Source: POLITICOS MORNING AGRICULTURE, 3/1/21


: The House narrowly passed President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Now it’s on to the Senate, where Democrats will have to contend with an even slimmer majority and thorny procedural hurdles as they try to clear the legislation by the end of the week.

The biggest snag is a $15-per-hour minimum wage hike, which the Senate parliamentarian has already decided does not comply with the rules of budget reconciliation (the fast-track process Democrats are using to pass the stimulus bill without any Republican votes).

— That provision is expected to be scrapped, which could frustrate progressive House Democrats, who will be needed to pass the amended bill one more time before it goes to the White House for Biden’s signature.

Ag changes get the axe: Before the House took up the legislation, Democratic committee leaders quietly stripped out language in the bill that would have authorized federal payments to farmers who lost crops to natural disasters including “high winds or derechos,” like the powerful wind storm that flattened Midwestern cornfields last August.

Pros will recall that the provision was added during a House Agriculture Committee markup last month, when Iowa Democrat Cindy Axne voted with Republicans to adopt an amendment from Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) — one of the only cracks in Democrats’ effort to avoid substantial changes to the legislation.

Something fishy? In another late change, Democrats on Friday cut out references to seafood processing facilities and vessels in the agricultural aid section. They also removed “seafood” from a provision directing the Agriculture Department to purchase and redistribute various farm goods to needy families.