From Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist The Washington State Legislature is still in its 3rd special session despite having averted a partial government shutdown last week by passing a two-year operating budget that was signed by the governor just before midnight last Friday. The reason the Legislature is still in overtime is that an agreement on a capital budget has not ... Read More »

The following message was received from the Risk Management Agency (RMA) regarding insured losses due to third party damages and the impact to Actual Production History (APH).  Washington and Oregon wheat growers, As you are aware, RMA has received concerns from insureds whose insurance guarantees are reduced because of crop losses caused by third party damage or unavoidable, uninsured fire.  ... Read More »

By Art Barnaby Kansas State University Department of Agricultural Economics The Trump Administration is proposing crop insurance cuts, similar to the ones proposed earlier by Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). Both proposals include the elimination of the Harvest Price Option, a limit on AGI and a $40,000 limit on the government’s share of ... Read More »

From Agri-Pulse On one of his first days in Washington, Chandler Goule hung up on the president of the United States. Twice. Now, he’s in charge of an organization tasked with advocating for America’s wheat producers. Hear his thoughts on his journey through Washington in this video. Read More »

This week’s Farm Policy News update highlights issues associated with the Conservation Reserve Program, a subject that was also discussed in with last week’s Senate ag committee farm bill hearing focused on conservation and forestry issues. Read the update here. Read More »

From NASS There were 7 days suitable for field work last week. Pasture and range conditions were reported at 1 percent, very poor, 2 percent poor, 16 percent fair, 62 percent good and 19 percent excellent. A low temperature of 38 degrees F was reported in the northeast region, while a high temperature of 102 was reported in the southeast region. Statewide differentials ... Read More »

From Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Last Wednesday, Gov. Inslee called a third special session for legislators to finalize a state operating budget for 2017-2019. If legislators do not agree on a budget that the governor will sign by midnight on June 30, there will a partial state government shutdown. When calling the third special session, the governor stated that he would ... Read More »

From the National Association of Wheat Growers The first meeting between U.S. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue, Canadian Minister Lawrence MacAulay and Mexican Secretary Calzada took place June 19-20, in Savannah, Ga. The group released a joint statement following the meetings stressing the importance and the mutual benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). As released in the statement, “We share a ... Read More »

From Farm Policy News The Senate Finance Committee held a hearing yesterday to examine the administration’s approach to trade policy and heard testimony from U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. Farm state lawmakers expressed concern regarding agriculture and NAFTA renegotiation, admonishing the executive branch to “do no harm” with respect to gains in agricultural trade that have resulted from the agreement. Timelines for ... Read More »

From NAWG Today, the Senate Committee on Finance held a hearing to discuss the Administration’s trade agenda and its FY18 budget request for the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). Members heard testimony from USTR Robert Lighthizer who spoke on the Administration’s top trade priorities and defended the Administration’s FY18 budget request. National Association of Wheat Growers’ (NAWG) ... Read More »