Substances Act while maintaining current veterinary access to this important animal sedative.
The AVMA fully supports this legislation because it strikes the right balance of protecting our communities from illicit xylazine while preserving its legitimate use in veterinary medicine.
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