Trump's choice for USDA secretary discusses tariffs, migrant workers and bird flu during confirmation hearing

Brooke Rollins
(Wikipedia photo)

The U.S. Senate's four-hour confirmation hearing with Brooke Rollins, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture, gave the agricultural sector a good look at how Rollins might weigh in on many key farming decisions, reports Jennifer Shutt of States Newsroom.

During questioning, committee members zeroed in on U.S. agricultural trade and Trump's promised tariffs on major U.S. commodity partner products. Rollins responded, "I think it probably comes as no surprise to anyone sitting in this room that he believes it is a very important tool in his toolkit to continue or bring America back to the forefront of the world and to ensure that we have a thriving economy. . . . But just as he did and we did in the first administration, he also understands the potential devastating impact to our farmers and our ranchers."

Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet "told Rollins that he is 'sympathetic to some of the trade policies that President Trump is trying to advocate for . . . But agriculture’s already in a tough spot,'" Shutt writes. When asked how she would embrace her role, Rollins replied, "To defend, to honor, to elevate our entire agriculture community in the Oval Office, around the table, through the interagency process."

When questioned about U.S. poultry and egg production in the wake of the worst egg-laying avian bird flu outbreak in history, Rollins told senators, "'There is a lot that I have to learn on this. And if confirmed, this will be, as I mentioned in my opening statement, one of the very top priorities,'" Shutt reports. 

Senators asked Rollins "about how sweeping deportations might impact the agriculture industry and food supplies throughout the country," Shutt writes. "Senators also asked how she planned to keep the pipeline that moves food from farms to people’s tables from collapsing if mass deportations are carried out. . . . Rollins said she wants to make changes to the H2A visa for temporary agricultural workers, though she didn’t detail what those changes might entail."

Minnesota Democratic Sen. Tina Smith asked "about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, saying that nutrition programs, many of which are administered by USDA, are 'foundational for healthy Americans,'" Shutt reports. "Rollins testified that she does believe in work requirements, though she conceded she didn’t have extensive knowledge of the SNAP." 

Rollins looks poised to secure her Senate confirmation, but a vote date has not been set.

The presidential race isn't top dog in Montana; both parties have eyes and ads fixed on the state's U.S. Senate race.

Tim Sheehy

Montana's heated senate race between incumbent Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana) and first-time Republican candidate Tim Sheehy has put the presidential race in the rearview mirror. "The state is focused on a race that could determine control of the U.S. Senate, and the next president’s ability to get their agenda through Congress," report Rhonda Colvin, Ross Godwin and Whitney Shefte of The Washington Post. "On the ground, it is still a door-to-door, vote-to-vote fight to the finish, with historical levels of ad spending and an intense focus on Native American voters and potential ticket-splitters."

Native Americans comprise the sparsely populated state's largest minority voting block, but many are not registered voters. Ronnie Jo Horse, executive director of Western Native Voice, a statewide social welfare nonprofit, told the Post, "I think they are getting to know their power. We have 37,000 unregistered voters. Once people find that out and know that Montana wins elections on 3,000 votes, you can see their eyes get big and surprised.”

Jon Tester

Tester won the state's last three elections "partly because of support from Native voters and this year, the Montana Democratic Party announced a multimillion campaign focused on keeping their support," Colvin, Godwin and Shefte explain. "But Native turnout in the state has seen a downturn in recent elections" Republicans see Sheehy "as one of their best chances to unseat a Democrat and add to their numbers — and recent polls suggest they have some momentum."

Meanwhile, the intense campaigning has left some voters worn out from constant political chatter. "Montanans have been under a deluge of inescapable appeals for their vote. . . . The total ad spending from both sides in the race since January 2023 and planned until Election Day will come in at $275 million," the Post reports. Ad-weary Montana voter Machaela Goggins told the Post, “It feels like borderline psychological abuse. . . . I think people are just ready to have an answer one way or another."

Feinstein's death raises the question of how vacant Senate seats are filled. The answer depends on where you live.

Dianne Feinstein in 1950
(Photo by Underwood Archives,
Getty Images via Conversation)

The death of California's longtime senator, Dianne Feinstein, left a vacancy in the U.S. Senate and a question in many Americans' minds: How are Senate seats filled when a person dies while in office? The short answer is it depends on where you live because individual states establish their own rules.

