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NAT'L ASSN OF WHEAT GROWERS: CONGRESS TO TACKLE NUMBER OF ISSUES FOLLOWING RECESS
Aug. 21, 2015
National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) reports:
The House of Representatives and Senate are in August recess until after Labor Day. NAWG encourages producers to meet with their Members of Congress and Senators to discuss issues you're confronting in your operations and to provide input about Farm Bill implementation.
When Congress returns, both chambers have a number of important issues that must be addressed before the end of fiscal year 2015, which concludes on September 30.
Congress must either pass an omnibus Appropriations bill or a continuing resolution (CR) in order to avoid another government shutdown. A shutdown is not out of the question, as neither chamber has acted on all 12 Appropriations bills and the full Senate has not acted on any. While this is not unusual, as most of the last decade has required continuing resolutions, there are a number of controversial policy disputes, which could lead to an inability to reach an agreement on a CR.
In addition to these high profile funding and policy decisions are several key policy reauthorizations before the Agriculture Committees. Congress must reauthorize or extend the Grain Standards Act, which governs grain inspections for export.
They also need to take action on domestic trade, school lunch and school breakfast programs, and the Mandatory Price Reporting Act before their expiration at the end of September.
Additionally, the current short-term extension of the transportation bill, which provides funding for the Highway Trust Fund, expires at the end of October. While each of these issues must be dealt with in the very near term, the federal government is also close to hitting the debt ceiling, which will require Congressional action this fall in order to enable the federal government to continue paying its bills.
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