Appropriations Update

On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee met to mark up four of its funding bills for fiscal year 2025 before members head home for August recess. With this markup completed, the Committee has successfully marked up 11 of the 12 appropriations bills on a largely bipartisan basis. The Committee had originally planned to mark up the final bill—Homeland Security—this week but this was pulled from the schedule on Monday. As of current, it does not appear that the full chamber will take up any appropriations bill for consideration and will instead shift focus to conferencing with the House.

In the House, the House Appropriations Committee successfully marked up all twelve of its bills. While the House had planned on voting on all 12 bills on the House floor, it has only passed five to date. One additional bill— Legislative Branch — was considered but failed on passage. The six remaining bills, including Agriculture, were scheduled to be considered by the whole chamber, but each was pulled from the schedule due to concerns over insufficient support. It seems unlikely that any of these bills will receive floor consideration.

Both the House and Senate have now recessed for August. Both are currently expected to return to session on September 9, where passing a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown is expected to be a top priority. The Senate agriculture appropriations bill can be found here and its accompanying report here. The House agriculture appropriations bill can be found here and its accompanying report here.

USDA Announces Investment to Support Western Producers from Drought

On Thursday, Secretary Vilsack announced USDA will invest $400 million to support at least 18 irrigation districts across the western United States. This funding aims to help farmers maintain commodity production while conserving water through innovative technologies and practices. The selected irrigation districts will work with producers to implement water-saving strategies, with up to $15 million potentially awarded to each district; districts will enter into sub-agreements with producers in their footprint. Participating producers will receive payments for reducing their water consumption while continuing to produce commodities on their land. Specific producer needs will guide which strategies are implemented to reduce water consumption, including irrigation improvements, shifts in management practices, and shifts in cropping systems, among other strategies. The initiative is expected to save up to 50,000 acre-feet of water across 250,000 acres of irrigated land. Eighteen irrigation districts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming were originally selected to participate; however, additional districts may be selected in the future if there is available funding.