Well, the first week of the 118th Congress sure got off to a tremendous start last month, or, should I say tumultuous start. No one in their wildest dreams ever thought that it would take 15 House floor votes to elect a speaker of the house. Another footnote for the history books. Following the early morning January 7 House vote, the Sunday talk show hosts spouted commentary that surely made Democrats smile and Republicans frown. But no matter what, Kevin McCarthy’s dream job came into being and another Californian was named speaker. I guess one could say “in” with the new Californian speaker and “out” with the old Californian Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Her shoes will be difficult to fill but as the new speaker said to the media after finally winning on the 15th House vote, “I am a fighter.” He will surely need plenty of fight as he begins a tough mission of herding cats in the House chamber especially with the slim Republican House majority not to mention a Democrat-controlled Senate and White House. Let the games begin!
The Republican Agenda
Readers will recall that the first order of business in the House was adoption of the chamber’s official rules. With that done and out of the way, the next order of business is the issue of federal spending coupled with discussions to raise the nation’s borrowing limits to address a $32 trillion debt. But for our food industry, the most important issue is the farm bill so let’s briefly look at how the new GOP leadership views this important issue.
According to the press and new GOP leadership, an anticipated showdown over the farm bill that impacts our food industry from farm to fork will indeed be very challenging. The House agriculture committee was still getting its own house back in order late last month after starting off on wobbly footing. We do see the committee working quite hard to get back on track, though, primarily with their bipartisan farm bill listening sessions that are currently ongoing around the country. According to Politico News, what this all means for the farm bill in the coming months is “with a razor thin and disparate majority, any farm bill will require even more bipartisan support than in the past. That means that the House GOP will not be able to secure major cuts to food assistance (programs) or other major reforms, which would repeal Democrats.”
Farm Bill Priorities
To get down to specifics, David Scott, who is the ranking member of the House agriculture committee, recently issued his all-important priorities for the 2023 Farm Bill. He stated, “During my time as chairman of the House agriculture committee, we conducted numerous hearings to review the 2018 Farm Bill and improvements that we can make in the 2023 Farm Bill. The feedback we received both here in Washington and across the country has developed my key priorities.” He identified them as:
- Expand rural broadband
- Shore up financial aid to colleges and universities to develop future generations of scientists, producers, and leaders in the agriculture industry
- Assist small family cattle farmers and ranchers
- Defend and protect SNAP and nutrition programs
- Help producers combat dramatic changes in weather patterns and climate.
What is next for the farm bill? Our Hill sources tell us that the House agriculture committee will most likely hold its first official farm bill hearing perhaps later this month but most likely in March. We spend a lot of time at Policy Solutions monitoring the farm bill so stay tuned.
U.S. Begins New Food Safety Program
Three U.S. federal entities are coming together to launch the Food Safety for Food Security Partnership, also known as FS4FS, according to USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, which is working with its parent agency at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on this project. In addition to helping to ensure trade of safe food, the program seeks to reduce foodborne illnesses, poverty, hunger, and malnutrition in low-and-middle-income countries.
With a capital investment of $15 million, the partnership will provide technical assistance, knowledge management, and digital tools to strengthen the policy and regulatory environments in participating countries. The collective efforts will help achieve global food security goals by decreasing foodborne illnesses and reducing trade suppression. For additional information, visit www.fas.usda.gov/programs/food-safety-food-security-partnership.
FTC Proposes Rule To Ban Noncompete Causes
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted in the affirmative to propose a rule that would ban noncompete clauses in employment contracts – an action that FTC chair Lina Khan argues will provide more freedom to change jobs. If the proposed rule is implemented, the rule would impact every working arrangement – including full-time employees, independent contractors, unpaid positions and apprenticeships. The FTC notes companies will still have other avenues to protect sensitive information if those nondisclosure agreements do not functionally act as a noncompete clause. The proposal is now going through a public comment period that should conclude next month.
Food Labeling Regulations
The FDA recently announced that January 1, 2026, will be the uniform compliance date for final food labeling regulations that are issued in calendar years 2023 and 2024. This action is not intended to change existing requirements for compliance dates contained in final rules published before January 1, 2023.
The agency periodically announces uniform compliance dates for new food labeling requirements to minimize the economic impact on the food industry of having to respond separately to each labeling change. However, it generally encourages industry to comply with new labeling regulations as quickly as feasible. Also, just in time for the beginning states’ 2023 legislative sessions, FDA has published the 2022 Food Code, the 10th edition of the code, which the FDA says is “a model for safeguarding public health and ensuring food is unadulterated and honestly presented when offered to the consumer.”
Mandatory Country Of Origin Labeling
The cattle industry, coupled with powerful consumer non-government organizations, has gone public to pressure the new Congress to reintroduce legislation to restore mandatory country of origin labeling for beef. More than 50 organizations have signed on to a letter sent last month to Senate and House members who co-sponsored the American Beef Labeling Act in the prior session of Congress. The letter cites a recent poll conducted by an organization called Morning Consult that showed that 86 percent of Americans favor the act and have continued to support such policy since Congress rescinded mandatory country of origin labeling in 2015. We will continue to monitor this issue for you.
Organic Labeling Oversight
Just at press time, the USDA announced that it will step up oversight and enforcement of the production, handling and sale of organic products. The important announcement generated significant press coverage in the electronic and print news media including a half-page story in the Washington Post and national coverage as a lead story on the NBC Nightly News.
Jenny Lester Moffitt, USDA’s undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, called the Strengthening Organic Enforcement final rule “the biggest update to the organic regulations since the original Act in 1990.”
On a somewhat related front, the European Union with which the U.S. is aligned, has announced a major effort to clean up what is called “greenwashing,” or falsely claiming certain products are good for the environment. The goal is to ensure that merchandising claims made to consumers are truthful and that firms making such “green” claims can fully back up their claims. Next step in this effort is the drafting of rules acceptable to the European Union countries….not an easy task.
Highlights And Lowlights
Walmart flew more than 6,000 successful drone deliveries in 2022, all within 30 minutes or less of customers placing their orders! Now that is remarkable. The future is indeed here! Looking ahead, Walmart said the company plans to use its U.S. store base of 4,700 locations that are within 90 percent of the country’s population to offer drone delivery services. Drones can deliver more than 10,000 eligible Walmart products weighing up to 10 pounds, including fragile items like eggs, in as little as 30 minutes. There are no order minimums, and the delivery fee is $3.99. Walmart looks forward to more drone progress in 2023. The wave of the future? We say count on it.
Barry Scher is associated with the public policy firm of PolicySolutions LLC and can be reached at Bscher@policy-solutions.net.
