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Billions in federal farm payments flow to a select group of producers, report shows
WASHINGTON – The top 10 percent of recipients of federal farm payments raked in more than 79 percent of total subsidies over the last 25 years – producing billions of dollars for a relatively small group of U.S. producers, according to a new analysis of federal data from an environmental group. In total, the federal […]
Climate funding could suffer in the farm bill under GOP control of Congress
WASHINGTON – Republicans who may be taking control of Congress in the midterm elections have not been very specific about many policy goals – but the farm bill is an exception. Members of the GOP in the U.S. House and Senate are sending strong signals they want to strip climate funding from the massive legislation […]
Clash over climate change funding emerging in farm bill debate
WASHINGTON – As lawmakers begin envisioning the next farm bill, some U.S. House Republicans are wary of making climate change a priority for farmers and ranchers. The pushback from Republicans at a Tuesday hearing came as the Biden administration has tried to make significant new investments in climate change mitigation on farmland, last week announcing […]
Farm bill season arrives: What’s the outlook for 2023?
WASHINGTON – Over the course of the next year, lawmakers on the U.S. House and Senate Agriculture committees will draft a new federal farm bill that will shape food, farm, conservation, and nutrition programs across the country for the next five years. The omnibus law that began 90 years ago as crop supports now has […]
U.S. agricultural groups spell out their priorities in the next farm bill
An earlier version of this report misstated Rob Larew’s title. He is the president of the National Farmers Union. Major U.S. agricultural production groups are pulling together their requests for the next farm bill – the massive legislation that Congress rewrites every five years to set farm and food policy – with crop insurance and […]
As aging farmers retire, lawmakers explore how to boost beginning producers
WASHINGTON — More than half of American farmers will reach retirement age in the next 10 years, but the steep price of entry to start a farm, along with rising input costs and volatile markets, make it tough for young and beginning farmers to take their places.“Farming is inherently a risky business, but in the […]
Lower insulin co-pays, list prices targeted in new bipartisan U.S. Senate bill
WASHINGTON – Two key senators have unveiled the details of a bipartisan plan to lower costs for insulin, a lifesaving drug that some Americans have struggled to afford in recent years as prices have skyrocketed. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, introduced the measure in June, after months of […]
As insulin costs soar, diabetics say a $35 cap on co-pays is not enough
WASHINGTON – Lacy Mason was a 21-year-old graduate student in Atlanta when she started rationing her insulin. As a Type 1 diabetic, she needs to take insulin every day for survival. But when the cost surged to $960 a month, Mason could no longer afford it. She had aged out of Medicaid and her student […]
Four states – including N.H. – win federal grants to expand affordable high-speed internet
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday announced the first state awards will go to Virginia, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and West Virginia in a massive federal effort to bring affordable, high-speed internet to all American homes and businesses. Projects in the four states are the first to receive funding as part of a $10 […]
U.S. Senate Republicans again block debate on voting rights legislation
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Republicans blocked the advance of voting rights legislation Wednesday for the second time this year, thwarting again Democrats’ attempts to pass federal protections for voters amid a slew of new state elections laws. “When we are faced with a coordinated effort across our country to limit the freedom to vote, we […]
A federal investigation seeks to uncover the painful history of Native American boarding schools
WASHINGTON – The Native American children traveled on trains, thousands of miles from their homes, to Pennsylvania’s Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many had been forcibly taken from their parents and communities. Once there, they had to hand over their belongings, put on uniforms, cut off their braids, adopt […]