Most Noble Employment of Man
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| U.S AGRICULTURE |
FFAR LOOKS TO SENATE FARM BILL FOR SUPPORT: Research
advocates hope the Senate farm bill will give agricultural projects a bigger
boost than the House version, H.R. 2 (115), which
essentially kept funding for ag research flat while
providing organic research with a $10-million bump. Among those clamoring for
farm bill dollars is the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research. The
organization, created by the 2014 farm bill, promotes agricultural research by
forming public-private partnerships, using $200 million in federal seed money.
FFAR is banking on the Senate reupping funding for the initiative when the
upper chamber's farm bill is released, which could happen as soon as this week.
"We have very high hopes
for the Senate as that was our place of origin," FFAR Executive Director
Sally Rockey told MA. The foundation has spent about $84 million of its funding
pool, matching every program dollar with private sector funding to maximize the
impact of its work. Rockey said the foundation will likely be able to continue
if it doesn't get full funding from the final farm bill, but it would have to
revamp its fundraising model to make up for the lost dollars. But what makes
FFAR projects attractive to private donors, she said, is the sizable chunk of
federal money it has at its disposal.
"Investment in
our future": The foundation has provided more than 80 grants for
projects ranging from addressing food waste to improving soil health. One of
its largest grants, at $15 million, went to a University of Illinois research
team that's working on improving crop yields by making photosynthesis more
efficient. So far researchers have seen a 20-percent increase in yield in test
crops, and they're working to replicate those results in soybeans, cassava and
cowpea.
"Science is happening so
fast and in agriculture, specifically, because we can apply this science very
rapidly to our production system," Rockey said. "We're seeing that
new technological advances are being applied to agriculture faster than almost
every discipline. Investments in agriculture are really an investment in our
future."
Keeping up with China: Agriculture
Secretary Sonny Perdue and Senate Ag Chairman Pat Roberts spoke
about a need for increased investment for ag research at a farm bill listening
session in Manhattan, Kan., last week. "We never want to be behind any
foreign country when it comes to food production," Perdue said, citing the
fact that China and other countries have outpaced the U.S. in government
spending on ag research in recent years. If farmers don't have access to
technology like high-speed broadband and the benefits of research, Roberts
said, "it's going to be awfully hard to compete." [POLITICO's Morning Agriculture, June 5, 2018]
Securing new legislation: Thelman
is featured in a report, published today
and commissioned by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, that
highlights success stories in Kansas and aims to build the case for including
the Local FARMS Act — S. 1947 (115), H.R. 3941 (115) —
in the Senate farm bill. The proposal would establish an overarching,
$80-million-a-year local and regional food economy development program that
would merge several current initiatives, as well as invest in food-safety
training, make it easier for schools to procure fresh products, and authorize
pilots designed to increase access to healthy food.
Debbie Bearden, who raises
beef cattle in Allen County, Kan., and is active in her local food system, told
POLITICO that an initiative known as Double Up Food Bucks is critical to
expanding access to healthy food. Food stamp benefits are doubled when they are
spent on fresh produce at farmers markets and grocery stores that participate
in the program. Bearden said that in her community over three years, matching
funds have grown from just under $400 to more than $2,500 per season. The House
farm bill would increase mandatory funding for the program that finances Double
Up Food Bucks — known as the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Grant Program,
or FINI — to $275 million.
Lack of labor stunts
growth: Both Bearden and Thelman said another obstacle to expanding
local and regional food systems is America's chronic farm labor shortage —
something the farm bill is unlikely to address. [POLITICO's
Morning Agriculture, June 5, 2018]
Fact-checking POTUS on ag: Trump
dug in with his second tweet. "Farmers have not been doing
well for 15 years. Mexico, Canada, China and others have treated them unfairly.
By the time I finish trade talks, that will change. Big trade barriers against
U.S. farmers, and other businesses, will finally be broken. Massive trade
deficits no longer!" But as Doug pointed out, Canada, China and Mexico are
already the three biggest markets for U.S. agricultural exports, with each
taking in about $20 billion in American farm goods.
