Federal News
EPA Freezes Grants, Tells Employees Not To Talk About It, Sources Say
Huffington Post | Posted on January 27, 2017The Environmental Protection Agency has frozen its grant programs, according to sources there.EPA staff has been instructed to freeze all its grants ― an extensive program that includes funding for research, redevelopment of former industrial sites, air quality monitoring and education, among other things ― and told not to discuss this order with anyone outside the agency, according to a Hill source with knowledge of the situation. An EPA staffer provided the information to the congressional office anonymously, fearing retaliation.It’s unclear whether the freeze is indefinite or temporary as the agency transitions fully to the Trump administration; the Senate has not yet confirmed Trump’s pick for EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt. It’s also not clear the immediate impact the grant freeze would have on programs across the country, since EPA grants are distributed at varying intervals and frequency.
Struggling U.S. farm sector faces new threat as TPP dies
Reuters | Posted on January 26, 2017U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to back out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, a $62 billion market for U.S. farmers, provides a fresh threat to a slumping agricultural economy that has grown increasingly dependent on exports. Agricultural groups expressed disappointment over the move and urged the new administration to find alternative ways to boost product shipments to Asian countries. Trump announced the cancellation on Monday, quickly fulfilling a campaign promise.
Ag coalition asks Trump to preserve NAFTA 'windfall'
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on January 26, 2017More than 130 agricultural trade groups and companies have sent a letter to President Donald Trump asking him to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in a way that expands on gains it helped the sector achieve. The letter notes that North American intraregional food and agricultural trade is now largely free of tariff and quota restrictions.
Trump Withdraws U.S. From Trans-Pacific Partnership
Growing Produce | Posted on January 26, 2017one of his first moves as President, Donald Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). By signing the order, President Trump says he seeks to negotiate trade deals with individual countries.
Regulatory overreach sinks another farm family
Farm Futures | Posted on January 26, 2017The court decision against this farm family demonstrates why there is so much anger against Washington bureaucracy. he story starts in June, 2002, and was finally determined on April 11, 2016. Arland and Cindy Foster farm in Miner County, S.D. Their farmland is in Prairie Pothole country. EPA, under its WOTUS regulation, seeks to regulate Prairie Potholes. USDA also regulates Prairie Potholes because in 1985 USDA was authorized to determine whether certain farm lands qualify as wetlands. The Fosters initially sought a wetlands determination for 0.8 acres in 2002. In 2011, USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) finally concluded the site was a wetland. USDA’s National Appeals Division (NAD) then issued a 14-page decision saying that NRCS from 2002-2011 had followed “…the proper procedures and had appropriately found that Site 1 was a wetland and that the Fosters had not met their burden of proving the NRCS’s determination was erroneous.”
States sue to block last-minute Obama environmental rule
The Hill | Posted on January 26, 2017Thirteen states are asking a federal judge to block a last-minute Obama administration environmental rule aimed at preventing coal mines from fouling thousands of miles of streams. The states on Tuesday filed a petition in U.S. District Court seeking an injunction against the Stream Protection Rule, a proposal from the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. The rule would prohibit changes to land near coal mines, which would stop miners from dumping debris near streams and rivers. It would also require new testing and monitoring of streams near coal mines. Attorneys general filing the suit said the rule violates the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, which gives authority to regulate coal mines to the states, rather than to the federal government. “This rule tramples states’ retention of sovereign authority under the Tenth Amendment and seeks to destroy an entire industry, displacing hardworking men and women and setting a precedent to disregard states’ own understanding of major industries within their borders,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said in a statement.
EPA Staff told to 'stand down' on axing climate page
EEnews | Posted on January 26, 2017Trump administration officials appear to have walked back plans to scrub climate change references from U.S. EPA's website. "We've been told to stand down," an EPA employee told E&E News today. That new directive comes after staff were told yesterday to remove the agency's climate change page from its website, worrying climate change activists and sending data specialists scrambling to download files. The backlash that erupted after reports surfaced last night that the climate page would be eliminated may have prompted administration officials to change course. News of the plans was first reported last night by Reuters. EPA's press office did not respond to requests for comment today. It's unclear whether the agency's climate page will remain indefinitely, or only temporarily. "It's not imminent," the EPA staffer said of its removal. Just yesterday, staffers had gotten opposite instructions. "The word that came down was 'scrub,'" that employee said. The directive was "clearly from the political people. ... It came from the White House." The controversy over the climate change page comes after EPA was directed to halt its social media and scale back communications with the press. The Trump administration removed the White House climate change website on its first day in office. EPA career staffers, former agency employees and environmentalists view the changes as a troubling sign of how the new administration plans to deal with climate change policies and the agency's workforce.
