Bloomberg
is reporting this week that there are lots of looming deadlines and not much
movement in negotiations. For example, it said that the immigration talks are
at a standstill. It also notes that farm bill lobbying has intensified.
The
talks on a potential immigration deal appear to have collapsed dramatically,
pushing both sides to harden their positions, Bloomberg says. This raises the
risks that the standoff will sink talks aimed at averting a government shutdown
at the end of next week.
Right
now, the immigration talks have descended into very personal territory after a
blowup in a White House meeting with lawmakers. “My thought that we might get a
bipartisan agreement approved by the White House died yesterday,” Sen. Dick
Durbin, D., Ill., told reporters. He added that “the clock is ticking” toward a
shutdown in seven days.
The
current government spending authorization expires on Jan. 19. Although
Republicans control Congress, their thin margin in the Senate means Democratic
votes will be needed for any stopgap funding measure or for a broader budget
agreement. Already, Congress has had to pass three short-term extensions of
spending authority to buy time to agree on funding priorities for the fiscal
year that began Oct. 1.
The
recent dust-up over immigration creates a complicated mix for lawmakers, who
have only four days of work this week after Monday’s Martin Luther King
holiday. A Senate Democratic leadership aide told Bloomberg that Democrats gave
significant ground in the proposal they presented and that it’s up to the
administration to take the next step to bring both sides together before the
shutdown deadline.
A Senate
Republican leadership aide said GOP leaders have been clear that the spending
fight and an immigration bill should be separate, and expressed confidence that
both parties will ultimately agree to keep the government running.
And, to
almost no one’s surprise, it appears that producers and sellers of food have
moved quickly to plant seeds for a busy lobbying season on the farm bill, one
of Congress’ top legislative priorities for 2018. Lobbying on food aid, crop
insurance and other issues covered by the bill increased 62% year-over-year in
the third quarter of 2017, ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline for several key
programs and possible floor action early this year, Bloomberg said.
The
beginning of a busy lobbying year for ag is not surprising, but the number of
lobbyists was surprising for some. Bloomberg said that more than 350 lobbying
filings listed “farm bill” in the reporting period from July 1 through Sept.
30, a sharp increase from the previous quarter. Food retailers and the food
producers have been the leading industries lobbying on the food-stamp, or SNAP,
program, as well as on a large number of other ag related activities.
Also, in
the midst of the current immigration and spending fights, USDA announced last
week that “Mexico can now export pork to the U.S. after being deemed free of
classical swine fever. While you might think that this report will raise
concerns among pork producers already worried about losing at least some market
access as a result of the current NAFTA talks, that doesn’t seem to be the
case.
“Mexico
has proved that it can control classical swine fever, and that imports into the
U.S. pose negligible risks,” Dave Warner, communications director at the
National Pork Producers Council told Bloomberg.
Classical
swine fever is a highly contagious viral disease that was eradicated from the
U.S. in the late 1970s. Mexico in late 2007 requested market access to the U.S.
for pork from the eight states in its central region but later amended that
request to include all Mexican states.
Warner
said that through November last year, the U.S. shipped $1.4 billion of pork to
Mexico. He added that NPPC is supportive of using science and risk analyses to
determine whether trade can be safely conducted.
NPPC
President Ken Maschhoff said lifting the restriction on Mexican pork imports
will help maintain “our good relationship with that country.”
So, we
will see. The meltdown in immigration talks is certainly not good news because
it inserts much greater uncertainty into economic and trade prospects at a time
when uncertainties are already high. Certainly, those fights should be watched
closely by producers as they evolve, Washington Insider believes.