Skip to content Skip to navigation

Federal News

The curious politics of the proposed USDA relocation

The Progressive Farmer | Posted on January 23, 2019

USDA inserted a somewhat unusual notice in the Federal Register. This USDA notice was just three pages long and it was written in everyday English. Although it was proposing to take a radical step -- moving the Economic Research Service and the National Institute on Food and Agriculture out of Washington, D.C. -- it made scant effort to justify the move. The closest it came to stating a reason was a short phrase in a single sentence citing the opportunity to move the agencies "closer to its customers and facilitate economic development in Rural America." You'd think that before relocating two important agencies with more than 600 highly trained employees the government would have done some serious analysis, carefully weighing the pros and cons. There's no evidence the Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and his team did that. Instead, the notice leapt immediately into soliciting expressions of interest to house the two agencies. It spelled out what USDA is looking for in the way of new sites. If the aim is to get government closer to its customers, ERS is already as close as it can get. The customers for its analyses of food and agricultural issues are Congressional and executive branch decision makers. NIFA awards research grants, which is a good reason it should not be located on a university campus, where its proximity to one group of grant applicants would raise concerns about favoritism. NIFA needs a neutral home with close links to other parts of USDA. If USDA wants to move agencies closer to farmers, it has any number whose customers really are farmers. Memo to Secretary Perdue: Move one of those, not ERS and NIFA.


Bipartisan resistance to ERS, NIFA moves emerges in competing bills to end shutdown

Politico | Posted on January 23, 2019

House Democrats and Senate Republicans remain bitterly divided over President Donald Trump's call for border-wall funding, but they appear to be on the same page about delaying USDA's controversial proposal to relocate a pair of research agencies outside of the Washington area. A new Senate proposal to reopen the Agriculture Department and other agencies shuttered by the monthlong spending impasse takes issue with "unknown costs associated with the proposed move” of the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.The Senate blueprint for ending the partial government shutdown, expected to be voted on this week, is perhaps the most prominent example of Republicans pushing back against Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s plan to relocate both research agencies before the end of 2019. The House is also expected to vote this week on an appropriations measure that includes similar report language calling for an indefinite delay of the ERS and NIFA proposals — demonstrating bipartisan support for slowing the USDA's effort.


Ag Trade Issues: EU and China

Farm Policy News | Posted on January 23, 2019

As the U.S. and European Union trade negotiations unfold, the two sides have competing perspectives over what will be discussed:  The U.S. has included agriculture in its Summary of Specific Negotiating Objectives, while the EU has not.  Despite the discord, recent trade data indicates that the EU has purchased an increasing amount of U.S. soybeans.  “Trump boasted of his verbal agreement with leaders of the European Union, (‘we’re starting the documents,’ Trump said as an aside), that would move toward the elimination of trade barriers. The Register article quoted President Tump as saying: “We just opened up Europe for you farmers.  You’re not going to be too angry with Trump, I can tell you.” However, The Wall Street Journal reported on July 27th that, “While Mr. Trump told an Iowa crowd [July 26th] that ‘we just opened up Europe for you farmers,’ officials in Brussels later said he did no such thing.”


Congressional bill halts USDA's proposed ERS, NIFA move

Feedstuffs | Posted on January 23, 2019

On Thursday, the House revived previously unpublished conference report language in an effort to move the fiscal year (FY) 2019 appropriations process forward. The specific language expressed concern about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plan to relocate and reorganize the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food & Agriculture (NIFA). The report included language that had not been included in the 2018 Senate-passed FY 2019 agriculture appropriations bill, nor the agriculture appropriations bills put forward earlier this year by the House, according to a release from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), a vocal opponent of USDA’s plan to relocate the offices.


EU open to discussing cars, not farming in U.S. trade talks

Reuters | Posted on January 22, 2019

The European Union is willing to discuss car tariffs but will not remove duties on farm products in trade talks with the United States, its trade chief said on Friday, setting it on a possible collision course with Washington. The European Commission, which coordinates trade policy for the 28 member European Union, published two negotiating mandates on Friday, which were notable more for what they left out than for what they included.The EU proposal on tariffs falls far short of the wide-ranging wish-list, including comprehensive agricultural market access, set out by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration a week ago.