'Family Farm Relief Bill' could help local dairy farmers
Post Star | Posted on January 26, 2017Finding workers who are willing to show up at 4:30 a.m. and work for more than 12 hours a day for minimum wage is not easy.In fact, it’s almost impossible to find Americans who will do the job, say many dairy farmers in Washington County.But foreigners are not allowed to have a work visa for year-round agricultural work. That means dairy and meat farmers often hire workers who do not have authorization to work here. New York's U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, is proposing to change that by making the H-2A visa a three-year visa for year-round agricultural workers. As part of the proposed Family Farm Relief Act of 2017, farmers would also no longer have to advertise for local workers before applying for visas, nor would they have to complete a “prevailing practices” survey of employment practices in the area. The requirement to hire any qualified American who applies through the first half of the work period would also be abolished, and farmers would no longer have to offer the job first to the foreign workers who worked for them in previous years. Workers would have to leave the country for three months after their three years were up, and could then return on another H-2A visa.Farmers are enthusiastic about the proposals, but many were hesitant to discuss the matter on the record since they use foreign labor now.Some farmers try to make ends meet with a small farm instead. The year-round work becomes a family’s mission.If the farm grows beyond what the family can manage, they often turn to foreign workers.
Clovis takes lead in installing Trump team at USDA
Agri-Pulse | Posted on January 26, 2017Sam Clovis, Donald Trump's top farm policy adviser during the presidential campaign, will be leading the transition group installing his team and policy at the Agriculture Department. Clovis, a co-chair of the Trump campaign, confirmed to Agri-Pulse that he would be leading the USDA transition team. Clovis served as a surrogate for Trump during the campaign. A former economics professor at Morningside College in Iowa, Clovis espoused views that sometimes broke with the GOP platform as well as conservative views in Congress. Clovis said that nutrition programs should stay in the farm bill and that the way to reduce the cost of the nutrition assistance initiatives is to promote economic growth that will put more people to work, rather than cutting programs. Clovis also said that “irresponsible farming” methods on marginal lands because of high commodity prices had contributed to the “dead patch” in the Gulf of Mexico, a reference to the hypoxic zone at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Clovis said the government needed to “incentivize” more conservation on the part of farmers. Trump's landing team has included Brian Klippenstein, executive director of Protect the Harvest, who is expected to eventually return to Missouri. Other landing team members include Carrie Castille, a former adviser to the Louisiana Agriculture Department; Lance Kotschwar, vice president for government and industry affairs at The Gavilon Group LLC, an agribusiness firm; Russell Laird, vice president of federal relations at the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corp.; and Stephen Vaden with the law firm Jones Day.
USDA scrambles to ease concerns after researchers were ordered to stop publishing news releases
The Washington Post | Posted on January 25, 2017Employees of the scientific research arm at the Agriculture Department were ordered Monday to cease publication of “outward facing” documents and news releases, raising concerns that the Trump administration was seeking to influence distribution of their findings. Department officials scrambled to clarify the memo Tuesday afternoon, after intense public scrutiny and media requests, stating that the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) had not “blacked out public information” and adding that scientific articles published through professional peer-reviewed journals have not been banned. Such a decree would have conflicted with established scientific integrity standards and previous media guidance “encouraging, but not requiring, USDA scientists to communicate with the media about their scientific findings.” The memo's shortness and terse language seems to have exacerbated the confusion: “Starting immediately and until further notice, ARS will not release any public-facing documents. This includes, but is not limited to, news releases, photos, fact sheets, news feeds, and social media content,” wrote ARS chief Sharon Drumm in an email to employees.