"We have a surplus in agriculture trade," Angela
Hofmann, deputy director of the advocacy group Farmers for Free Trade, wrote in
a statement after Trump's tweet. "So by the President's own metric, U.S.
agriculture trade has been winning. The only thing that could put that at risk
are harmful tariffs that will tax the very exports our farmers depend on for
their livelihoods. We can and should address non-tariff barriers but we can't
do it in a way that puts major ag export markets at risk." [POLITICO's Morning Agriculture, June 5, 2018]
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| TECHNOLOGY |
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Experts don't
buy the coal-cyber connection
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A key reason the
Trump administration has offered for bolstering coal in the U.S. energy
portfolio is that keeping coal plants in service would safeguard the country
from cyber attacks. Critical infrastructure security experts
don't buy it.
What
they're saying: "Claiming
we should protect coal because of 'cyber' is like claiming we should wear
body vests in case of snake bites...The cyber component to this debate though
is a distraction," tweeted Robert M. Lee,founder of the critical infrastructure
cybersecurity firm Dragos. [Axios Codebook,
June 5, 2018]
|
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| JUDICIAL MATTERS |
CALIFORNIA, OREGON WANT IN ON SUIT AGAINST TRUMP REG ORDER: The states of
California and Oregon have asked to join a lawsuit brought by public interest groups seeking to quash
President Donald Trump's "two-for-one" regulatory order. The groups
challenging the order, which requires agencies to identify two regulations to
repeal or revise for each one written, were unsuccessful earlier this year in
convincing a judge that they are harmed by Trump's order. The judge has given
those groups a second chance to prove their standing, and the states' entry may
be an attempt to salvage the suit. In their brief, California and Oregon argued
that they have different interests and responsibilities than the advocacy
groups, namely "the health and well-being of their citizens, natural
resources, infrastructure, institutions, and economies." [POLITICO's
Morning Transportation, June 5, 2018]
Digging a bit deeper on yesterday's blockbuster Microsoft-GitHub deal:
- There's been a ton of ink on returns coming to
Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, which led GitHub's Series A and
Series B rounds (respectively). Totally deserved. But also raise a glass
for Joshua Kushner's Thrive Capital, which very quietly invested a total
of $150 million into GitHub — $120 million via secondary purchases from
early employees — for just under a 10% stake. We hear it's both the
largest investment and largest return in Thrive's 9-year year history.
- Speaking of returns: This deal reflects how, for many VC firms, the
prevailing calculation has morphed from IRRs to cash-on-cash. It's a sea
change that deserves more attention.
- GitLab, a rival development platform, is almost certain to get
revived takeover interest from those that missed out on GitHub (i.e.,
Google, Amazon, etc.). As a GitLab source told me: "We basically
added half a billion in valuation overnight." No current plans to
fundraise, however.
- Many developers are down on the deal, worried that Microsoft will
do to Github what it did to Nokia phones and Skype (even though both buys
predated Satya Nadella as CEO). But most VCs I spoke with believe
Microsoft got a steal, and that we'll look back on this like Facebook
paying $1 billion for Instagram. [Axios
Pro Rata: Tuesday, June 5, 2018]
• Frontier Capital has acquired
a majority stake in MediaPro, a Bothell, Wash.-based provider of security, privacy, and
compliance awareness training SaaS. www.mediapro.com [Axios Pro Rata:
Tuesday, June 5, 2018]
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| ENVIRONMENT |
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| ENERGY |
HOW FIRSTENERGY SOLUTIONS SPENT ON LOBBYING: The pro renewables
non-profit Energy and Policy Institute pored over a recent bankruptcy filing from FirstEnergy Solutions that
detailed some of its payments to law and lobbying firm Akin Gump. The company
was seen as a driving force behind the Trump administration's desire to bail
out struggling coal and nuclear plants. In one example highlighted by EPI, the company
paid "$53,312.00 in fees at a rate of $930 per hour" for "Public
Law & Policy" work from a former aide to Newt Gingrich. "Much of
the work Akin Gump reported doing on behalf of FirstEnergy Solutions involved Section 202(c) of the Federal
Power Act or the Defense Production Act, the two laws that the Trump administration is now
