Senate Approves Farm Bill, Includes Export Funding and International Trade Reorganization in USDA
The Senate approved the 2014 farm bill in a 66-27 vote June 10, which would reauthorize numerous agricultural programs through 2018, including extensions of export credit and foreign market development funding. The bill would also create a new position within the Department of Agriculture charged with handling all of USDA’s export and import functions, and being a “multiagency coordinator of sanitary and phytosanitary issues and nontariff trade barriers in agriculture.” It would be a presidentially nominated, Senate-approved, position. The bill would require the USDA Secretary to submit a report to Congress 180 days after the passage of the bill, proposing a plan for reorganizing the Department’s international trade functions -- including hiring the new Under Secretary. The actual reorganization and hiring of the Under Secretary would take place one year after the bill was passed. Read the complete Senate bill (here).
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For more on trade-related provisions in the Senate farm bill, S-954, see 13051424. The House version of the farm bill, HR-1947, passed out of committee May 16. The bill will likely be debated on the House floor later this month. For more on the House bill, see 13051528. The current farm bill expires September 30. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., praised the bill's bipartisan majority in a June 10 statement. "Because we worked across party lines to streamline programs, we were able to save tax dollars while investing in initiatives that help boost exports, help family farmers sell locally and spur innovations in new bio-manufacturing and bio-energy industries." Read Stabenow's complete statement, which includes a summary of the bill, (here).