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Government
Debt ceiling agreement signed, prevents disastrous economic consequences
The national debt limit has been suspended until January 2025 thanks to a bipartisan debt ceiling agreement. The agreement was passed by the Senate June 1 and President Joe Biden signed it into law the following day.
A default on the American debt would’ve had severe negative implications for the irrigation industry, Nathan Bowen, Irrigation Association advocacy and public affairs vice president, told Irrigation Today in May.
The agreement suspends the $31.4 trillion debt limit until January 2025, allowing the government to borrow unlimited sums to pay its debts. It also sets new spending levels and amends policy changes on energy project permitting and work requirements on social benefits. The agreement passed 63-36.
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Economy
GOP appropriators go after USDA funding
The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee proposed a bill cutting USDA funding by more than $9 billion below 2023 levels.
The FY2024 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Bill provides funding of $17.2 billion which cuts funding levels back to what it was in 2006.
Opponents of the bill say that it would hurt America’s farmers if passed.
“I am extremely disappointed that this bill will shortchange America’s rural and underserved communities, restricting their ability to access water and waste systems, nutritious food and affordable electricity,” says Representative Sanford Bishop Jr., D-Georgia, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member.
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Government
Court decision on WOTUS clips federal jurisdiction
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Michael and Chantell Sackett in the case of Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 21-454, which answers some jurisdictional questions regarding the Waters of the United States and the reach of the Clean Water Act.
The outcome, written for the majority by Justice Samuel Alito, rules that the Clean Water Act does not allow the Environmental Protection Agency, Washington D.C., to regulate discharges into some wetlands near bodies of water and limits the amount of regulation the EPA has in some waters of the United States.
The 9-0 ruling supported the Sackett’s challenge of the EPA’s ability to bring an enforcement case against the Priest Lake, Idaho, landowners in 2007. The court also ruled 5-4 against the “significant nexus test” developed by former Justice Anthony Kennedy in the 2006 plurality opinion Rapanos v. United States.
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