Can McCarthy’s ouster save Ag-FDA bill?

Oct 10, 2023

With help from Marcia Brown and David Rogers

QUICK FIX

— House Rules Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said Rep. Kevin McCarthy ’s (R-Calif.) ouster could undo his deals with the far right of the caucus, which could free the Agriculture-FDA appropriations bill from limbo.

— California became the first state to ban red dye No. 3, along with three other food product additives.

— Marcia caught up with the National Grocers Association for a Q&A on the group’s farm bill priorities.

HAPPY TUESDAY, Oct. 10. Welcome to Morning Ag. I’m your host, Garrett Downs. Send tips to gdowns@politico.com, and follow us at @Morning_Ag.

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Driving the day

House Rules Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) is seen before a hearing at the U.S. Capitol.

House Rules Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) | Francis Chung/POLITICO

COLE’S SILVER LINING: One of the most powerful Republicans in the House sees a silver lining after McCarthy’s ouster; it could give the House a do-over on appropriations bills.

All of the appropriations bills, including Ag-FDA, would have imposed deep cuts across the board. Ag-FDA’s cuts to farm programs alienated farm-state Republicans like Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), who called the bill destructive.

The cuts were so deep because McCarthy made a backroom deal with the far-right of his caucus to undercut the pact to raise the debt ceiling with President Joe Biden, which included agreed-to caps for the appropriations bills.

But now that McCarthy is gone, Cole told our David Rogers, so is his deal with the far-right to undercut the debt limit deal.

What he said: “This agreement was faulty from the beginning. It’s changed over time, and now in a sense, it doesn’t exist at all because McCarthy isn’t the speaker anymore,” Cole said in an interview. “So we’re not really bound by this agreement now. That will be an interesting thing the new speaker will have to hash out.”

Cole mentioned the Ag-FDA bill in his comments.

“Look at the members who brought down the farm bill and they are some of our very best members,” said Cole, who had a front-row seat as a member of the Appropriations. “They felt like they had been misled, were very disappointed and they voted accordingly. … This had to do with the confusion around this very poorly written agreement that has never been public.”

Why it matters: Cole was responsible for moving the appropriations bills through the Rules Committee, the gatekeeper to the House floor. He is also vice-chair of the funding committee, an influential post in the appropriations process.

So his sharp rebuke of McCarthy’s deal signals even senior Republicans had serious doubts about how the chamber was proceeding with appropriations — and may be seeking a different tack as the chamber lurches toward a government shutdown on Nov. 17.

It could also embolden moderate members — who are newly empowered as both speaker candidates seek to win their favor — to demand more tempered appropriations bills that have a chance to pass the House and more closely align with those that the Senate have put forward, which are in line with the debt limit deal.

THE STATES

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speak.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). | Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo

CALIFORNIA BANS FOOD CHEMICALS: California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill to ban brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben and red dye No. 3 from food.

A step ahead: California is making the move before the FDA, a familiar position for the Golden State which has also beat the feds to the punch on a swath of other policies. It could spur action on the chemicals in other states until the FDA updates its regulations.

Newsom, who attached a letter to his signature on the bill, said signing the bill “a positive step forward on these four food additives until the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reviews and establishes national updated safety levels for these additives.”

The governor also apparently attached a packet of Skittles from the European Union as “demonstrable proof that the food industry is capable of maintaining product lines while complying with different public health laws, country-to-country.”

Food safety advocates for years have criticized the FDA for not taking action on the chemicals, especially red 3, which the FDA decades ago found to have carcinogenic properties. The Center for Science in the Public Interest and a number of other groups last year petitioned the FDA to remove red 3 from the list of approved color additives.

CSPI praised California’s new law after it was signed.

“Most people would be quite surprised to learn that a known carcinogen is banned for use in lipstick but still widely used in thousands of foods, including many candies, baked goods, and drinks marketed to children,” said CSPI President Peter Lurie. “California has corrected that absurdity for Californians, and, if past is prologue, the impact of this law will reverberate throughout the nation and at the FDA.”

But the law did receive some blowback from the National Confectioners Association, which said California is “once again making decisions based on soundbites rather than science. Governor Newsom’s approval of this bill will undermine consumer confidence and create confusion around food safety,” in a statement. “This is a slippery slope that the FDA could prevent by engaging on this important topic.”

FARM BILL Q&A

FOOD ASKS: Although a farm bill may seem far away, groups are still eager to get in front of lawmakers and sway policy. We caught up with Stephanie Johnson, vice president of government relations at the National Grocers Association to talk about the group’s push for strong nutrition assistance.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

MA: Are you working on pushing to advance SNAP or influence SNAP online?

Johnson: We've got a pretty robust farm bill slew of requests for this year. But they really kind of boil down to safeguarding the program and building on its success.

We think that grocers are really the backbone of nutrition programs. This program is incredibly efficient, incredibly effective. And that's because of this public private partnership that's been happening for decades.

We want to safeguard SNAP and protect it from really crazy changes. From either side, we think that the program as it runs is going really well. We want to make sure that participants are steered toward healthier foods so we're able to help them make those healthier choices in any way possible. And then we want to protect our members from burdensome fees and red tape that end up driving up food costs and making the program run less well, less efficiently.

MA: Since the last farm bill, SNAP online has really changed grocery the landscape. What are some changes you’d like to see in the farm bill that would help smaller and midsized grocers?

Johnson: Obviously we want to see [SNAP online] protected and continuing this technical assistance so our members are able to better get online more quickly because some of them have taken up to two years to get authorized.

MA: USDA has been doing a lot of work to boost local food chains. Is that impacting your membership at all?

Johnson: We've had several members participate in the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, which is older than some of these newer programs, but it's never been fully authorized. And so we are hoping for baseline funding.

MA: WIC is super top of mind right now, with the shutdown. Are there changes to WIC you would like to see?

Johnson: When it comes to the farm bill and SNAP participants specifically, we already have the tools to help people eat healthier. I think we should really bolster GusNIP and SNAP.

We've seen some lawmakers want to go the restriction route. We want to use the carrot instead of the stick.

When it comes to WIC, we've been very supportive of the fruit and vegetable bump. We know that it's increased participation in the program.

There were over 40 million people on SNAP. You really can't restrict … the diets of 40 million people. As a dietitian, I see that you've got babies all the way up to older adults. They've got cancer, chronic kidney disease, high blood pressure. Everyone has different nutritional needs and we really can't restrict what people are eating. At the register, you know, we would see our cashiers become the food police where they have to tell people what they can and cannot feed their families and it would slow down the line for everyone.

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Row Crops

— Kansas farmers are ditching growing hemp used for CBD oil, The Witchita Eagle reports.

— Farmers and a nature preserve are trying to coexist in Belgium, according to The New York Times.

— Oregon farmers are trying to adapt to a life with less water, per Oregon Public Broadcasting.

THAT’S ALL FOR MA! Drop us a line: gdowns@politico.com, meredithlee@politico.com, marciabrown@politico.com, mmartinez@politico.com, abehsudi@politico.com and ecadei@politico.com.