Congress Passes Bill to Avoid Shutdown

OMAHA (DTN) -- After a week of drama surrounding the details, the Senate voted 85 to 11 early Saturday morning to pass a spending bill to avoid federal government shutdown. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden to sign into law. According to Associated Press, the White House at midnight stated it had ceased shutdown preparations.

A few hours earlier, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to approve a short-term funding bill for the government that includes close to $31 billion in aid for farmers to deal with natural disasters and economic challenges.

The bill would fund the federal government to operate through mid-March. The legislation also includes more than $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in economic aid to farmers, as well as extension of the farm bill through Sept. 30, 2025. Overall, farmers have nearly $31 billion in aid spelled out in the package.

House leaders spent all day trying to figure out how to proceed before going to the floor for debate at 4 p.m. CST, on their third version of the bill this week. The bill was debated under a suspension rule, which required a two-thirds majority to pass. The bill passed 366-34 with 196 Democrats and 170 Republicans backing the bill and 34 Republicans opposing it. Twenty-nine lawmakers did not vote.

The government was facing a shutdown at 12:01 a.m. EST on Saturday. The bill wrapped up year-end business and the lame-duck session of Congress.

The bill still needed the vote of approval by the Senate and Biden's signature. Late in the evening, AP reported that "Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that senators had reached agreement that would skip past procedural hurdles and allow them to pass the funding bill 'before the midnight deadline.'"

WHAT DROPPED FROM BILL

Dropped from the bill was a provision that would have allowed year-round sales of E15.

Also cut was President-elect Donald Trump's demand that lawmakers remove the debt limit for his first few years in office. Trump's demands complicated the initial compromise bill that House GOP leaders released earlier in the week. On Thursday night, a funding bill that waived the debt limit until 2027 was defeated on the floor as 38 Republicans joined all but two Democrats in rejecting the bill.

DISASTER AID DETAILS

The bill provides $20.78 billion to help producers with disaster losses during the past two years.

The disaster funds would cover losses from an array of natural disasters in 2023 and 2024 -- droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, tornados, winter storms, freeze events and excessive moisture.

Among those funds, $2 billion is set aside for livestock producers impacted by losses in 2023-24 due to drought, wildfires and floods. Assistance could go to the states as block grants and direct compensation to producers.

The bill also increases payments and losses covered under the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP).

ECONOMIC AID DETAILS

The bill provides $10 billion in economic assistance through a formula laid out in the bill. The legislation creates one-time payments to producers based on 100% of planted acres and 50% of prevented-planting acres for the 2024 crop year. The bill requires USDA to issue those checks within 90 days after the bill becomes law.

The payment rates are not final and are subject to USDA discretion, but estimates from House and Senate Agriculture committee staff break down as follows for major crops:

-- Corn, $43.80 per acre

-- Soybeans, $30.61 per acre

-- Wheat, $31.80 per acre

-- Seed Cotton, $84.70 per acre

-- Sorghum, $41.85 per acre

-- Rice (L/M), $71.37 per acre

-- Peanuts, $76.30 per acre

-- Barley, $21.76 per acre

Those payments would be subject to $125,000 payment limits that could increase to $250,000 for producers who receive 75% or more of their gross income from farming.

ONE-YEAR FARM BILL EXTENSION

The bill provides an extension of the current farm bill through Sept. 30, 2025. The House and Senate Agriculture committees will again be on the clock to try to pass a new farm bill -- two years behind schedule.

The extension prevents permanent law from going into effect on Jan. 1, 2025. The "dairy cliff" is often mentioned as the biggest issue with permanent law. Under the law, USDA would be required to buy dairy products to help boost prices to the mandated levels of 117% higher than the current all-milk price. At current prices, around $20.38 per cwt, the mandated price for milk would jump to more than $44.22 per cwt. This would effectively drive private buyers of milk out of the market.

Among the key provisions cut from the larger bill, however, was the provision to allow year-round 15% ethanol blends. Ethanol groups had praised the inclusion in the earlier bill. It's unclear why it was dropped. Each percentage point of higher ethanol blend nationally equates to about 1.4 billion gallons.

Currently, E15 has now been approved for eight Midwestern states that petitioned EPA for the waiver.

For more, see "House Votes Down Funding, Ag Relief Bill Trump Backs" here: https://www.dtnpf.com/….

Also see "Trump, Vance and Musk Press to Kill Overall Federal Spending Bill, Risking Aid to Farmers" here: https://www.dtnpf.com/….

And see "Farmers to Get Nearly $31 Billion Amid Year-End Legislative Push" here: https://www.dtnpf.com/….

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

Follow him on social platform X @ChrisClaytonDTN

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