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House and Senate spar over ag funding in CR

Republican House leaders said Tuesday that Democrats failed to include trade relief funding for farmers in its short term spending bill. Senate Majority leader McConnell tweeted “it’s no time to add insult to injury and defund help for farmers and rural America.”

House Democrats’ short term spending bill would avert a government shutdown at the end of the month and keep federal agencies funded through December 11^th.

Ranking Member of the Senate Ag Committee Debbie Stabenow says there needs to be more transparency in how CCC funds are used.

“This is all done outside of the Farm Bill. I mean, we’re talking about unprecedented amounts of money between what has been spent and talked about, some $50-Billion dollars.”

She says there’s no reason USDA should run out of Commodity Credit Corporation funds with October farm bill program payments and COVID-19 assistance as the funds renew each year for up to $30 billion in mid-November and USDA should be able to manage what’s due to farmers in the next few weeks.