(DECEMBER 21, 2020) – Today, the House and Senate will vote on a massive 5,593-page, $900 billion coronavirus relief package after months of intense negotiations. The House and Senate Agriculture Committees released summaries of the bill, which includes $26 billion allocated to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, split evenly between nutrition and agriculture programs.
In short, the package includes:
- Supplemental payments to cattle producers (based on a formula for losses not covered under CFAP 1); Includes about $60mn for grants to meat processors to meet federal standards;
- Includes livestock dealer trust;
- Requires Secretary to make payments to contract livestock/poultry growers (they weren’t eligible for CFAP previously);
- At least $20 million for maintaining/improving animal disease response capacity.
The Fiscal Year 2021 spending bills included within the package include:
- A one-year extension of Livestock Mandatory Reporting;
- An exemption from the Electronic Logging Devices (ELD) mandate for livestock haulers.