Recognizing that the screwworm is a big problem for Texas, state Gov. Greg Abbott (R) directed his parks and wildlife and animal health departments to form a New World Screwworm Response Team. They held their first meeting recently. Additionally, about one-third of the cattle crossing the border do so through New Mexico, according to the New Mexico Border Authority. We have heard no update from Mexico regarding efforts to push back the northernmost detection of the screwworm, a prerequisite for reopening the border.
Since the 2009 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided that humans cause all the warming—excuse me, climate change—on the planet, the Supreme Court has handed down momentous decisions. They have held that government agencies aren’t always right and have been given too much deference in the past. Those landmark cases have drastically changed the way courts are to regard federal regulations.
That provides a great opportunity for the EPA’s effort, under EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, to get rid of the EPA’s endangerment finding. The endangerment finding dealt with restricting greenhouse gas emissions and underpins all the restrictions on internal combustion engines the government has issued. The comment period has been extended until Sept. 22. To view documents supporting this proposed rulemaking as well as comments submitted, please visit regulations.gov and access the rule under Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0194.
The federal district court in D.C. upheld the exemption for livestock operations’ voluminous recordkeeping requirements on air emissions from manure. Environmental groups had sued, claiming the exemption was illegal. NCBA, Farm Bureau and the National Pork Council had intervened in the suit. The environmental groups might appeal the suit to the circuit court, according to Southern Ag Today.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA-15) has discussed a Farm Bill 2.0 to cover the items not in the reconciliation bill. He said discussions have involved help for farmers damaged by tariffs and a provision designed to outlaw Proposition 12. The initiative passed by California’s voters prescribed what management methods could be used in raising pigs if the pork was to be sold in California. Thompson said the Supreme Court, in refusing to strike down the law, had put any fix in Congress’ court. The committee intends to do so.
The EPA has withdrawn proposed rules that would have added expensive, burdensome wastewater requirements on packing plants that would have put major costs on big packers and closed smaller ones.
For those who thought the jobs numbers turned out by our Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) were really much better than President Donald Trump claimed in firing the BLS chief, the revisions of the 12 months ending in March 2025 scotched that thought.
The BLS just released revisions indicating that 911,000 jobs reported were fictitious, an even bigger number than the downward revisions released in 2024 (600,000). Add that to the 258,000 revised downward for June and July and the trend continues. Obviously, the BLS doesn’t have a clue. With the Federal Reserve relying on BLS figures to address one of their mandates—to control unemployment—the Fed has been flying blinder than we thought.
The media has featured several stories recently about the “new” Chinese negotiating approach of talking a lot but negotiating little. That is not a new tactic but resurrection of the normal one. The negotiations during the first Trump term were not typical, with the Chinese giving up more than was expected. But negotiations this summer have not yielded much, despite economic pressures on China. As an exporting nation, recent data has not been encouraging. China exports for August were reported as an increase of 4.4%, short of the 5.4% expected, and July’s 7.2% year over year.
With the budget year’s end approaching, Republicans and Democrats have been discussing how to approach a spending bill. As usual, congressional committees have not passed all their bills. Only three committees—out of 12—have done so and some members want more time to finish. But they have not agreed about how short a short-term continuing resolution should be, or how long a longer one is, and some want one until the end of the next fiscal year.
The Democrats want more input this time. Some are angered at the administration’s introduction of another rescission bill, this one a “pocket rescission” that could pull back $9 billion in unspent funds without further congressional approval. A half dozen presidents have used rescissions and a couple have used pocket rescissions.
It’s far from clear what will happen among congressional leaders and the White House. — Steve Dittmer, WLJ columnist
(Steve Dittmer is the author of the Agribusiness Freedom Foundation newsletter. Views in the column do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of WLJ or its editorial staff.)
