Latest news with #SenateAgricultureCommittee
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Senators pick at USDA reorganization proposal
Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden took questions from the Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday after the agency's plan to slash its Washington offices and move staff to satellite locations across the country raised bipartisan eyebrows. Much of the panel's criticism focused on whether the administration had sufficiently notified Congress — friction that led to Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), the committee's chair, to call the hearing on relatively short notice. In a testy exchange with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Vaden said that the department was opening up a period to consult with agency employees and other stakeholders. Several Republicans also took issue with the way the plan had been announced without their consultation. 'It is something that ultimately this Congress has something to say about, both from an authorization standpoint, and certainly from an appropriation standpoint,' said Sen. John Hoevan (R-N.D.). 'Is this a process where we're going to work together on an outcome, or is this an outcome that we're not just going to talk about, but as a fait accompli?' Hoeven and Vaden will meet later Wednesday, the senator said. At the hearing, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) also expressed disappointment with the agency's rollout of its plan, although she said she agreed with USDA's overall goal. The agency's plan, announced last week, would move most staff to five hubs — in North Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, Colorado and Utah — and wind down most of its federal buildings in Washington, D.C. Vaden defended the changes as an effort to bring the agency's employees — many of whom he claimed were working remotely anyway — closer to farmers and other constituencies of the agency. He claimed that the consolidations, in conjunction with voluntary buyouts given to thousands of agency employees, could save the federal government as much as $4 billion. At least 15,000 Agriculture Department employees accepted a deferred resignation in May as part of the Trump administration's push to aggressively reduce staff. 'We need more agencies to follow Secretary Rollins' and USDA's lead,' Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said later in the panel. The plan would also consolidate various regional offices that Vaden referred to as 'middle managers,' a move that several senators worried could lead to services being lost. The reductions include the regional offices of the National Forest Service, which manages wildfires and other elements of America's woodlands. Several senators, including Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), said they were worried about the proposal's move to eliminate regional offices of the agency's research arm, including the branch of the Agriculture Research Service in Stoneville, Miss. Vaden claimed that the location's staff would remain, an answer that seemed to satisfy the Mississippi senator. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
01-08-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Contract gambling has become a runaway train
On July 21, the Senate Agriculture Committee's scheduled vote to confirm Brian Quintenz — a financial manager and former commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — as the commission's new chair, was postponed. On Monday, another committee vote on Quintenz was postponed. Officially, the delays were due to lack of a quorum and White House concerns. But unofficially, insiders speculated that they were due to growing opposition to Quintenz, who is also a board member of Kalshi, a gambling company promoting future 24/7 games of chance on anything, anywhere. By the end of July, insiders noted that the opposition to Quintenz was still growing both within the Senate Agriculture Committee and throughout the U.S. Senate. Withdrawing the Quintenz nomination appeared to be an option gaining support. Since 2024, Kalshi has won several prime legal cases which arguably permit all types of 24/7 gambling everywhere on anything under the guise of legal events contracts. Kalshi-type gambling was sanctioned by the CFTC on May 5 when the commission unexpectedly dropped its case by filing a three-page surrender to Kalshi in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Accordingly, predictions markets can now gamble on elections, climate change and any 'future event' such as sports events. Allegedly bypassing all state and federal gambling regulations throughout the 50 states, Kalshi and its events contracts are still opposed by 34 states. On June 17, those states filed an amicus brief on a New Jersey case against Kalshi before the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. However, Kalshi is still offering its gambling-type events contracts, including sports gambling, in anticipation of winning in the Third Circuit or on further appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The week before President Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, Donald Trump Jr. was hired by Kalshi as an adviser. At that time, Kalshi was attempting to force the CFTC to allow de facto gambling via the predictions markets through the courts. On Feb. 11, President Trump nominated Quintenz to chair the CFTC. On May 5, the CFTC dropped its case against Kalshi and on June 10, Quintenz's nomination hearing was held before the Senate Agriculture Committee. During his nomination hearing, Quintenz was pointedly questioned by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) regarding apparent conflicts of interest, particularly when Quintenz repeatedly stated that he supported Kalshi-type events contracts as legal. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) also vigorously queried Quintenz on the conflict of sports gambling events contracts with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, but Quintenz still defended the legitimacy of the Kalshi-type events contracts. The CFTC's original 2021 position against Kalshi's proposals, which prevailed until it abandoned its position in May, was supported via letters from multiple members of Congress. However, in 2021 as CFTC commissioner, Quintenz supported Kalshi's proposals. On Nov. 16, 2021, Quintenz joined Kalshi's board of directors. Since January, Kalshi has been offering sports event contracts which, for March Madness, were ' expanded to single-game outcomes ' on basketball games, reportedly constituting 16 percent of all March Madness wagers. Kalshi's arguments have prevailed in every significant court case, thereby obviating state and federal prohibitions. Their victories have also enabled similar gambling companies such as DraftKings as well as trading platforms such as Robinhood. Strategically, the universal gambling enabled via events contracts destabilizes Wall Street norms and the predictions markets. This macroeconomic scenario emulates the regulatory debacle of the credit default swaps, including the 2000 Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which largely precipitated the 2008 Great Recession. These 2025 trends toward uncontrolled and irrational gambling were also exemplified as people legally bet on the wildfires in California and other news events. Such extensive gambling activities, which are now largely unregulated and being combined with artificial intelligence applications, need to be addressed as a strategic economic threat to U.S. national security and the international strategic economic base. For 30 years, congressional hearings have noted that as legalized gambling continues to grow it becomes a threat to U.S. economic national security. A 1995 hearing before the House Judiciary Committee which included testimony and input from economic national security interests, as well as organized crime, culminated in the enactment of the U.S. National Gambling Impact Study Commission. In 1999, the commission's final report called for a moratorium on the expansion of any type of gambling anywhere in the U.S. It included a four-year analysis by U.S. experts which concluded that the Kalshi-type of internet gambling could not be regulated and should remain forever banned. The Kalshi and CFTC situation proves the validity of the U.S. Gambling Commission's warnings, and demonstrates to Congress and the public that new congressional hearings are essential. John Kindt is a professor emeritus of law, business and economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and has served as a senior editor, contributing author and intermittent co-author of the United States International Gambling Report and the United States International Gaming Report.
The Hill
30-07-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Senators pick at USDA reorganization proposal
Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden took questions from the Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday after the agency's plan to slash its Washington offices and move staff to satellite locations across the country raised bipartisan eyebrows. Much of the panel's criticism focused on whether the administration had sufficiently notified Congress — friction that led to Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), the committee's chair, to call the hearing on relatively short notice. In a testy exchange with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Vaden said that the department was opening up a period to consult with agency employees and other stakeholders. Several Republicans also took issue with the way the plan had been announced without their consultation. 'It is something that ultimately this Congress has something to say about, both from an authorization standpoint, and certainly from an appropriation standpoint,' said Sen. John Hoevan (R-N.D.). 'Is this a process where we're going to work together on an outcome, or is this an outcome that we're not just going to talk about, but as a fait accompli?' Hoeven and Vaden will meet later Wednesday, the senator said. At the hearing, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) also expressed disappointment with the agency's rollout of its plan, although she said she agreed with USDA's overall goal. The agency's plan, announced last week, would move most staff to five hubs — in North Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, Colorado and Utah — and wind down most of its federal buildings in Washington, D.C. Vaden defended the changes as an effort to bring the agency's employees — many of whom he claimed were working remotely anyway — closer to farmers and other constituencies of the agency. He claimed that the consolidations, in conjunction with voluntary buyouts given to thousands of agency employees, could save the federal government as much as $4 billion. At least 15,000 Agriculture Department employees accepted a deferred resignation in May as part of the Trump administration's push to aggressively reduce staff. 'We need more agencies to follow Secretary Rollins' and USDA's lead,' Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said later in the panel. The plan would also consolidate various regional offices that Vaden referred to as 'middle managers,' a move that several senators worried could lead to services being lost. The reductions include the regional offices of the National Forest Service, which manages wildfires and other elements of America's woodlands. Several senators, including Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), said they were worried about the proposal's move to eliminate regional offices of the agency's research arm, including the branch of the Agriculture Research Service in Stoneville, Miss. Vaden claimed that the location's staff would remain, an answer that seemed to satisfy the Mississippi senator.
