News: Farm bill could target child labor

Monday, June 3, 2024

Farm bill could target child labor

Jun 03, 2024

With help from Marcia Brown

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) at the U.S. Capitol May 16, 2022. (Francis Chung/E&E News/POLITICO via AP Images)

New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker’s bill to end federal contracts with companies that violate child labor law is in talks to be included in the Senate farm bill, a Democratic aide confirmed. | AP

QUICK FIX

— Democratic lawmakers are pushing for child labor law enforcement measures under the next farm bill.

— The Environmental Protection Agency said John Deere was potentially violating the Clean Air Act by restricting repair of its products’ emissions systems.

— The EPA allegedly failed to report PFAS in pesticides samples sent to the agency for testing, according to a watchdog group complaint.

— The United Egg Producers said the current avian influenza outbreak is the “greatest threat” to the domestic egg industry following virus detections in massive flocks.

IT’S MONDAY, JUNE 3. Welcome to Morning Agriculture! I’m your host Grace Yarrow. Send tips to gyarrow@politico.com and follow us at @Morning_Ag. Happy National Egg Day!

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Driving the Day

ADDRESSING CHILD LABOR: Lawmakers are negotiating a measure in the Democratic-led Senate farm bill to enforce federal child labor law and other labor laws in the food industry.

A Democratic aide confirmed to Morning Ag that New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker’s bill to end federal contracts with companies that violate child labor law is in talks to be included in the Senate farm bill.

That bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), applies to all federal contractors, but might be narrowed for the farm bill to solely apply to USDA so that the bill is within the Ag Committee’s jurisdiction, the aide said.

A spokesperson for Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) declined to comment on what measures may or may not be in the Senate farm bill.

Stabenow released her framework for the Senate bill last month and has staunchly denounced the GOP-led House bill that advanced in a 33-21 bipartisan vote last month. Whether to implement measures on child labor law enforcement could be yet another key difference between the Senate and House farm bills.

A Senate Ag Committee GOP spokesperson said he was unaware of discussions around measures on child labor in the farm bill.

The House side: Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) introduced an amendment during the House farm bill markup that would have barred USDA from contracting with meatpacking facilities engaging in illegal child labor.

Casar told MA in an interview that he’s pushing for an even stronger version of that bill to be included in the Senate farm bill.

“I've had conversations with Senator Stabenow and she has made it clear that she wants to champion issues of workers,” Casar said.

GOP response: House Republicans killed Casar’s amendment in a party-line vote, instead passing an amendment by Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) to initiate a Government Accountability Office study on child labor.

Republicans criticized Casar for filing the amendment late in the day and not giving members time to review the material and implications. A Van Orden spokesperson told MA a top concern was ensuring there’d still be a supply for USDA’s contracting for school nutrition programs, but that the GAO report will be a first step to create “workable policies.”

When MA asked Casar if a GAO study will help lawmakers understand more about illegal child labor, he quipped: “Come on.” (Democrats have pointed out that a GAO study was conducted in 2018.)

Future hearing: House Ag Committee Chair G.T. Thompson also said during the markup that he would invite acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to talk before the committee about child labor in agriculture.

Casar said he hasn’t heard from Thompson on the timing of that hearing, but that he’s hopeful to rally some bipartisan support around enforcement for child labor laws.

AROUND THE AGENCIES

OH, DEERE: John Deere has alerted equipment owners that they could seek repair services of their own choosing after the Environmental Protection Agency said the company was potentially violating the Clean Air Act by restricting repair of its products’ emissions systems, Marcia reports this morning.

“EPA informed John Deere that EPA believed that a number of their products did not conform to EPA regulations with regard to their emissions warranty statement,” EPA spokesperson Remmington Belford confirmed in an email.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan previously said that the CAA does not prohibit who can repair emissions systems, despite some manufacturers blaming the environmental rules for restricting equipment owners from seeking repair services outside of authorized manufacturer repair shops.

The EPA declined to say when it alerted Deere to the potential violation or how many products were involved. The company appears to have mailed letters to equipment owners earlier this year.

PFAS IN PESTICIDES: The EPA allegedly failed to report PFAS detected in pesticides samples sent to the agency for testing, according to a complaint filed last week by watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

EPA tests all pesticides prior to registration due to the known environmental impact of PFAS when used in pesticides and agriculture, according to the agency’s website.

PEER’s formal complaint demands that the EPA retract a May 2023 research memo and press release where it stated that PFAS were not found in tested pesticide products.

EPA did not report “high PFAS concentrations” found in those samples, which were deliberately spiked with PFAS as a “common quality control technique,” according to Kyla Bennett, PEER’s director of science policy.

“They made up all sorts of excuses about why they shouldn't have to report that, but we went through the results with a fine-tooth comb,” Bennett told MA.

Response: Because the issue is “pending litigation,” EPA declined to comment to MA on the PEER report.

Next steps: Bennett tells MA the ultimate goal of the complaint was to publicize concerns about PFAS to farmers and consumers.

“If I had faith in EPA, I would say that scientists would look at this and go, ‘Yeah, we shouldn't have done this,’ and retract the memo,” Bennett said. “But I do not have high hopes that they will.”

BIRD FLU OUTBREAK

EGG DAY UPDATE: The current avian influenza outbreak is the “greatest threat” to American egg producers, according to United Egg Producers President and CEO Chad Gregory.

“On-farm biosecurity is at its most stringent levels, and despite these robust precautionary measures, the egg industry has lost flocks to [bird flu] in recent weeks,” Gregory told MA in a statement. “This is a sad and difficult time for affected farmers, who must act swiftly to prevent the spread of the disease and go through an extensive recovery process.”

A massive flock of over 4.2 million egg-laying chickens in Iowa was detected to have bird flu last week.

Grassley says: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told reporters on a call that he’s “not worried” about government protocols for responding to detections.

But he didn’t seem sold on federal aid for producers affected by the outbreak.

“Then you get back to whether or not the federal government is doing enough to help farmers hurt by this through the money that we pay out for the loss.”

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Row Crops

— Former top USDA official Ted McKinney testified that Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) called him in 2019 after McKinney had been trying to get Egyptian officials to reverse their decision to grant a new company a monopoly certifying halal meat exported to that country, our Daniel Han reported.

— The new CEO of pesticide giant Syngenta, a subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned enterprise, is trying to fight concerns that the group’s foreign ownership is a threat to U.S. national security. (The Wall Street Journal)

— House Ag members Brad Finstad (R-Minn.) and Jim Costa (D-Calif.) wrote a letter to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra with concerns around the Dietary Guidelines review process, especially pertaining to alcohol consumption.

THAT’S ALL FOR MA! Drop us a line and send us your agriculture job announcements or events: gyarrow@politico.com, meredithlee@politico.com, marciabrown@politico.com, abehsudi@politico.com and ecadei@politico.com.