FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL A White House official told the Agriculture Department to include left-leaning groups, including the United Food and Commercial Workers union and the League of United Latin American Citizens, among “stakeholders” to help implement President Joe Biden’s executive order aimed at turning out the vote.
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INFRASTRUCTURE PATH UNKNOWN: Senate Republicans continue to meet with President Biden in an attempt to broker a bipartisan infrastructure package. President Biden and Senate Republicans go back and forth on how to pay for, and how much to invest in infrastructure.
Suggested Event
Jun 15, 2021 to Jun 17, 2021
For the past two months, we’ve heard plenty of discussion about President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan and the American Family Plan. The back-to-back legislative punch offered the President an opportunity to lay out his many priorities including infrastructure and tax changes, but also expanded into funding climate priorities and broadband. Democrats could push through a partisan process in another reconciliation later this year, but for now there’s some hope bipartisanship can bring a more tailored approach with an infrastructure-focused bill possibly on the summer docket.
Last Friday, President Biden released his fiscal year (FY) 2022 $1.522 trillion discretionary budget, which provides an 8.4% increase over fiscal 2021. It provides a 16% increase or $106 billion for non-defense spending and a $12 billion increase, or 12%, for defense spending. The budget represents some of Biden s campaign priorities of education, investments to address climate change and cancer research.
The budget proposes $27.8 billion in discretionary spending for USDA with emphasis on broadband, research and nutrition. This is a $3.8 billion increase, or 16%, over last year.
USDA highlights include:
Broadband - $65 million increase over FY 21 for the Rural e-Connectivity Program, which provides grants and loans to deploy broadband to unserved areas.