The 17th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution outlines the basics: "When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct," explains Gibbs Knotts for The Conversation, a platform for journalism by academics.

That usually means the state's governor will pick the predecessor. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has already named his pick, Laphonza Butler, who will remain in office until the 2024 election. However, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin "do not allow governors to make temporary appointments," Knotts reports. "Those states only fill U.S. Senate vacancies by special election, but laws specify time periods in most states."

How long appointments last also depends on state law. "If a person appointed to the seat by the governor then wins a special election or a contest scheduled alongside statewide elections, they will serve the remainder of the vacating senator's term," Knotts explains. "Otherwise, if someone else wins the special election, they get to serve out the vacating senator's term."

There are rules and processes appointing governors must follow. "In 10 gubernatorial appointment states, U.S. senators must be from the same party as the prior incumbent. Arizona, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming have this restriction," Knotts notes. "In Utah, the governor is required to select from a list of three candidates submitted by the party of the U.S. senator being replaced. In the rest of the states, the governor has the power to appoint a successor, regardless of party, including in California."

State legislatures have some say in the process. Knotts adds, "Most notably, legislators establish the appointment procedures and set the general rules about when an election must occur. If they don't like the process, they have the power to change it."

Baby formula roundup: More robust shipments from other nations will boost supplies for low-income Americans

"New infant formula shipments landing this week from abroad will provide a small reprieve to the Biden administration and low-income Americans still struggling to find formula amid ongoing shortages," Meredith Lee reports for Politico.

Rural families enrolled in the Women with Infants and Children program are having a harder time finding formula. Read more here.

The formula shortage is also creating more stress for farmworker families. Read more here.

The Biden administration wants to permanently allow carefully vetted foreign suppliers to continue selling baby formula in the U.S. to prevent future formula shortages. Read more here.

The formula shortage highlights the fact that breastfeeding isn't an option for everyone, and that many workers don't receive the workplace support they need to do so, says one op-ed. Read more here.

A few weeks ago, Senate Republicans spiked a bill that would have protected more workers' right to breastfeed. Meanwhile, another bill that would increase job protections for pregnant workers was passed in the House in May, but has not advanced out of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Bipartisan gun deal includes funding for telehealth coverage for Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program

In response to recent violent shootings, the Senate is moving an 80-page bipartisan deal meant to reduce gun violence. One provision, not widely reported, to expand telehealth coverage for patients with Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program coverage so more people can access mental health-care, Cara Smith reports for Inside Health Policy.

A maximum of 18 months after the bill becomes law, the Department of Health and Human Services would be required to provide technical assistance and guidance to states to improve telehealth access for Medicaid and CHIP enrollees. "The guidance would address adopting telehealth flexibilities to expand access to care, billing codes and practices, integrating telehealth services into value-based care models, strategies to deliver culturally competent care via telehealth and other best practices," Smith reports. The language in that part of the bill is identical to that of legislation released in May by the Senate Finance Committee.

"Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., the lead Democratic negotiator, is hailing the bill as the biggest breakthrough on the issue of gun violence in 30 years and predicted Tuesday it would save lives," Alexander Bolton reports for The Hill. "Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the head Republican in the talks, says the legislation will take guns out of the hands of people who are dangerous or break the law but won’t affect the gun rights of law-abiding citizens."

Here are some other provisions in the bill:

• Enhanced background checks for gun buyers under 21, to search juvenile criminal records. This provision would expire in 2032, so a future Congress would have to vote to extend it.
• Expand a grant program that allows states to use federal funding to implement crisis-intervention programs to reduce gun violence. States could use the money to support "red flag" laws to take guns away from people deemed a danger to themselves or others but would not be required to have such laws, a key Republican point at the end of negotiations.
• Close the "boyfriend loophole," meaning a person convicted of misdemeanor violence against a recent dating partner would lose the right to buy or possess a firearm for at least five years.
• Require the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide states with resources to expand mental-health programs in schools.
• Expand Medicaid funding for certified community behavioral health clinics, allowing up to 10 new states to opt into the program every 10 years.
• Establish a new, specific criminal offense for gun traffickers and straw purchasers with tougher penalties.

