SOURCE:  POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 4/25/22

Ag watchers are in for a jam-packed week on Capitol Hill with as many as 10 hearings on the schedule, tackling topics from the farm bill and agency staffing shortages to cattle markets and climate change.

Movers and shakers: Officials including Vilsack, FDA Administrator Robert Califf and Forest Service Chief Randy Moore are slated to testify before a slew of congressional panels, including those that will determine their agencies’ budgets for the next fiscal year starting in October. Other Cabinet officials like Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will also make the rounds.

Kicking off the loaded week is a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing Tuesday on a major bipartisan cattle market reform bill and legislation to appoint a special investigator at USDA focused on competition in the meatpacking sector.

— Although the lineup of witnesses wasn’t posted over the weekend, Morning Ag has learned that Andy Green, at USDA’s senior advisor for fair and competitive markets, and Agricultural Marketing Service Administrator Bruce Summers are expected to appear before the panel.

Out in the field: The Senate Ag Committee will also close out the week with its first hearing on the farm bill ahead of the 2023 rewrite — and also the first field hearing of the year, as lawmakers take to Chair Debbie Stabenow’s home-state of Michigan.

On the House side: The House Ag panel on Wednesday will also weigh in on cattle market reform, when members hear from the CEOs of the Big Four meatpacking companies, as well as farmers and ranchers, to discuss the role of industry consolidation in meat price spikes. (More on both meat market hearings below.)
And appropriations, too: USDA and FDA officials are also making the rounds before the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, as lawmakers prepare to begin writing the fiscal 2023 spending bills, now that President Joe Biden has made his official budget request to Congress. (ICYMI: Here’s our rundown of what Biden wants for food, farm and rural programs.)

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING: Democrats are barreling towards a potential November midterm wipeout, with Republicans favored to take over the majorities in both chambers as historic inflation — including the steep price of food, fuel and labor — remains top of mind for many voters in farm states, rural areas and beyond.

Through coronavirus relief packages, the bipartisan infrastructure law and annual appropriations bills, agencies have received major funding boosts lately. Your MA team is keeping an eye out for questions about how they plan to implement and utilize the funding promptly and equitably — and without pouring more fuel onto the economic fire.

The cattle market discussions in each chamber are likely to include some fireworks, including some intraparty squabbles. On the Senate side, ag members will discuss a bill that has created infighting among top GOP lawmakers. Notably, ranking member John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Senate GOP Whip John Thune (S.D.) have raised questions about the bipartisan cattle market transparency bill proposed by fellow Republicans Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Deb Fischer (Neb.), among others, aimed at increasing transparency in the meatpacking industry.

And within the House Ag Committee, ranking member G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) has criticized Chair David Scott (D-Ga.) for scheduling the hearing with meatpacking CEOs allegedly without any prior GOP input or notice.

What Moore might say: The Forest Service chief will have his go-around Wednesday afternoon in front of the House Appropriations Interior-EPA Subcommittee. Staff retention and recruitment challenges will likely be a focal point in the discussion, as will the department’s recently announced efforts to reduce Western wildfire threats.

And then there’s FDA: Califf heads to the Hill to brief Senate appropriators following POLITICO’s extensive reporting on his agency’s failure to advance major food policy goals from nutrition to food safety, which has prompted an outcry from lawmakers.

Meanwhile, key members have asked the Health and Human Services Department’s internal watchdog to investigate whether the FDA “took prompt, appropriate, and effective action” in the lead up to the massive recall of Abbott Nutrition infant formula, after POLITICO reported that the FDA, CDC and Abbott were notified in September of the first infant with a Cronobacter sakazakii infection — months before the recall.