Democrats wanted more food aid. Republicans wanted payments for farmers. They passed both.
For a brief moment earlier this week, it looked like food and farming issues might scuttle Congressional negotiations on a stopgap funding bill that will keep the government open through mid-December.
Democrats initially introduced a continuing resolution that did not include flexibility for the government to spend beyond the $30 billion limit in direct payments to farmers through the Commodity Credit Corporation—the pot of money intended to mitigate the impact of various trade wars and, now, Covid-19 in farm country. Republicans called this a non-starter.
After Democrats pushed for and received more funding for hunger relief and agreed to replenish the farmer payment funds, the continuing resolution to fund the government until December 11 passed late Tuesday evening. It is expected to pass in the Senate and will likely be signed by the President in time to avert a September 30 government shutdown, Politico reports.
Here’s what’s included in the bill: A guarantee that the already-announced $14 billion second round of payments to farmers via the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) will proceed without delay. Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan trumpeted the inclusion of a provision in the compromise that prohibits USDA from spending any of the money to help fossil fuel companies. It’s unclear if this is really a change in policy—Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said recently that he had no intention of routing farm aid payments to the oil and gas industries.
We’ve reported that the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program has sent huge payments to some farmers while others received nothing. The second round of payments announced last week does include an option for farmers to apply for payments based on past sales, a wish-list item for small-scale and sustainable farming advocates we interviewed back in July.
