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Government Shutdown Inches Closer, Would Result in Massive Waste of Taxpayer Dollars
The federal government will face a partial shutdown Friday at midnight unless Congress and President Trump come to an agreement on a spending package in the coming days. While Congress passed five of the twelve annual appropriations bills, the remaining seven have stalled.
President Trump is seeking billions of dollars in funding for the border wall that he made a central part of his presidential campaign, despite his pledge that Mexico would ultimately foot the bill for its construction. He is threatening to veto any spending bill that does not include what he considers adequate appropriations for the wall. Democratic leaders are adamant that any such spending bill will not pass in the Senate.
It remains to be seen if Congressional leaders and President Trump will find some sort of middle ground or if the President will return to his rhetoric and threats.
The Congressional Research Service report on government shutdowns details the costs associated with shutting down the government, including paying furloughed federal employees after the shutdown ends for the time they did not work and the disruptions caused by spending gaps. Based on assessments of past government shutdowns by the Office of Management and Budget, the report sets the cost of a shutdown in the range of billions of wasted taxpayer dollars.
For more information, please contact
Eric Heath
, Senior Policy Counsel for the Mississippi River Basin Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute
.
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House, Senate Pass Compromise Text of Farm Bill; President Trump Expected to Sign This Week
After a long, multifaceted struggle, Congress has finally passed a Farm Bill. As of Wednesday, both chambers had approved the conference committee report that had been the subject of fierce debate for months.
A number of the more controversial provisions, such as work requirements for food stamp recipients and the elimination of certain conservation programs, did not find their way into the final bill text. Provisions allowing for the legalization of industrial hemp, a pet priority for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, did manage to make it into the conference committee report.
The bill amounts to $867 billion in federal spending, which follows the baseline set by the Congressional Budget Office under existing spending levels. The compromise text received overwhelming bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate. According to multiple reports, President Trump is expected to sign the bill into law sometime this week. The bill's full text is available here.
For more information, please contact
Eric Heath
, Senior Policy Counsel for the Mississippi River Basin Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute
.
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Bi-National Science Advisory Board Releases Report on Ecological Impacts of Crude Oil Transport in the Great Lakes
The International Joint Commission's (IJC) Great Lakes Science Advisory Board released a report last week focusing on the potential ecological impacts of a crude oil spill through the transport of crude oil in the Great Lakes basin. The report identifies 15 sites on the Great Lakes that are the most vulnerable to crude oil spills, while also recommending various actions to protect the Great Lakes, including increased research and data on the potential impacts on the ecological health of the Great Lakes in the event of a crude oil spill and the enhancement of spill response planning in the region. The full text of the report can be viewed here.
For more information, please contact
Matt McKenna
, Director of the Great Lakes Washington Program, at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.
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U.S. Soybean Sales to China Resume
Chinese state-owned businesses bought more than $180 million worth of U.S soybeans last week, according to
reporting by Reuters. This comes on the heels of the 90-day trade truce between President Trump and President Xi Jinping reached earlier this month.
The ongoing uncertainty caused by the rhetoric coming from the White House is continuing to loom large for American farmers, "cease-fire" aside. The trade war has escalated drastically over the past few months, pummeling commodities imported by China and soybeans in particular. It is unclear if the larger longstanding issues like forced technology transfers and alleged intellectual property theft will be resolved in the 90 days the two countries have given themselves to negotiate.
For his part, President Trump has said that if these issues are not solved by the end of the 90 days, additional tariffs will go into effect on goods imported into the U.S. by China.
For more information, please contact
Eric Heath
, Senior Policy Counsel for the Mississippi River Basin Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute
.
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U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Extends Brandon Road Report Review Period
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has extended the review period of "The Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS) - Brandon Road Integrated Feasibility Study and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) - Will County, Illinois," 14 days from December 24, 2018 to January 7, 2019. The report is posted to the project website at
https://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/GLMRIS-BR. The end of State & Agency Review remains December 24, 2018.
For more information, please contact:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District,
ATTN: GLMRIS-Brandon Road EIS,
Clock Tower Building,
P.O. Box 2004,
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This Week in Washington
There are no relevant hearings scheduled for this week. Both the House and the Senate schedules are currently in flux due to to the shutdown debate.
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NEMWI: Strengthening the Region that Sustains the Nation
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