Farm Bureau backs bipartisan cattle market reform bill but opposes making packers buy certain share on cash market

The American Farm Bureau Federation says it supports a bipartisan Senate bill that aims to increase price transparency in regional cattle markets, except for a key portion that would require meatpackers to buy slaughter cattle on the cash market.

"Two sponsors of the Senate bill, Republicans Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said the Farm Bureau supported the overall goals of the bill — more competition and fair prices — despite its call for revisions to, or even elimination of, the language allowing the USDA to set regional mandatory minimum thresholds for cash and related 'grid' purchases," Chuck Abbott reports for the Food & Environment Reporting Network. "Their bill, S 3229, also would create a cattle contract library and require packers to report how many cattle are scheduled for slaughter in each of the next 14 days. Backers say those provisions would help producers know if they are being offered fair terms for their stock and the best time to ship cattle to market." The bill would also increase fines for meatpackers that violate the Packers and Stockyards Act.

Delegates at the recent annual Farm Bureau convention voted to oppose government mandates that force meatpackers to buy a certain percentage of their slaughter cattle on the cash market. Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall said in a statement Sunday that, while the organization appreciates the work being done to increase transparency, "we cannot support mandatory cash sales." However, Abbott reports, Grassley noted that "the market clearly isn't working."

The bill is a response to complaints from cattle farmers and their advocates that the major meat processors Cargill, JBS, Tyson Foods and National Beef, which control over 80 percent of the beef processed in the U.S., have colluded to raise meat prices by limiting supply. The Agriculture Department is investigating claims against the Big Four, and President Biden recently announced $800 million in support for smaller meatpackers in an effort to increase competition.

Lapse of bigger child tax credit will hurt rural families more, especially in WV, but Manchin may not get much blowback

Rural families will be disproportionately hurt when the expanded child tax credit expires at the end of the year, but the holdout vote on the bill may not face much political blowback from his constituents.

The wildly popular program, enacted in March as part of the American Rescue Plan, marked the first time the federal government tried to reduce poverty through widely available direct payments. It was particularly effective because it made the credit accessible for the first time to those too poor to file federal taxes. "Before the credit was expanded, an estimated 56 percent of all rural children didn’t receive the entire tax credit because their families didn’t earn enough money to qualify," Tim Marema reports for The Daily Yonder. "In metropolitan areas, about 48% of children lost some or all of the credit. The American Rescue Plan eliminated the income threshold and expanded the credit from $2,000 per child to $3,000, with an additional $600 for children under 6," Marema reports. "The changes raised an estimated 4.1 million children out of poverty, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. All but 15% of the poverty reduction was because of elimination of the income requirements to receive the tax credit."

The Build Back Better Act had a one-year renewal of the tax credit, but Congress adjourned for the year without voting on it, and the credit expires Dec. 31. Even if Congress does pass the law in the new year, tax credit payments would likely be disrupted, Marema reports.

At the heart of the struggle over the program is Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). Since all Senate Republicans oppose the bill, Democrats need all 50 votes (and a tie-breaker from Vice President Kamala Harris) to pass it. But Manchin said he couldn't support the bill. In private talks with President Biden, Manchin laid out a version of the bill he would vote for that included universal pre-kindergarten for 10 years, expanded Obamacare and had hundreds of billions of dollars to fight climate change, Jeff Stein and Tyler Pager report for The Washington Post. Notably absent was an extension of the child tax credit.

Manchin has cited worries about the cost of the bill, but private comments point to general concerns that low-income people would abuse benefits received through the package. "Specifically, Manchin said parents would use child-tax-credit money to buy drugs and workers would abuse the paid-family-leave program in the legislation to get out of work and go on hunting trips," Grace Panetta and Joseph Zeballos-Roig report for Business Insider.

"Recent Census data shows that more than 90% of families that have received payments from the expanded Child Tax Credit have spent the money on basic necessities like food, shelter, clothing, and utilities," Marema reports.

Manchin recently said in a Fox News Sunday interview that he can't vote for the bill if he "can't go home and explain it to the people of West Virginia." However, Marema notes: "Manchin’s constituents in West Virginia are especially vulnerable to the elimination of the expanded tax credit. The state has one of the highest child poverty rates in the U.S. About 48% of children 17 and under live at 200% of the poverty rate, considered an indicator of serious financial challenge. West Virginia's rate of children living at or below 200% of poverty is the fifth highest in the U.S. In West Virginia, expiration of the Child Tax Credit expansion will eliminate or reduce the credit for approximately 72,000 low-income rural children and nearly 100,000 low-income children who live in metropolitan areas."