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Top Democrat questions ‘special treatment' for Alaska, Hawaii in GOP SNAP proposal
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, questioned why only two states should receive 'special treatment' in a GOP-backed plan to reduce federal dollars for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the coming years. As part of a major package being considered in the Senate to advance President Trump's tax priorities, Republicans also include a major change that would require some states to cover a share of SNAP benefit costs, which are currently funded by the federal government, for the first time. Republicans are floating changes to that plan that would create special carve-outs for Alaska and Hawaii amid internal GOP pushback. But senators signal the exemption could be at risk as Democrats question 'special treatment' for the states. 'On the SNAP side, as you know, they've shifted $64 billion to the states, of which 44 have balanced budget amendments,' Klobuchar argued Monday. 'And we tried to stop that, because the states aren't going to be able to do this.' 'Two states — they threw in Hawaii — two states get this special treatment, and no one else, and so I just figure, if they get that treatment, maybe every other state should, you know? Maybe we should be doing that for Wisconsin,' she told The Hill. 'Maybe we should be doing that for Iowa.' 'This cost shift to the states is the biggest cost shift in the bill,' she also said. Republicans are still waiting on a ruling from the Senate parliamentarian to see if the reworked proposal passes muster with the chamber's Byrd Rule. That decision, in turn, could be instrumental in whether Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will support the bill. Her comments come as Alaska's other senator, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R), is pointing fingers at Democrats. He says the exemption — which is aimed at helping shield Alaska from steep cuts to federal dollars for food assistance — hangs in the balance because of pushback from the other side of the aisle. Politico was first to report the news. '[Senate Democratic Leader] Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are trying, once again, to strip a provision that helps Hawaii and Alaska's most vulnerable,' Sullivan told The Hill on Monday. 'Everything that we're trying to do for Alaska and Hawaii, Schumer and the Democrats strip it,' Sullivan said, urging his Democratic colleagues to call to tell their leadership, 'Don't screw our provision that's just trying to make it a little less difficult on challenging communities to implement their SNAP requirements.' As part of the SNAP proposal, some states will cover a share of the cost of SNAP benefits if they have a payment error rate above 6 percent beginning in fiscal 2028. But in a change from a previous version of the SNAP proposal assembled by the Senate Agriculture Committee, the bill also includes a 'waiver authority' section that could allow for the noncontiguous states of Alaska and Hawaii to see the requirements waived if they're found to be 'actively implementing a corrective action plan' and carrying out other activities to reduce their error rate. The update came after Alaska Republicans raised concerns over the GOP-crafted proposal. Republicans say the proposal is aimed at incentivizing states to get their payment error rates down, while Democrats have argued the measure could lead to states having to cut benefits. Figures recently unveiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found Alaska's payment error rate — which factors in overpayment and underpayment error rates — hit 24.66 percent in fiscal 2024, the highest of any state. The national average in the new reporting was 10.93 percent. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump Tax Cuts Could Leave Poor Hungry Say Dem Governors
Democratic governors fear that President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful' bill would result in more Americans going hungry. Trump is pushing for the passage of his legislation by the Fourth of July, but it faces hurdles on Capitol Hill as the Senate is expected to work through the weekend in an attempt to meet his deadline. One of the offsets Republicans are using to help pay to extend their tax cuts is shifting the cost of the food assistance program to the states. But Democratic governors warned this week that they do not have the money to cover the difference, and the move could result in states leaving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that provides food benefits for low-income families. More than 42 million people received SNAP benefits last year. The parliamentarian ruled on Thursday that Republican tweaks to the Senate bill comply with the rules, allowing them to move forward with saving $41 billion in their tax legislation by shifting costs to states. 'Congressional Republicans have chosen to cut food assistance for millions of Americans to give tax breaks to billionaires,' claimed Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar. 'Instead of working with Democrats to lower costs for Americans, Congressional Republicans are doubling down on shifting costs to states that they simply cannot bear.' This week, 23 Democratic governors sent a letter to congressional leaders warning that shifting costs of the SNAP program to states could result in states having to leave the program entirely and cut off millions of Americans, including seniors and children from food assistance. 'Under this plan, states will need to find millions or even billions of extra dollars in their budgets or be forced to leave the SNAP program entirely, potentially cutting off millions of Americans from this vital assistance,' the governors wrote. They warned that if states have to end their SNAP programs, not only will hunger increase, but grocery stores in rural areas could struggle to stay open, and local economies would suffer as the food industry cuts jobs. Kansas Governor Laura Kelly called it 'total bunk' that states will be able to backfill massive cuts in federal resources and said point blank that her state 'does not have the money to do that.' 'These are not cost shifts to states. These are cuts to critical programs that hundreds of thousands of Kansans rely on,' Kelly said Thursday. Governors like Kentucky's Andy Beshear, who is a Democrat in a red state with GOP senators, said he's been communicating with lawmakers but blasted Republicans for taking actions that would hurt the very people who voted for them. Advocacy groups like Feeding America and the Food Research and Action Center have also been pushing for lawmakers to reject the legislation. But Senate Republicans have pushed back on accusations that the changes would result in Americans going hungry. 'This paves the way for important reforms that improve efficiency and management of SNAP while encouraging responsible use of taxpayer dollars,' Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman said in response to the provision being allowed in the bill. He argued the approach encourages states to 'prioritize the resources for those who truly need it.'
