Policy Updates and Issue News December 2020

Coronavirus Relief and Government Funding

Following a week-long delay, on Sunday December 27^th President Trump signed an omnibus bill into law which included Coronavirus Relief Funds and the annual bill which funds the government. In the coronavirus relief package highlights include a new round of $600 stimulus checks, an eleven-week extension of expanded unemployment benefits, a new round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding, as well as money for vaccines, schools, child care, the postal service, rental assistance, and food/farm aid (more details in the next section of this newsletter). The government funding bill was mostly as expected, with significant overlaps with last year’s budget and President Trump’s proposed 2021 budget plan. As well, other measures were included in the omnibus package such as new regulations of surprise medical billing, money for community health centers, and various tax breaks and extensions. Despite eventually signing the bill, President Trump complained that stimulus checks were not valued at $2,000, and that unrelated measures such as the ending of Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (which protects websites from being sued for content posted by third parties to the site), or the creation of a commission to investigate claims of election fraud were not included. Following President Trump’s criticism, Democrats in the House passed a bill to increase stimulus check payouts to $2,000 on Tuesday December 29^th, however in the Senate the Republican Majority Leader has tied a vote on $2,000 checks to ending Section 230 and the creation of a commission to investigate claims of election fraud, leaving the bill’s fate unknown.

National Defense Authorization Act

Every year Congress passes an act to fund the military called the National Defense Authorization Act with overwhelming support. However, this year President Trump vetoed the bill due to it not containing unrelated measures to end Section 230, leaving the bill’s fate and funding for the military in jeopardy. Despite this, on Tuesday December 29^th the House overrode President Trump’s veto with significant support from Democrats and Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell scheduled an override vote for Wednesday December 30^th; however, some prominent Democrats like Senator Bernie Sanders have threatened to filibuster the vote unless McConnell allows a stand-alone vote on expansion of stimulus checks to $2,000.

New Congress

On Sunday January 3^rd, a new Congress will be sworn in with a narrowed Democratic majority in the House and an unclear majority party in the Senate as run-offs for both Georgia Senate seats will not take place until January 5^th. With the start of a new Congress, leaders in both chambers will be selected with Representative Nancy Pelosi likely to narrowly remain as Speaker of the House, and Senator Mitch McConnell to remain Majority Leader at least until new Senators from Georgia can be seated.

Financial Relief for Ag and Food Industries

The $900 billion stimulus package passed by Congress and signed by President Trump provides an estimated $13 billion for food and agricultural programs.  Additional assistance will go these programs:

• A supplemental Dairy Margin Coverage program
• Specialty crop block grants, Local Agriculture Market programs, The Gus Schumacher nutrition program, farming opportunities training and farm stress programs
• New funds to address gaps in nutrition research
• Producers of ag commodities who suffered market price declines over a specified time period
• Additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)
• Changes to the Small Business Administration’s PPP rules to allow the deduction of business expenses paid for with PPP loan funds
• Support for livestock, poultry and dairy producers who were forced to euthanize animals due to disruptions at processing plants
• Provides funding for poultry and livestock contract growers to cover up to 80% of losses suffered because of supply chain disruptions earlier in the pandemic
• Aid to small meat processors for facility improvements to qualify for federal or state inspection that allows them to sell product over state lines
• Assistance to affected fisheries
• Payments to producers of advanced biofuel, biomass-based diesel, cellulosic biofuel, conventional biofuel, and renewable fuel due to unexpected market losses due to the pandemic
• Funds for USDA to purchase and distribute food and agricultural products through nonprofit organizations

U.S.  Challenges Canada’s Dairy Quotas

The two countries will begin consultations under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement dispute rules.  This comes after months of complaints by U.S. dairy farmers that Canada is manipulating USMCA’s new tariff rate quotas to minimize U.S. gains to the Canadian dairy market.

Food Insecurity Crisis Deepens

Lines outside food pantries are a common sight around the country as families wait their turn in row after row of cars.  Many pantries fear they will run out of food, too.  Feeding America is the largest responder to hunger in the charitable sector and reports an average of 60% more people this year are seeking help from the organization’s 200 food banks.  Second Harvest Food bank has seen a sharp decline in food drives as people are not gathering in offices, schools and other places where food drives would normally be organized.  Second Harvest says people are arriving on site at 2-3 am or even the night before to be sure they receive supplies, and approximately 4 in 10 are new to needing charitable assistance.

Climate Change Vaults to Top of Biden Agenda

President-elect Biden has made it clear he’s listening on climate change.  He has announced his intentions to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement which is an international accord to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  President Obama joined the agreement by executive action in 2016 and President Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2017.  Biden has announced his administration’s “climate team” to be led by John Kerry, former senator from Massachusetts, former Secretary of State in the Obama Administration, and Democratic presidential candidate in 2004.  Other members of the team will include EPA Administrator Michael Regan (North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality director), Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, (congresswoman from New Mexico), White House climate czar Gina McCarthy (former EPA Administrator), Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm (former governor of Michigan), and White House Council on Environmental Quality chairperson Brenda Mallory (former regulatory policy director at the Southern Environmental Law Center).