Even so, West Virginians may not punish Manchin for not supporting the package. Though West Virginians are some of the nation's most-dependent on direct government payments, they see themselves as "flinty and self-reliant" and that "partisan tribalism, cultural issues and an attachment to the vanishing coal industry drive voter sentiment there, creating what is a paradoxical hostility to government," Washington Post columnist Karen Tumulty writes.

But, Manchin "is also well aware that government has a vital role when it comes to bettering the lives and futures of his constituents. Which means things might not be over yet for some version of the Build Back Better bill," Tumulty writes.

Bipartisan Senate bill would protect small rural TV stations from being bumped off air by big stations' interference

A new bipartisan bill in Congress aims to strengthen protections for small, rural television stations. The Low Power Protection Act, introduced by Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), would increase spectrum rights for some low-power television stations.

"LPTV stations usually provide locally oriented or specialized service in their communities, the senators said. However, LPTV is currently considered a secondary broadcast service by the Federal Communications Commission. As such, LPTV licensees are not granted protections from harmful interference or displacement, and must accept harmful interference or displacement from full power television stations," George Winslow reports for TV Tech.

The bill builds on a 1999 law that opened a one-time filing window for LPTV stations to apply for Class A status. Class A stations are protected from being bumped off the air by harmful interference. The bill would require the FCC to open a new filing window for Class A status, Winslow reports.

"That, in turn, will help ensure they are able to continue providing local coverage, and allow them to better protect existing investment and incentivize further investment in their stations and communities, the Senators said," Winslow reports. "The bill has garnered support from numerous broadcast organizations and advocacy groups, including the LPTV Broadcasters Association, the National Association of Broadcasters, the Missouri Association of Broadcasters, the Oregon Association of Broadcasters, and the National Hispanic Media Coalition and Public Knowledge."

Quick hits: farmers brace for inflation; bipartisan bill to help rural opioid crisis passes Senate; food supply-chain loans

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email heather.chapman@uky.edu.

The Senate has passed a bipartisan bill targeting the rural opioid epidemic. The bill now goes to the House. Read more here.

A Purdue University poll found that more than half of farmers are bracing for inflation-triggered production cost increases over the next year. Read more here.

The Biden administration is providing up to $1 billion in loan guarantees to expand food supply-chain capacity; the program is mean to result in fairer prices for farmers and greater consumer access to healthier foods. The application window opened Thursday and will remain open until Feb. 7. Read more here.

A new stem-cell study paves the way for manufacturing cultured meat. Read more here.

Health IT experts urge Senate to make pandemic telehealth regs permanent; FCC vows to update broadband maps

Health-care internet technology experts told a Senate subcommittee Thursday that many rural hospitals won't be able to take advantage of telehealth services if they can't afford or access broadband internet. The Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband convened the hearing to examine barriers to telehealth access.

Deanna Larson, president of telehealth company Avel eCare, testified that affordability is the biggest barrier to broadband adoption, and urged lawmakers to broaden telehealth regulations so more hospitals can use it. "Larson urged Congress to extend or make permanent their regulatory flexibility toward telehealth especially as it relates to being neutral on the kinds of telemedicine, such as phone-only care, asynchronous care, and remote patient monitoring," Riley Steward reports for Broadband Breakfast, a site that advocates for better broadband access. "An economic benefit of which would be keeping medical commerce local, she said. Patients wouldn’t be required as often to move to a higher level of care out of town."

Widespread telehealth availability could save the health care system an estimated $305 billion a year, Federal Communications Commission member Brendan Carr said at the hearing, Steward reports. He also endorsed several Senate bills that would enhance telehealth access, including the bipartisan Protecting Rural Telehealth Access Act, which was introduced in June by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Terry Moran (R-Kan.).

