Federal Budget

On Monday Oregon Governor Tina Kotek sent a letter to Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins urging the USDA to ensure that SNAP benefits continue during the ongoing federal government shutdown.

Due to federal cuts and changes in D.C., Washington State University’s Bread Lab announced last month it has been ordered to cease spending a five-year, $10 million Soil to Society grant.  The funding came through the USDA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative’s Sustainable Agriculture Systems program.  WSU said they were in yea...

Cuts to the federal workforce will have a greater impact on rural Oregon.  Oregon is home to more than 28,000 federal employees.  Gail Krumenauer, an economist at the Oregon Employment Department, said, based on the population, federal workforce cuts in rural counties will have a greater impact because they have a higher percentage of federal workers.   "It does t...

On Monday, the Biden Administration submitted to Congress the President’s budget for fiscal year 2023. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the budget "provides USDA with the tools needed to support a vibrant, revitalized, and prosperous rural America." ...

On Thursday, the USDA announced a proposed rule that it says will strengthen the way states serve SNAP recipients through Employment and Training. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said, currently, SNAP participants have exclusive access to training and support services to help them enter or move up in the workforce ...

The Administration is rolling out its final budget request of President Trump’s first term, and the budget proposal looks very similar to the previous requests.  A key piece of Trump's proposal to lower federal spending by $4.4 trillion over the next decade.   To do...

With the Trump Administration proposing to cut billions of dollars from the USDA’s mandatory and discretionary funding, many in the farming community are expressing concern.  Some, like National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson have called the President’s proposal hypocritical.   “As bot...

After the Trump Administration released its 2020 fiscal year budget proposal last week, many in the Ag community were upset, and some angered regarding potential 5% cuts to USDA service and other Ag focused programs.  While he acknowledged that cuts of that size could hurt the Ag economy at a very bad time, Representative Dan Newhouse said last week’s proposal is not a final draft, and a lot of wo

The federal budget will be released soon, but as Stephanie Ho reports, Sonny Perdue is warning of possible cuts to the 2020 USDA budget.         If you have a story idea for the Washington Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekradio.com...

It’s an effort roughly 50 years in the making, fully funding the Columbia Basin Project.  Securing those funds are so important to State Representative Mary Dye she spent much of the time between the 2018 legislative session and this session traveling the country, talking about water and energy.  One such...