World Perspectives

What’s Working and What Isn’t at USDA

The federal government shutdown is now in day 21, matching the record set in 1995-1996 when the House in the 104th Congress was controlled by Republicans and the president was a Democrat - the reverse of today’s situation. Yesterday the House passed an appropriations bill to fund USDA and FDA by a vote of 243-183, but the Senate will not be taking it up because of a veto threat by the president. A total of 10 Republicans voted for the bill with Representative Rodney Davis of Illinois the only GOP House Agriculture Committee member to do so. USDA has been sorting out some issues, or as Secretary Perdue put it, leveraging existing resources “as best we can.” Following are some of the things USDA is still doing: Meat, po...

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