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Policy Updates and Issue News May 2025

Agriculture and Food

Farm bill charts new territory

The House Agriculture Committee finished a marathon committee markup session to include parts of the farm bill funding in the fiscal 2025 budget reconciliation process. That’s a break from tradition whereby the farm bill is normally adopted as a stand-alone bill. The strategy here is to rearrange funding priorities and budget cuts and include these in a massive must-pass legislative package that only requires a simple majority vote. The 2025 budget resolution passed by the House and Senate in April requires the Ag Committee to come up with $230 billion in net spending cuts over 10 years. The Ag Committee voted to cut $290 billion from nutrition assistance (SNAP) and use $60 billion of those savings to increase spending on commodity programs, crop insurance, trade promotion and several other farm bill programs. The legislation would require states to cover some of the costs associated with the SNAP program going forward. Democrats on the committee opposed the bill. Funding farm programs by cutting SNAP benefits risks rupturing a urban-rural coalition that long has been seen as crucial to enacting farm bills. Committee leadership says that by tightening SNAP provisions, adding additional work requirements, and eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, those truly in need will continue to receive assistance. The legislation could face changes when it is considered by the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Court orders agencies to pause actions

A northern California federal judge has ordered the Agriculture Department and 20 other federal agencies to temporarily halt downsizing and reorganizing efforts. The judge found that a mix of unions, professional groups and trade organizations are likely to succeed on their claim that President Trump went beyond his authority in issuing an executive order to reform the federal workforce without first getting approval from Congress.

Live animal imports suspended at southern border

USDA has halted live cattle, bison and horse imports through U.S. ports of entry along the southern border due to the continued northward spread of New World Screwworm (NWS) in Mexico. Over the past two years screwworm has spread north through Panama and into Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize and now Mexico. NWS fly larvae burrow into the flesh of livestock, pets, wildlife, and other animals and cause serious and often deadly damage to the animal.

Health Care

Health care spending reductions underway

The House Energy and Commerce Committee completed working on their mandate to find $880 billion in health care spending reductions for the budget reconciliation process.  The committee bill unfortunately targets Medicaid for the majority of health care spending cuts at $715 billion. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates there could be as much as $200 billion of waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicaid program, but the $715 billion is a serious development for the 12 million residents of rural areas. In rural America, about half the children are on Medicaid, the population is seriously underinsured and rural hospitals are closing. The National Rural Health Association, whose hospitals and clinics serve as the provider of last resort for rural patients, predicts cuts of this magnitude will force remaining rural facilities to reduce or cut service lines or close their doors completely. Rural long-term care facilities will also be seriously impacted by such massive cuts. The National Grange is mounting an aggressive campaign to substantially reduce the level of Medicaid spending cuts.

Rural health care relies on pharmacies

Pharmacies are more accessible to rural residents than doctors and clinics. For those living in rural areas, the pharmacy is often the first and only stop they make for critical health services. The bipartisan Ensuring Community Access to Pharmacist Services Act would provide payment under Medicare Part B to ensure pharmacists can protect seniors from the threat of influenza, RSV, COVID and other common infectious diseases. National Grange joined over 50 patient, health care and disease groups to urge Congress to pass this legislation.

The need to target women’s health

H.R. 1672, the MINI Act, would advance research and investment in genetically targeted technology for rare, complex and hard-to-treat conditions that disproportionately impact women. The National Grange, 30 patient advocacy groups and other stakeholders sent a letter to the Hill urging Congress to pass the MINI Act.

Make decisions on COVID 19 vaccine early

The National Grange filed comments with FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee to request the selection of the 2025-2026 formula for COVID-19 vaccines be made early and supplies be made available to dispense with other respiratory vaccines. Grange cited the example of the huge success of the vaccination rates at the Eastern States Exposition (Big E late September-early October) where flu and COVID vaccines are both offered at the New England Grange House. It is also important that residents of remote rural areas be able to receive all their respiratory immunizations with one trip to the provider.

Taxes

Tax package passes House committee

The House Ways and Means Committee has passed its tax bill that will be rolled into the budget reconciliation package once all committees have completed their reconciliation instructions. It includes a mixture of tax extensions, tax cuts, new tax measures and revenue raisers. Key provisions enacted include:

  • Makes the 2017 tax cuts permanent
  • Increases the standard deduction for individuals
  • Increases the child tax credit
  • No taxes on tips and overtime
  • Increases and makes permanent the estate and gift tax exemption
  • Restores 100% bonus depreciation on property placed in service prior to 2030
  • Extends the $10,000 cap on state and local taxes deductions

The bill’s provisions are subject to change as it moves through the legislative process.

Telecommunication

Grange continues to champion last mile Wi-Fi

National Grange President Chris Hamp penned an op ed about connecting remote areas to broadband service that received wide readership in the Washington-based Agri-Pulse newsletter entitled, We need the entire toolbox to connect rural communities. She highlighted the expansion of low earth orbit (LEO) communications satellites that make satellite broadband more feasible now for remote area connectivity. National Grange policy is technology neutral on Wi-Fi delivery, meaning that the technology that is most cost efficient, delivery-effective and adaptable to an area should be used there.

Transportation

Highway Trust Fund needs funding equity

The National Grange and the Agriculture Transportation Working Group sent a letter to Congress to remind members of challenges that could lead to insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) within a few years. Although Congress established the HTF as a “user pays” system, not all highway users are contributing equitably. Electric vehicles do not contribute at all because they are not subject to federal fuel tax. Hybrid vehicles, while subject to the fuel tax on the gasoline they consume. Hybrid vehicles, while subject to fuel tax on the gasoline they consume, contribute less than traditional internal combustion vehicles. The working group urged Congress to include language in the upcoming budget reconciliation package that ensures all vehicle users, regardless of fuel type or technology, contribute equitably to the upkeep and improvement of our roads and bridges.

Perspective

“Adversity introduces a man to himself.”  ~  Albert Einstein

 

“The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”  ~  Chinese proverb

 

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”  ~  Henry Ford

 

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”  ~  Robert F. Kennedy

 

“Difficulties strengthen the mind as labor does the body.”  ~  Seneca

 

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.”  ~  Winston Churchill