Chambers wrap up work before heading home for the October work period ahead of the elections.

Jacqui Fatka, Policy editor

September 25, 2016

2 Min Read
This week in Washington: Sept. 26-30

Both chambers of Congress are returning to Washington to solidify and hopefully pass a Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government when the current fiscal year ends at midnight a week from today, until after the General Election in November.

Several iterations of the legislation have been discussed but Members have not yet been able to come to a bipartisan agreement that would be signed by the president. Following the passage of the CR, members are expected to return to their home districts for October recess ahead of the general election on November 8. 

Monday the House will hold a business meeting at 5 p.m. on its Water Resources Development Act of 2016, H.R. 5303. The Senate recently passed its version is there is hope that the two chambers can reconcile differences and pass WRDA funding during the lame duck session. For more information, click here.

On Monday Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) will join Food Policy Action co-founder, chef, and good food advocate Tom Colicchio, the National Young Farmers Coalition, and the National Conference of Mayors to announce new legislation. Stabenow’s bill, the most comprehensive urban agriculture legislation to be introduced in Congress, will create new economic opportunities in cities and towns across Michigan and the country and increase access to healthy food for families, her office said in a statement.

Secretary of Agriculture has several scheduled remarks in Washington D.C. this week. Monday, he will participate in an armchair discussion with Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro at the White House Tribal Nations Conference in Washington, D.C.

On Tuesday he will provide remarks at the Feeding America National Food Rescue Summit in Washington, D.C. and at the National Academy of Science’s Roundtable on Obesity Solutions in Washington, D.C.

Wednesday he will be featured at the New York Times Food for Tomorrow Conference at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, N.Y.

On Thursday he will be back in Washington, D.C. delivering remarks on opioid misuse at The Atlantic’s Ideas Festival.

About the Author(s)

Jacqui Fatka

Policy editor, Farm Futures

Jacqui Fatka grew up on a diversified livestock and grain farm in southwest Iowa and graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications, with a minor in agriculture education, in 2003. She’s been writing for agricultural audiences ever since. In college, she interned with Wallaces Farmer and cultivated her love of ag policy during an internship with the Iowa Pork Producers Association, working in Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Capitol Hill press office. In 2003, she started full time for Farm Progress companies’ state and regional publications as the e-content editor, and became Farm Futures’ policy editor in 2004. A few years later, she began covering grain and biofuels markets for the weekly newspaper Feedstuffs. As the current policy editor for Farm Progress, she covers the ongoing developments in ag policy, trade, regulations and court rulings. Fatka also serves as the interim executive secretary-treasurer for the North American Agricultural Journalists. She lives on a small acreage in central Ohio with her husband and three children.

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