The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee will begin reviewing its version of the Farm Bill tomorow.
“This legislation includes many of my priorities including E15, which will lower gas prices and create $14 billion in new corn demand,” Senator Chuck Grassley said this morning during a conference call with Iowa reporters.
The last Farm Bill was passed eight years and was due for a rewrite in 2023, so congress has passed several extensions of the 2018 version. The One Big Beautiful Bill President Trump signed in July of last year included some federal farm policy updates. The House passed its version of the Farm Bill at the end of April, then passed a stand-alone bill to allow the sale of E15 year round.
Grassley expects a vote in the Senate this week on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to be confirmed for the post. He’s also lobbying for a confirmation vote on Glen Smith of Atlantic, who’s nominated to be the next USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development.
As congress readies for its annual August recess starting next week, the Senate may take a vote on a stop-gap spending plan to keep the government operating past September 30, the last day of the federal fiscal year. “Iowans don’t want to see the government shutdown. That’s why the senate is trying very hard to advance funding legislation this week that would keep the governor open through December the 11th,” Grassley said, “with plans to have all appropriation bills passed by December the 11th.”
Grassley says Republicans want to avoid a rerun of last year’s showdown with Democrats who were seeking an extension of some Affordable Care Act tax credits, an impasse that led to the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history.