The bill, along with its House companion, the Protecting Telehealth Access Act, focus on specific changes to telehealth that have proven successful during the pandemic, Eric Wicklund reports for mHealth Intelligence. Both bills call on Congress to allow audio-only telehealth appointments to receive the same payments as other appointments, permanently waive Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services geographic restrictions so patients can be treated in their homes, permanently allow rural health clinics and federally qualified health centers to provide telehealth services, and allow critical access hospitals to bill directly for telehealth services.

However, even if the bills pass, they can only help if hospitals can access affordable broadband. The FCC awards rural broadband buildout contracts to companies based on maps meant to identify who lacks broadband access. But those maps are inaccurate, a problem the commission has vowed to fix. Subcommittee members at the hearing pressed Carr to complete the improved maps so more rural areas can get the broadband access they need, Maria Curi reports for Bloomberg Law.

Infrastructure bill would give state, local governments freer hand with broadband cash, so rural might have to fight for it

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the need to close the rural-urban digital divide, and many state and local governments plan to use billions of dollars in federal relief funds to do that. The $1 trillion infrastructure bill the Senate passed today would provide a big boost, and give governments more flexibility with it, Managing Editor Rich Ehisen reports for State Net Capitol Journal.

H.R. 3684 allocates $65 billion for broadband deployment and adoption in under-served areas, an amount that is "both much more than Congress has previously allocated specifically to broadband and substantially less than the $100 billion President Joe Biden was seeking," Ehisen reports. If passed as-is, $42 billion would likely be sent to states as block grants and $14 billion would permanently fund an emergency fund that helps low-income Americans pay internet bills.

Notably, the bill "grants state and local governments wide latitude to set their own priorities in funding broadband projects, a significant departure from the usual mandates for how federal funds are utilized," Ehisen reports. "It also allows funds to be allocated toward 'communities,' as defined by states themselves instead of the usual census blocks based on Federal Communications Commission data." That could mean rural areas shouldn't take for granted that they will get help from the bill, because it is not focused only on rural areas.

Vilsack meets with farm lobbyists, bipartisan senators, to make a game plan for passing farm-labor immigration bill

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is spearheading efforts to pass a bill to allow undocumented farmworkers to stay in the U.S. and bring in more immigrant workers. Vilsack told reporters Wednesday, saying he had made a commitment "on the part of the president to get this done."

He spoke after meeting with Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and farm lobbyists to discuss the issue. "The House passed a bill, but the Senate so far has been resistant to considering the House bill and no Senate bill has been released," Jerry Hagstrom reports for DTN/The Progressive Farmer. "Vilsack said both farmers and agribusiness executives, already in "a very stressful time" for many reasons, are increasingly concerned about their 'current and future workforce.'"

Crapo and Bennet both committed to round up votes, Bennet and Vilsack told reporters after the meeting. Crapo, who didn't speak to reporters, was more measured in a release: "There is no question we must deal with the insufficiencies of the existing agriculture guest worker program in order to ensure a stable and high-quality food supply across our country. The bipartisan roundtable with Secretary Vilsack, Sen. Bennet and stakeholder groups was a meaningful, collaborative discussion. It was an opportunity to engage in robust dialogue on the best path forward for legislation in the Senate."

Farm lobbyists are somewhat divided on the prospect of a bill, Hagstrom reports. David Puglia, president and CEO of farmers' lobby Western Growers, said he's more optimistic about passing a bill this year than in the previous 16 he's been in the produce industry. It's important to pass this year, he said, because it would be a harder sell during an election year. The United Fresh Produce Association and United Farm Workers, among others, said they support a possible bill. 

The American Farm Bureau Federation was cagier in its response. "Allison Crittenden, director of congressional relations for the Farm Bureau, who attended the meeting, said Farm Bureau nationally wants more year-long visas and is concerned about wage rates and farmers' legal exposure," Hagstrom reports. "But the California Farm Bureau supported the House bill, and Crittenden noted the American Farm Bureau said it did not support the bill but did not use the word 'oppose'."

Senate votes to revert methane rules to Obama era; research says cutting its emissions could slow warming

The Senate voted 52-42 Wednesday voted to restore regulation of methane emissions, rolling back a Trump administration rule. "The bill would reinstate the 2012 and 2016 Oil and Natural Gas New Source Performance Standards set by the Obama administration," Valerie Volcovici reports for Reuters. Oil companies such as BP and Shell have signaled support for the measure, which now goes to the House. It passed the Senate under "a 1996 law that allows Congress to reverse federal rules implemented in the last days of a past administration with a simple majority," Volcovici notes.