considering using to bail out coal and nuclear power plants," according to
EPI. [POLITICO's Morning Energy, June 5, 2018]
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| CANDIDATES |
FIRST IN SCORE — ON THE AIRWAVES — "Senate Majority PAC
ad hits Braun's business record again," by Campaign Pro's James Arkin: "Senate
Majority PAC is launching a new statewide TV ad in Indiana today attacking
Republican Mike Braun over his business record. The ad is SMP's
second of the cycle hitting Braun by highlighting details from an Associated
Press report that showed his company, Meyer Distributing, took government
subsidies, imported goods from overseas and faced lawsuits over working
conditions." Full story. [POLITICO's
Morning Score, June 5, 2018]
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| READ |
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| HEALTHCARE |
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| CYBERSECURITY |
"Cyber security experts agree that our
voting systems need to be resilient and allow jurisdictions to monitor, detect,
respond and recover from an event that interferes with the software. Resilient
systems incorporate a paper ballot that is retained for recounts and
post-election audits," Marian Schneider, president of Verified Voting,
said in a statement. "This toolkit provides a roadmap for election
officials nationwide who are looking to implement these resilient
systems."
A $1.3 trillion
spending deal hammered out by congressional leaders earlier
this year provided $380 million to the Election Assistance Commission to dole
out to states for election system upgrades, such as new voting machines that
produce paper records and additional training for employees. However, EAC
data provided exclusively to
POLITICO showed that only 11 states — out of the 55 states and territories —
had submitted the initial paperwork to request federal funds. [POLITICO's Morning Cybersecurity, June 5, 2018]
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| SCREEN |
McCARTHY NAMED DIRECTOR OF HARVARD
CENTER: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
announced former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy will lead its newly
launched Center for Climate, Health, and the Global
Environment. Under McCarthy, C-CHANGE announced a
collaboration between Harvard University and Google to reduce the use of
harmful chemicals in construction and renovation projects. "C-CHANGE will
ensure that cutting-edge science produced by Harvard Chan School is actionable
— that the public understands it, and that it gets into the hands of
decision-makers so that science drives decisions," McCarthy said in a
statement. [POLITICO's Morning Energy, May 31, 2018]
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| REFUGEES |
SAB VOTES FOR REVIEW : EPA's Science
Advisory Board reconvenes for its second day of meetings today, and already its
members have voted to conduct reviews of five of Pruitt's biggest regulatory
rollbacks, as well as his science "transparency" proposal, Pro's Alex
Guillén reports. The highly unusual move Thursday came after EPA declined to
answer in any detail the initial questions from SAB members about how the
agency ensured its proposals to undo the Obama EPA's rules were based on sound
science. The five proposed rules SAB voted to review further include the Clean
Power Plan, a carbon emissions rule for future power plants, a methane rule for
new oil and gas well, emissions standards for 2022-2025 model cars, and a rule
limiting emissions from "glider" trucks. More here.
For his part, Pruitt wasn't present at
Thursday's meeting. When asked why, an agency spokesperson told ME the
administrator was in Mississippi. Pruitt later tweeted from the state announcing water
quality and crop production grants.
EMISSIONS RULE MOVES FORWARD: Bill Charmley,
director of EPA's Assessment and Standards Division, confirmed to SAB on
Thursday that the agency sent its proposal to roll back greenhouse gas
emissions rules for vehicles to the White House Office of Management and
Budget. The move kicks into gear an interagency review process and sets
up what will likely be a contentious legal
fight with California, which has authority to set its own greenhouse gas limits
on tailpipe emissions. The New York Times reported earlier Thursday the rule
would not revoke California's waiver outright, but would instead preempt the
matter by saying the state can't use the waiver to require tougher standards
than those set by the federal government. Bloomberg, however, reported via a source familiar with the
matter that the administration's proposal would in fact rescind the waiver. [POLITICO's Morning Energy, June 1, 2018]
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