White House renews call for broader work rules for SNAP
The Trump administration proposed a 29 percent cut in food stamps on Monday, to be achieved by requiring more recipients to work at least 20 hours a week and by providing some benefits in the form of a box of food instead of letting people buy food themselves at grocery stores. The White House also asked Congress for stricter rules for access to free meals for low-income children at public
schools.
Trump again proposes large cuts in crop insurance
Three weeks after President Trump boasted of protecting crop insurance in the 2018 farm bill, the White House proposed a 31 percent cut in the federally subsidized program on Monday. The cuts, part of the administration’s budget package for fiscal 2021, were proposed — and rejected by lawmakers — in previous years.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
Vilsack wins the lottery (Associated Press): Former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who says he occasionally buys a lottery ticket, claimed a $150,000 Powerball prize at the headquarters of the Iowa Lottery. He said he would donate some of the money and save the rest.
House passes bill for AG inspectors (House): On a voice vote, representatives gave final congressional approval to a Senate bill to hire 240 additional agricultural inspectors and assign 20 additional canine teams to work at U.S. ports to detect plant and animal pests and diseases.
Backlog of dicamba complaints (KBIA): Missouri state agriculture officials say there are 600 pending pesticide investigations, some dating from 2016, of complaints from farmers who say their crops were damaged when the herbicide dicamba was applied on neighboring fields.
More people without broadband (Vice): A broadband tracking company says its work suggests that as many as 42 million U.S. households lack access to fixed or wireless broadband, twice as many as estimated by the FCC.
Tribe puts heirloom seeds in seed bank (Modern Farmer): The Cherokee Nation will be the first tribe in North America to donate heirloom seeds to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which holds seeds in a remote mountain as protection against a large-scale crisis.
