Ag Policy
U.S. ag is suffering from a labor shortage that could increase production costs and consumer food prices if not addressed through visa reform to provide better access to the foreign-born workers on which it depends.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on ag labor reform on Wed., July 21. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley says the seasonal H-2A Visa program will be under review.
U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) visited with Illinois hog farmers and Illinois Pork Producers Association Executive Director Jennifer Tirey about the upcoming budget reconciliation package.
USDA Secretary Vilsack announced that $700 million in competitive grant funding will be available through the new Farm and Food Workers Relief grant program to help farm and food workers with pandemic costs.
If the labor shortage is not addressed, it could lead to farms and plants shutting down, causing serious financial harm to the communities in which they operate, says NPPC President Jen Sorenson.
NPPC submitted comments to the U.S. Department of State calling on immigration officials to establish a better system for considering and adjudicating applications for a visa widely used to fill hog farm jobs.
Livestock haulers secured a win in the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill, which the House approved last week. Provisions of Sen. Deb Fischer’s HAULS Act are included in the bipartisan infrastructure framework.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor will make an additional 35,000 H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas available for the second half of fiscal year 2022.
The National Pork Producers Council has hired two new team members to work out of the Washington, DC, office to help carry out the organization’s mission.
Senate Agriculture Committee advances the nomination of Tom Vilsack as USDA Secretary to the full Senate.
According to Secretary Vilsack, these efforts will “increase the competitive advantage of U.S. agriculture both domestically and internationally,” while building wealth in rural America.
President Donald Trump says he has accepted the resignation of scandal-plagued Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.
The Senate on Thursday passed USMCA in a landfall vote of 89-10. As expected, the agriculture industry praised the passage and looks forward to President Donald Trump signing the bill into law.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly passed the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA).
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack for agriculture secretary, according to two sources familiar with the decision.
Lawmakers may have left town, but centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) left no doubt that he cannot support President Biden’s $1.75 trillion social and climate spending plan, imperiling the president’s agenda.
The AFBF suggests EPA halt their plan to rewrite WOTUS until it has more guidance in deciding which waters are categorized under the federal jurisdiction.
The Senate Commerce Committee passed the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA), helping agricultural exporters level the playing field for American exports.
The House Ag Committee is seeking feedback on the 2018 Farm Bill in preparation for the 2023 Farm Bill draft.
NPPC held its fall Legislative Action Conference last week, meeting with their members of Congress to discuss pork industry priorities.
House and Senate Ag Committee members have a tough job ahead of them writing the 2023 farm bill. They’ll have to balance Republican plans to cut federal spending with desires from farm groups.
Tyson Foods Inc’s pork processing plant in Logansport, Indiana, has been suspended from exporting products to China, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday.
NPPC will not take a position on USDA’s proposed “Transparency in Poultry Grower Contracting and Tournaments” rule that heightens disclosure requirements between poultry dealers and growers, but submitted comments.
From a train derailment outside Hereford, Texas, to growing concerns about a possible labor strike in mid-September, rail delays have been a severe pain point for the grain users and shippers all year.
Fufeng Group recently bought 300 acres of land in North Dakota and the proximity to a U.S. military base has many concerned. But this isn’t the first time questions have been raised about China’s stake in the U.S.
Do tariffs fuel inflation? John Phipps’s Customer Support segment explains why economists have struggled to come up with estimates of economic effects due to lingering COVID influence on world business.
A federal court judge signed a court order approving an agreement to delay enforcement of a state law that would have banned the sale of pork from animals not housed according to the state’s housing standards.
Europe and the Netherlands have been dealing with an increasingly incendiary political situation pitting the country’s farmers against EU government plans to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2030.
The Next Generation Fuels Act—originally introduced to the House in 2021—was unveiled in the Senate on Tuesday. If passed, manufacturers will have to release vehicles with higher blend capabilities by 2026.
USDA is increasing the amount of funding available for the Spot Market Hog Pandemic Program and expects to issue approximately $62.8 million in pandemic assistance payments to hog producers starting this week.