Climate 21 Project

Robert Bonnie, former Under Secretary of Agriculture with President Obama who heads the Biden transition team at USDA, has authored an in-depth transition memo called the Climate 21 Project.  It provides the incoming USDA leadership a blueprint of opportunities to maximize USDA’s contributions to an aggressive Administration-wide climate change mitigation effort.  He suggests USDA has tremendous resources to partner with farmers, ranchers and forest owners to reduce greenhouse gasses through carbon sequestration and emissions reductions.  In the past, Bonnie had advocated for carbon credit trading and carbon banking.

Questions Raised About Agriculture as a Climate Solution

Soil scientists and soil health experts caution that the science is not yet in place for accurate and cost-effective measurement and quantification of soil carbon sequestration.  On the other hand, carbon market proponents suggest using “simulation modeling” to assign carbon credits for cover crops, no-till and other practices to estimate the conversion of carbon dioxide.  To help navigate the dilemma of a climate change path forward for Agriculture, the National Grange is considering joining the newly formed Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance.  The group represents farmers, ranchers, forest owners, the food sector, state governments and environmental advocates.

Grange COVID Letter in National Spotlight

In early December, National Grange president Betsy Huber wrote to the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration urging the FDA to consider all safe and effective COVID treatment options.  She referenced efforts by American companies to innovate and invent new solutions including promising results on a potential oral delivery method for a COVID-19 vaccine. Offering multiple vaccine delivery mechanisms could mitigate many of the concerns facing rural residents, ensuring that doses could be distributed rapidly and administered in the safety of their own homes instead of having to travel long distances to a health care professional.  This could allow vaccine access for those with difficulties traveling or those who are unwilling to travel for fear of contracting the virus.  The Grange letter was picked up by media outlets nationwide and Huber was interviewed by Bloomberg Businessweek which titled its report “At Age 153, the National Grange Confronts the Pandemic”.

Grange COVID Vaccine Message Circulates in Washington

An editorial by National Grange president Betsy Huber in Washington’s The Hill newsletter highlighted the need to consider all options for COVID-19 vaccine delivery.  The Hill is widely read by policy-makers and influencers in the nation’s capital.  Huber praised American innovation in conjunction with a proactive federal reaction for the speed of vaccine development, approval and distribution previously believed impossible.  But with a COVID virus likely to be a part of our lives for a long time, future vaccine delivery options need to reflect the needs of vulnerable populations living in remote areas.

Congress Curbs Surprise Medical Bills

One of the National Grange’s top policy priorities is now a reality.  Congress passed a plan to prohibit most surprise medical bills as part of its end-of-year spending and COVID-19 relief package.  This action ends a two-year debate over how to fix the practice of surprise out- of- network emergency care medical bills.  The enacted compromise stipulates:

• Surprise billing would be barred for out-of-network emergency care. Patients will be asked to pay only their in-network charges for the care received.  The question then becomes what the insurer will pay the care provider.
• There will be a 30-day period for the insurer and health care provider to negotiate payment for out-of-network claims.
• Arbitration will be available for both sides to make an offer and have the arbitrator make a final decision on payment.

New Drug Pricing Rule Threatens Access to Critical Care

The National Grange joined over 300 patient groups, care providers, membership organizations and advocacy groups in urging Congress to pass legislation to delay a new Health and Human Services rule that mandates foreign drug pricing for Medicare Part D therapies.  The Most Favored Nation pricing rule will adversely affect Medicare patients with debilitating and deadly conditions such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, macular degeneration, autoimmune disorders and rare diseases.  Patients would be forced to accept cheaper alternative therapy that may have lower efficacy or greater risks, or decide to postpone or forego treatment.

Sustainable Agriculture Will Depend on 5G connectivity

National Grange president Betsy Huber was featured recently in the Washington newsletter Morning Consult talking about how sustainable agriculture for the future will use high speed connectivity.  Huber called upon Congress to prioritize 5G buildouts in rural America to increase agriculture’s productivity, decrease input costs and reduce its environmental footprint.

Threat to Rural Broadband Innovation

The National Grange and several ag groups recently asked the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider proposed changes to the distributed transmission system rules that threaten further deployment of innovative rural broadband solutions such as TV white space technology.

FCC Targets Unserved Rural Areas

The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) is a Federal Communications Commission program designed to close the digital divide by investing billions of dollars in the construction of rural broadband networks.  The recent RDOF Phase 1 auction targeted the rural locations that are most difficult to serve.   Over 300 providers participated in the auction including cable operators, electric cooperatives, telephone companies, satellite companies, and fixed wireless providers.  RDOF winners had to commit to provide service to an area at a given performance tier and latency at FCC’s current funding support amount.   Successful providers will deploy high-speed broadband to over 5.2 million unserved homes, businesses, farms and ranches over the next 10 years.