Along with Senate Democrats and independents, three Republicans voted for the measure: Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rob Portman of Ohio. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the measure would help the Biden administration reach its goal of halving U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions over the next decade, Volcovici reports. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan "said in a recent interview that new methane rules, due by September, would likely exceed the goals of Obama-era regulations and play a significant role in helping the United States achieve its near-term climate goals."

The vote "comes ahead of the release of a major United Nations report next week that will call for deep cuts in methane emissions to slow the rate of global warming and keep it beneath a threshold agreed by world leaders," Volcovici reports.

Moving quickly to cut methane emissions could slow global warming by as much as 30 percent, according to research recently published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. According to the study, "a full-scale push using existing technologies could cut methane emissions in half by 2030. Such reductions could have a crucial impact in the global effort to limit warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to preindustrial levels — a central aim of the Paris climate accord," Brady Dennis and Steven Mufson report for The Washington Post. "In human terms, that could translate into fending off the most severe sea level rise, preventing more profound damage to animal habitats and ecosystems, and delaying other extreme climate impacts."

Rural West Virginians discuss their hopes and fears over the minimum-wage increase debate

"While an effort to raise the national minimum wage from its current $7.25 level without Republican votes was blocked in the Senate this month, congressional Democrats have signaled they plan to try again," Jason Lange and Makini Brice report for Reuters. "The stakes are perhaps nowhere better illustrated than in West Virginia. Its 16 percent poverty rate is among the nation’s highest and its low wages - half its workers earn less than $16.31 an hour - mean it could see some of the biggest risks and rewards of such a move."

Raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2025 would cost the nation between 1.4 million and 2.7 million jobs, as businesses struggle to cope with higher operating costs, according to a February estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. But "in Republican-dominated states, where wages are generally lower than in Democratic-leaning states that are home to America’s biggest cities, the biggest concern is retaining jobs, not raising wages." Lange and Brice report. West Virginia's unemployment rate rose above 15% during the pandemic, higher than the national average. The state's current 6.5% unemployment rate is also higher than the national average. 

"Some experts said job losses could be sharper in rural areas because it will be harder for businesses in small-town America to raise prices enough to offset dramatic increases in pay," Lange and Brice report. For instance, one restaurant owner told Reuters that raising the minimum wage to $15 would be the "death knell" for her business. She couldn't raise the prices on her food enough to cover that wage, and expects she would have to lay off workers.

However, proponents of raising the minimum wage say it won't necessarily result in job cuts, and note that the CBO study projected that increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 would raise the incomes of 17 million Americans and bring 900,000 out of poverty, Lange and Brice report. 

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, "a moderate Democrat who opposes the $15 target ... is emerging as a key force in the narrowly divided chamber. Manchin, whose support would be crucial to the success of any legislation on the issue, says he would back an $11 minimum wage, still a more than 50% increase from where it has stood since 2009," Lange and Brice report. "Five Senate Republicans - including West Virginia’s other senator, Shelley Moore Capito - have proposed an increase to $10, suggesting compromise of some kind is possible."

Opinion: Senate Republicans fear Deb Haaland but should fear alienating Native American voters more

If Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., is confirmed as interior secretary, she would be not only the first Native American in the role, but the first in any cabinet-level position. That matters because the Interior Department governs Native American affairs, writes Julian Brave NoiseCat for The Washington Post: "We have had many interior secretaries with close ties to powerful men in the C-suite and on Capitol Hill. But we have never had an interior secretary who tended to traditional gardens, cooked for pueblo feast days and stood with the Oceti Sakowin Nation at Standing Rock in defense of tribal treaty rights." NoiseCat is vice president of policy and strategy at Data for Progress and a fellow of the Type Media Center.

But Haaland, a registered member of the Laguna Pueblo, is facing a great deal of push-back from Senate Republicans because of her views on oil and gas mining and national parks. The contentious confirmation hearing for Haaland, now entering its second week, has become a battlefield on which Senate Democrats and Republicans fight a proxy war over fossil fuels policy, Oliver Milman and Nina Lakhani report for The Guardian.

