Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 10/18/19

Now that the U.S. and China have reached a partial trade deal including promises of massive Chinese ag purchases, USDA is deciding whether to go through with the next installment of trade relief payments to farmers for 2019 production. Censky said on Thursday that the department is aiming to make a final call "in the very near future."

"I think we're very much aware that producers have been impacted by the trade retaliation, they've been impacted by the weather, low incomes," Censky said after a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing. The department is divvying up the $14.5 billion it allocated for direct payments in three installments: The first round became available over the summer, while the second and third tranches will be available in November and January, if warranted.

China has already started buying greater quantities of U.S. soybeans, pork and other farm goods in recent weeks, and the Trump administration claims Beijing will soon ramp up its purchases to more than $40 billion per year. That could make it harder for USDA to justify doling out the remainder of the $14.5 billion allotted for this year's direct aid program.

Throwing off the farm bill balance: Senate Ag ranking member Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) told Censky the trade aid program is upsetting the delicate balance lawmakers attempted to strike in the 2018 farm bill in terms of spreading federal dollars evenly across the various corners of agriculture.

"I feel like the Market Facilitation Program is throwing that all away," Stabenow said. "I don't see how the payments are lining up with the damage: 95 percent of the counties with the top rate, a payment rate of $100 [per acre] or more, are in the South; 77 percent of the counties that have minimum payments of $15 are in the North and West."

More biofuels backlash: Democrats on the panel also blasted what they called President Donald Trump's "bait and switch" on the package of biofuel policy changes the EPA published on Tuesday, reports Pro Ag's Ryan McCrimmon.