FOMC | Sessions talks to Senate panel | Perdue on USDA reorganization | Ag research | E15
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USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue appears before a Senate Ag Appropriations panel, the Federal Reserve is expected to boost interest rates and another key hearing by the Senate Intelligence panel on the Russia situation, among other topics, are the key agenda items this week in Washington.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) ends its two-day meeting Wednesday and issues its decision on interest rates. The Fed is widely expected to raise short-term rates by a quarter of a percentage point. Janet Yellen holds a news conference after the meeting.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions will testify Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the same panel that heard last Thursday from former FBI Director James Comey. Sessions earlier this year recused himself from the Justice Department’s investigation of Russian efforts to tilt the 2016 election after he belatedly disclosed two meetings with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. Comey last week suggested the possibility of other concerns about Sessions’ dealings with Russia during the campaign, saying Federal Bureau of Investigation leadership before the recusal was “aware of facts that I can’t discuss in an open setting that would make his continued engagement in a Russia-related investigation problematic.” In a weekend letter, Sessions canceled previously planned public testimony before House and Senate appropriations panels. He said that the testimony by Comey, whom President Donald Trump fired in early May, made it “important that I have an opportunity to address these matters in the appropriate forum,” which he said was the Senate Intelligence Committee. Sessions is expected to face questioning about why he was involved in firing Comey given that he had recused himself from questions related to Russia. As FBI director, Comey was overseeing that investigation. It is unclear whether the intelligence committee hearing will be held in public.
The FY 2018 budget takes center stage in Congress, with close to 30 appropriations hearings (not to mention those on other subjects). Lawmakers mark up the first spending bill for Fiscal 2018 today.
USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue’s plans to eliminate the Undersecretary of Rural Development and a big cut in agriculture spending via President Trumps Fiscal Year 2018 budgets are the key issues he will likely be asked about Tuesday during a Senate Ag Appropriations subcommittee hearing.
Agriculture research is the key topic during a Thursday hearing by the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Year-round E15 use will be the subject of a Wednesday hearing by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The bill in focus is the Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act, introduced in March by Nebraska Republican Senator Deb Fischer. A companion bill was introduced in the House in March. EPA annually regulates RVP for gasoline and ethanol blends from June first until September 15. During these months, the EPA restricts the retail sale of fuels with ethanol above ten percent. The bill’s language would extend the RVP waiver to ethanol blends above ten percent.
Several confirmation hearings or votes for positions are slated this week at FEMA, the Council of Economic Advisers, Housing and Urban Development and more.
At the White House, President Trump will make expansion of apprenticeship programs the center of his labor policy, aimed at filling a record level of open jobs and drawing back Americans who have left the workforce. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and senior White House adviser, said although the unemployment rate was at its lowest level in more than a decade, there were still Americans looking for work and employers struggling to fill jobs. “The Trump administration is committed to working very closely to close the skills gap and ensure Americans are being trained for the jobs that are available and the jobs of the future,” she said on the briefing call with reporters Friday. On Tuesday, the president, along with his daughter and Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, will visit Waukesha County Technical College in Wisconsin with Gov. Scott Walker. A business round table is planned for Wednesday with Ivanka Trump. She will join her father, Acosta and Vice President Mike Pence for another round table with eight governors on Thursday.
Trump’s Cuba policy. President Trump on Friday is expected to travel to Miami, where he is expected to announce that he’s reversing parts of President Obama’s historic “opening” to Cuba. Cuba hardliners in Congress like Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have been pushing hard behind the scenes.
On the agriculture market front, weather will remain the key factor, with today’s Crop Progress update another check on planting and condition of crops. Expectations will be for another decline in spring wheat ratings with the expansion of drought in the region. Grain Inspections today and the Weekly Export Sales update on Thursday remain important markers on the demand side.
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