Trump trade policy: Playing a game of chicken with American agriculture

The Hill | Posted on January 22, 2019

Not withstanding, the president’s rhetoric, after 14 months of what appeared to be stressful negotiations, the new NAFTA (the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA) ended up looking a lot like the old NAFTA with relatively small changes in the agricultural provisions. The good news was not really that that there was promise of additional access to Canada’s dairy, poultry and eggs sectors (the benefits from which have been estimated to be small, increasing NAFTA exports by about 1 percent). Nor was it that the new agreement contains many modernization features (many of which had been negotiated in the TPP agreement). Far more significantly, the new agreement maintained the tariff concessions that had been negotiated in 1992 under the original NAFTA that substantially expanded access to Canadian and Mexican markets for U.S. agricultural producers. However, even the benefits from the original and new NAFTA agreements are currently being compromised by other trade actions initiated by the Trump administration. In response to the so-called Section 232 tariffs imposed against exports of steel and aluminum to the United States, Canada and Mexico have imposed retaliatory tariffs against a variety of U.S. agricultural products including pork and cheese. Those actions are estimated to reduce U.S. agricultural exports by as much as $2 billion, more than offsetting any gains associated with the changes embedded in the new NAFTA agreement.


How the shutdown will inflict lasting damage

Politico | Posted on January 22, 2019

The longest government shutdown in U.S. history will scar the federal bureaucracy and U.S. economy long after the doors are unlocked and workers return. The feds will struggle to dig out of a backlog of hiring and training that’s essential to pushing out tax refunds, protecting U.S. borders and guiding air traffic. Government contractors are expected to jack up prices on everything from helicopters to IT support, growing wise to an administration that doesn’t pay its bills for weeks on end.And the agriculture industry, real estate sector, oil drillers and global investors are all bracing for years of cascading setbacks spurred by the pause in government loans, permitting and deal-making approval. The enduring pain will extend across the quarter of the U.S. government now largely shuttered.“Even if the shutdown were resolved tomorrow, the fallout is going to last months, if not years,” said former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.


Trump: US agriculture industry needs immigrants

Watt AgNet | Posted on January 22, 2019

U.S. President Donald Trump told members of the American Farm Bureau Federation that the agriculture industry needs immigrant workers, but those workers need to be in the country legally. Trump on January 14 addressed the AFBF national convention.


US Forest Service builds pen for possible horse slaughter

Capital Press | Posted on January 20, 2019

The U.S. Forest Service has built its first corral for wild horses, which could allow it to bypass federal restrictions and sell the animals for slaughter. The agency acknowledged in court filings in a potentially precedent-setting legal battle that it built the new pen in Northern California for mustangs gathered this fall on national forest land along the Nevada border because of restrictions on such sales at other federal holding facilities.The agency denies claims by horse advocates it has made up its mind to sell the more than 250 horses for slaughter. But it also says it may have no choice because of the high cost of housing the animals and continued ecological impacts it claims overpopulated herds are having on federal rangeland."While slaughtering wild horses does not present a pleasant picture, the reality of this dire situation is not pleasant," Justice Department lawyers representing the agency wrote in its most recent filing last month. "The Forest Service is taking a step to reduce what is universally recognized as a natural catastrophe."


Trump: US agriculture industry needs immigrants

Watt AgNet | Posted on January 20, 2019

“When we have proper security, people aren’t going to come, except for the people we want to come, because we want to take people in to help our farmers, etc.” “You need these people. It will make it easier. … I’m glad I told you that because, look, you’re in the business and a lot of people don’t understand this. You need people to help you with the farms and I’m not going to rule this out. … You’ve had some people for 20-25 years that are incredible, and then they go home. And they can’t get back in. That’s not going to happen, but we can’t keep the wrong ones out.”Trump, who was introduced to the crowd by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, stressed to AFBF members that he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to agricultural issues.“I know a lot about the farming world."


Pages