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As the year and legislative session comes to an end, Congress has just a few weeks left to deal with some huge unresolved issues. This month it will be an all-out sprint to avert a government shutdown, pass a long term highway funding bill, renew tax breaks for individuals and business and deal with lingering GMO labeling legislation. There have also been a lot of bills introduced this year supporting sustainable food and agriculture that remain stalled and are not likely to see any action this year. The cheat sheet we’ve created below summarizes some of the most significant food- and agriculture-related bills Congress will be working on this month, why they’re important and their current status. What it is: This month, Congress is working on a massive $1.1 trillion catchall omnibus spending bill that would fund every Cabinet agency. An omnibus spending bill is a piece of legislation that bundles a bunch of smaller regular appropriations bills into one larger single bill that can be passed with a single vote in both the House and Senate. Usually, there are twelve separate regular appropriations bills that need to be passed by Congress each year to fund the federal government and avoid a government shutdown. An omnibus spending bill combines one or more of those appropriations bills into one giant piece of legislation that is usually loaded up with a bunch of “legislative riders,” or unrelated, often controversial and otherwise difficult to pass policy provisions. Republicans are threatening to jam the current omnibus bill with riders that Democrats may be forced to accept if they want to fund the government. According to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Congress has narrowed down the list of riders for the parties to negotiate down to “just” 150 different provisions. Why it’s important: If the budget negotiation process isn’t sorted out by December 11 when the current short term funding bill expires, the government will shut down again like it did in 2013. The 2016 omnibus spending bill is also important because it may include riders that will have a serious impact on food and agriculture. Such riders include provisions to block the Waters Of The United States rule designed to protect wetlands and waterways, as well as bills to preempt state GMO labeling laws, roll back country-of-origin labeling (COOL) regulations for meat and extend child nutrition programs. Status and next steps: According to multiple sources, the omnibus spending bill will top Congress’s agenda this month. Politico reports that Congressional leaders may keep the negotiations over policy riders secret until a final agreement is forged, and are likely to give their members a “take-it-or-leave-it” vote on the bill in the House and the Senate just days before the Dec. 11 deadline. But if the budget negotiation process doesn't go smoothly, another last-minute temporary funding measure would have to be passed and signed by the president. At this point, all we can do is wait and see what happens. What it is: "Natural," "all natural" or "made with natural ingredients" are common terms used by food manufacturers, but you may be surprised to know that there currently aren't any formal rules or regulations that determine what they mean. After years of calls to action from courts, food companies and consumers to define the term “natural” and even abolish it all together, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now asking the public to weigh in on the subject. Specifically, the FDA wants the public to comment on whether or not it’s appropriate to define the term "natural," and if so, how it should be defined. The FDA is also looking for input on the correct use of the term on food labels. Why it’s important: Despite the fact that the term “natural” has no official definition and can be used by pretty much any manufacturer on any item, a survey completed last year by Consumer Reports National Research Center found that nearly 60 percent of respondents look for the word natural on food labels when they shop. Shoppers surveyed also said they believed that products labeled as natural are better and healthier than others. Under current FDA standards, foods with no artificial or synthetic ingredients, such as artificial colors, are considered "natural." However, the FDA says those standards do not address food production methods like use of pesticides or manufacturing methods such as genetic modification. So in short, consumers are being at best confused and at worst intentionally mislead by the natural label on their groceries. Unfortunately, it’s unclear what will come from the FDA’s effort to open up a public comment period on the meaning of the natural label. What we do know, however, is that officials at the FDA are going to have a lot of comments to read. Status and next steps: Have some ideas of your own on how the word “natural” should be defined and used? Head on over to the FDA’s website where they will be accepting electronic comments from the public through February 10, 2016. What it is: This bill introduced this summer by Rep. Chris Gibson(R-NY) amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to allow farmers and ranchers to qualify for the public service employee loan forgiveness program by expanding the definition of "public service job" to include those occupations. Why it’s important: Running a farm is one of the toughest and riskiest jobs as person can have. In fact, even just breaking into the farm business has become increasingly difficult over the past few decades. A 2011 survey of 1,000 American farmers by the National Young Farmers Coalition found that lack of access to credit, land and health insurance present enormous obstacles for America’s young and beginning farmers. Another challenge young people face is being saddled with enormous amounts of student loan debt after graduating from school. Today, about 40 million Americans have an average debt of over $27,000, requiring people to pay back their loans well into their 30s and even longer. Student loan debt, which many experts and journalists have called America’s next big crisis, can make starting and maintaining a business even harder.
