Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 9/28/18

Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts said Thursday he's working to get USDA to extend a lifeline to initiatives that lack mandatory baseline funding if a farm bill is not passed by Sept 30. When the current farm bill lapses on Sunday — which is now all but guaranteed — funding for an array of smaller initiatives will be in limbo.

There are roughly 40 programs that would be in jeopardy, and advocates and relevant industry groups are concerned that some may be forced to temporarily close shop in the absence of reliable funding.

"We're making arrangements so that they don't close in this interim period," the Kansas Republican said, citing the plan to ready a conference report for a vote after the midterms. "The same thing happened in 2012. That's not the way that we would have liked to have seen it, but I think that they know they will be fully funded. It's just right now there's a hiccup."

House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway on Thursday suggested that USDA's trade aid package could help fill in for the Foreign Market Development program — one of the orphans — because it contains a trade-promotion element totaling $200 million. The FMD program costs about $34.5 million annually.