Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 10/29/18

Implementing the new farm bill — whenever Congress finishes one — could prove to be a major test case for Trump's deregulatory agenda, according to USDA's chief lawyer. Stephen Vaden, the principal deputy general counsel, said the sweeping legislation will especially test a Trump administration executive order that each department or agency's regulatory activity comply with a cost cap — a version of the regulatory budgeting that conservatives have wanted for years.

Red tape rules: The provision was part of Trump's January 2017 executive order that more notably requires agencies to strike two existing regulations for every new one. Vaden said the lesser-known regulatory budget is a "more powerful tool" for enforcing deregulation across the federal government — and it will be on full display once Trump signs a new farm bill and the administration starts putting it into action.

"This will be the first time we will really have such a comprehensive, multi-year bill as the farm bill seeking to be implemented under" the 2017 executive order, Vaden said Friday during remarks at the American Agricultural Law Association symposium in Portland, Ore. He added that it will be "vital" to get the new farm bill regulations in place as "quickly as possible," Pro Ag's Helena Bottemiller Evich reports. 

Vaden's remarks drew some pushback from ag lawyers in the audience. Anthony Schutz, a Nebraska College of Law professor, said the Trump administration's approach was based on a "faulty premise" that regulation is inherently bad.

Vaden, an influential but low-profile figure at USDA, was tapped to be the department's general counsel, but his nomination has stalled since it was advanced by the Senate Agriculture Committee nearly one year ago. Pro Ag's Catherine Boudreau reported last year that morale had plummeted among the department's legal staff since Vaden assumed leadership in March 2017.