Some of Haaland's biggest critics in the hearing are from states where fossil fuels are big business, NoiseCat writes, and notes that many have received large campaign contributions from the oil and gas industries. Though conservatives have portrayed her as an extremist in the hearing, "in 2019, she introduced the most bills with bipartisan support of all House freshmen," NoiseCat writes. "What Haaland actually brings — and what the Republican Party seems to consider so dangerous — are experiences and perspectives that have never found representation in the leadership of the executive branch. In fact, Republicans’ depiction of the first Native American ever nominated to the Cabinet as a 'radical' threat to a Western 'way of life' revealed something about the conservative id: a deep-seated fear that when the dispossessed finally attain a small measure of power, we will turn around and do to them what their governments and ancestors did to us."

NoiseCat cites examples where the Native American vote helped one party or another win recent elections, and writes that Republicans need Native American voters for future elections. But, he warns, if Republicans block Haaland, Native Americans will remember at the ballot box: "With moderate Democrat Joe Manchin III of West Virginia publicly backing Haaland, her path to confirmation is clear. It would be unwise for the GOP to stand athwart Indian country’s chance at history." 

Ultimately, Republicans' slow-walking of the nomination is unlikely to do them much good since the Interior "is already moving to lock in key parts of President Biden’s environmental agenda, particularly on oil and gas restrictions, laying the groundwork to fulfill some of the administration’s most consequential climate change promises," Lisa Friedman reports for The New York Times.

Sen. Manchin criticizes vice president's interview with W.Va. station, highlighting Biden's tricky Senate balancing act

Vice President Kamala Harris is facing blowback after a Jan. 28 interview with a West Virginia TV station about the administration's pandemic relief package, highlighting the complicated politics surrounding the issue and the Biden administration's precarious position in the Senate. 

During the interview with NBC affiliate WSAZ-TV in Huntington, Harris noted that the pandemic has hit the state's economy hard and spoke about finding work for laid-off coal miners in reclaiming abandoned mines (though she misspoke and said "abandoned land mines," which spawned social-media mocking). Sen. Joe Manchin, the only Democrat elected statewide in West Virginia, complained to the station the next day that the White House hadn't asked his advice about persuading West Virginians, Cleve R. Wootson Jr. reports for The Washington Post. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the administration has been in regular contact with Manchin for weeks and will continue to be, but said the administration also wants to make a case for its recovery plan directly to voters. 

Though Harris had a very liberal voting record as a senator, her appearance "seemed to be part of an effort to pressure moderate senators, since she also spoke to a news station in Arizona, home to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who like Manchin is a centrist Democrat," Wootson reports. An evenly split Senate means "means centrist Democratic senators, who are most likely to defect, will often control the fate of Biden’s initiatives."

An anonymous Manchin adviser said the senator is not unaware of this power, Wootson reports. But Manchin has made his name — and kept his seat — by cultivating a reputation as a maverick, according to West Virginia-based political scientist Patrick Hickey. So an early clash with the Biden administration could be a "political boon" for the senator.

At any rate, the dust-up, "while minor in many ways, makes it clear how difficult it may be for Biden to achieve the unity he has called for — even within his own party," Wootson reports.

Coal-state groups and national allies ask Biden for clean-power transition plan; Manchin may play key role in issue

Economic-development groups in coal states, joined by labor leaders and environmentalists from across the nation, are asking the Biden administration to fund and map out a "just transition" to renewable energy. Specifically, the groups want the administration to create a White House Office of Economic Transition that focuses on rebuilding coal communities' economies. The groups also asked for the creation of a task force on communities that depend on coal and power plants for jobs, something Biden promised to do during his campaign, James Bruggers reports for Inside Climate News. 

The groups will likely get at least part of their wish. White House sources say Biden "will establish an interagency working group to help communities transition away from coal and other fossil fuels . . . headed by Climate Coordinator Gina McCarthy and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese," The Washington Post reports.

Biden vowed to shift the nation toward greener energy, and has taken steps to show his commitment to that goal. "On his first day, the president moved to rejoin the Paris climate accord and directed his administration to review and begin rolling back more than 100 rules on the environment put in place by the Trump administration, many of which benefited the fossil fuel industry," Bruggers notes. "Biden’s plan includes the goal of a 'carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035'."

