Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt managed to fire a Parthian shot on his final day in office when he cemented a massive loophole for some of the dirtiest, most polluting trucks on the road, allowing manufacturers to build even more them. [node:read-more:link]
Steven Rattner shares four charts that show US-Canadian trade is far different from what Trump has portrayed. The US actually has a trade surplus with Canada — and a substantial one with dairy product. We export roughly twice as much in dairy to Canada as we import from them — and our total dairy trade is only a small fraction of overall trade with the country last year. Canada's tariffs are actually the lowest of the major developed countries. [node:read-more:link]
A trade war between the world’s two largest economies officially began on Friday morning as the Trump administration followed through with its threat to impose tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese products, a significant escalation of a fight that could hurt companies and consumers in both the United States and China. The penalties, which went into effect at 12:01 a.m., prompted quick retaliation by Beijing. China said it immediately put its own similarly sized tariffs on an unspecified clutch of American goods. [node:read-more:link]
cott Pruitt's polarizing tenure as head of the Environmental Protection Agency has come to an end. President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that he has accepted Pruitt's resignation. Trump said that the agency's deputy administrator, Andrew Wheeler, will become the acting head of EPA. The departure follows months of scrutiny that gathered momentum following reports that Pruitt had rented a Capitol Hill condominium linked to an energy lobbyist on favorable terms. [node:read-more:link]
China has ordered state media not to report on comments from President Donald Trump or US officials because of the trade conflict. China told its media to not "attack Trump's vulgarity," and instead said to use state-sanctioned experts and promote "economic brightspots" by using "important page placement." The notice indicates how China is trying to shield its citizens from news of trade escalations with the US. [node:read-more:link]
Congress is preparing to reconcile two versions of the farm bill, a sweeping piece of legislation renewed every five years that governs an array of agricultural and food assistance programs, including SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Once known as food stamps, SNAP helps nearly 44 million Americans – mostly children, working parents, the elderly and people with disabilities – afford a basic diet each month. While the Senate version of the farm bill would mostly leave SNAP intact through 2023, the House version, which was backed by Rep. [node:read-more:link]
The U.S. agricultural industry is now formally on the receiving end of tariffs on a variety of fronts, even as President Trump said he will wait until after the November midterm elections to sign any new form of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Prospects for a new NAFTA agreement remain stalled as President Trump told Fox News this weekend he is “not happy” with the revised proposal and doesn’t want to sign any new pact until after November’s midterm elections. “I want to make it more fair,” Trump said on the broadcast. [node:read-more:link]
The Congressional Budget Office recently issued an alarming report on the nation's debt outlook, which CQ senior budget reporter Paul M. Krawzak says should worry millennials. The US debt burden is set to break records in early 2030s [node:read-more:link]
Recent headlines have pointed to some of the strains (a mix of new tensions and a flare-up of longstanding conflicts) in the U.S.-Canada relationship. There have been proposed U.S. [node:read-more:link]
Roberts, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, along with the ranking Democrat on the committee, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, of Michigan, were largely responsible for coordinating the drafting of the Senate version of the bill. [node:read-more:link]
