Jim Risch

Time may be running short, but Dan Newhouse remains optimistic that the Senate will address ag labor needs via his Farm Workforce Modernization Act.  The legislation which already cleared the House, has stalled in the Senate.  And while the window for the 117th Congress is starting to close, the Chair of the Western Caucus believes lawmakers can act in the coming months.    “We have ...

By a 93-1 vote, the Senate passed the Water Resources Development Act Thursday.  The legislation looks to permanently adjust the cost-share ratio for Inland Waterways Trust Fund projects from the current 65% general revenues-35% IWTF funds to 75% general revenue-25% IWTF. ...

After Washington Governor Jay Inslee and senior Senator Patty Murray released a draft report on breaching the four lower Snake River Dams, Idaho Senator Jim Risch announced his opposition. “Not even two years ago, the federal government completed a comprehensive and scientific multi-year study of the lower Snake River dams. The ...

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling on Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to establish a special pay rate for federal wildland firefighters. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden said such a move would help avert critical staffing shortages ahead of the 2022 fire season ...

Last week several Northwest lawmakers called on the USDA to press its counterparts in Mexico for that country to honor and expedite the U.S.-Mexico trade deal. That deal restores U.S. fresh potato exports to all of Mexico, rather that just locations near the border with the United States ...

On Tuesday, Eastern Washington Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Idaho senator Jim Risch sent a series of letters to ten federal agencies involved in looking at plans to breach the Lower Snake River dams. The agencies, which include NOAA Fisheries, the U ...

On Wednesday Idaho Senator Jim Risch announced that Jacobs Lumber of Kamiah was selected as the Idaho Small Business of the Month for January. Jacobs Lumber Company will be recognized for its contribution to the central Idaho community in the Congressional Record of the U ...

Last week, Central Washington representative Dan Newhouse, announced that he was introducing the Tree Spiking Mitigation Act. The chair of the Congressional Western Caucus says the act, which is a companion bill to legislation recently introduced in the Senate, came about because of the Administration’s nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning. New ...

On Thursday, Idaho Senator Jim Risch spoke out against the Biden Administration’s nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning. Risch said before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that a good agency, such as BLM and the people that work there deserve better than the President’s nominee. Ris ...

Earlier this week, the Mexican Supreme Court overturned a 2017 lower court decision that prevented fresh U.S. potatoes from entering the country. Wednesday’s unanimous ruling, marks the end of a decade-long legal process that began when Mexico’s potato industry sued its government to prevent competition from imports. Since it ...