Biden signed a stack of executive orders today to tackle climate change, Dino Grandoni reports for the Post: "The moves on drilling for oil and gas, conserving nature and addressing the racial and economic disparities of pollution fulfill several campaign promises. They are meant to put the United States on the path to net-zero emissions by the middle of the century and come off the heels of Biden moving to rejoin the Paris climate accord and nix the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office."

However, Biden's green-energy efforts may depend on support from Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat with a history of supporting coal. "Because Manchin is expected to become the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Democrats have only a razor-thin margin in the Senate, Manchin will likely have an oversized role in any climate legislation that might come out of Congress, including legislation to help coal communities," Bruggers writes.

Manchin didn't comment on the groups' request for a coal transition office and task force, but "earlier, in response to Biden’s initial climate moves, he said the president 'must renew America’s leadership on climate change through innovation' and that efforts to address climate change 'must create jobs in places like West Virginia and wherever traditional energy workers have been left behind,'" Bruggers reports.

Trump trashes mail-in voting, then says he would sign coronavirus relief deal with Postal Service funding

"President Trump stirred new questions on Thursday about whether he would seek to hold up new money to the Postal Service to impede mail-in voting this fall in the middle of the pandemic," Emily Cochrane and Hailey Fuchs report for The New York Times. "Repeating the unfounded claim that the election could be riddled with fraud if mail ballots were widely used, he made clear that he opposed Democratic demands for additional funding for both the post office and election-security measures because of his opposition to mail-in voting. Still, he left open the possibility that he could come to a deal as part of a larger negotiation over a new round of economic stimulus."

During his press conference on Thursday, Trump "said that he would in fact sign a coronavirus relief deal if it had funding for the U.S. Postal Service, after saying earlier in the day that he wouldn’t accept a bill with USPS money," Melanie Zanona reports for Politico. "But Democrats are still worried that Trump will try to impede mail-in voting efforts ahead of the election, especially after he explicitly said that was the reason he was opposed to USPS money."

House Democrats' relief bill would allot $25 billion to the Postal Service, while the Senate Republicans' bill includes no aid for the financially strapped agency, on which rural Americans disproportionately rely. Partly because of a drop in mail volume, the service projected in May that it will lose another $22 billion over the next year and a half, and could run out of money by September without a bailout.

The House and Senate are still reportedly "miles apart" on agreeing on the next pandemic relief package, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Since both chambers are out of town for the August recess, it'll be September before they even begin to negotiate on a reconciled coronavirus bill. They'll also be busy working on the omnibus spending bill that must be passed by Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown, Zanona reports, all of which will make for a "crazy September."

Poultry workers' unions sue USDA over line speed waivers

"The union representing workers at chicken processing plants in six states sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday, saying its policy of allowing companies to slaughter birds more quickly endangers workers and makes it more difficult to protect against spread of the coronavirus," David Pitt reports for The Associated Press. "The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and local unions representing 10 plants in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi and Missouri joined with nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen to file the lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture allowed plants to waive line speed caps in 2018, after it said the issue had been studied via pilot programs for 25 years. However, "the unions said in court documents that an average of eight workers per year died on the job between 2013 and 2017 in poultry processing plants, and that workers commonly suffer sprains, lacerations, and contusions," Pitt reports. "They contend that research and worker experience shows work speed is a major contributing factor to the high injury rates suffered by poultry workers."

Senate Democrats introduced a bill on Tuesday that would block faster line speeds at meatpacking plants during the pandemic and suspend line-speed waivers already issued, Chuck Abbott reports for Successful Farming.

Senate passes bill that funds public lands conservation, reduces backlog of maintenance needs in national parks

The Senate voted 73-25 Wednesday to pass a bill to protect public lands and address part of the national park system's maintenance backlog. It would permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million a year. "It would also provide $9.5 billion to help clear part of the Interior Department’s nearly $20 billion in maintenance projects that had been deferred because of budget constraints," Elvina Nawaguna reports for Roll Call.

The move is also meant to help its two sponsors, Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., both Republicans facing tough re-election battles, Nawaguna reports. The bill passed with little trouble, after less than two weeks of debate and with no major amendments. A Democratic aide told Nawaguna that the bill will get a House floor vote before the July 4 recess.