— The House bill to fund the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration “may” be considered in the House Rules Committee this week. One amendment is causing a stir.

— The Senate has teed up a hot-button NDAA amendment vote for Tuesday. It’s an updated version of Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Jon Tester’s (D-Mont.) bill that aims to boost federal reviews and prohibit, in some cases, entities from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from buying U.S. farmland.

— MA caught up with three of first-term House Ag Democrats for a look at some of their farm bill priorities and the biggest fights ahead.

— The Congressional Budget Office responded to Agriculture Committee lawmakers concerned about the timeliness of scores for the upcoming farm bill.

HAPPY MONDAY, July 24. Welcome to Morning Ag. We’re your hosts, Garrett Downs and Meredith Lee Hill. Send tips to [email protected] and [email protected], and follow us at @Morning_Ag.

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AG-FDA RULE: The draft bill to fund the USDA and FDA “may” be considered in the Rules Committee this week, a major step as Congress hurdles the Sept. 30 government funding deadline — and the looming threat of a government shutdown.

But the committee has yet to finalize a date that it will consider the bill, likely a result of House Republican leadership struggling to thread a needle with the far-right members of the Freedom Caucus who are demanding steeper cuts. The bill would already slash more than $8 billion from various recissions, and would fund the agencies at close to $18 billion.

Amendment intrigue: There are now about 160 amendments proposed for the bill.

One of them, however, appears to be drawing the most intrigue. That’s an amendment offered by Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), a prominent member of the Freedom Caucus.

His amendment would raise the age limit for those required to meet work requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to as high as 64. Lawmakers already increased the age limit in the bill to raise the debt ceiling, the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Should the amendment be adopted, it would surely splinter moderate support for the bill.

But according to people with knowledge of discussions around the amendment, that’s unlikely to happen.

“Never gonna happen,” one person familiar with the conversations told Meredith. “Not only is it authorizing, it’s just too soon post [the debt limit debate] to refuel a fire on age.”

You’ll remember: A slew of moderate Republicans, including key House ag members, have told Meredith that they’re not interested in pursuing tougher SNAP work requirements in addition to the new requirements Republicans secured during the debt limit talks.

“You can’t just have an agreement and then say we’re gonna change it,” said House Ag member Don Bacon.

Another hurdle: Moderates already have issues with the bill.

Rep. Marc Molinaro, a freshman Republican from New York who serves on the Agriculture Committee, told Axios late last week that he would oppose the bill due to a provision to reverse an FDA decision to allow the abortion drug mifepristone from being administered by mail.

IN THE SENATE: The upper chamber has teed up a hot-button NDAA amendment vote for Tuesday. The measure is an updated version of Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Jon Tester’s (D-Mont.) bill that aims to boost federal reviews and prohibit, in some cases, entities from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea from buying U.S. farmland.

Notably, the lawmakers added new exclusions to the measure, after progressive Dems said the overly broad language in the original bill would have targeted Chinese and other immigrants. A Democratic aide said they now expected “wide bipartisan support” for the measure, which will need 60 votes to pass.

It’s also an interesting move, since Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) has her own bill to crack down on Chinese and other foreign farmland buys.

House Ag member Gabe Vasquez is one of the most vulnerable Democrats this cycle who’s also worked in conservation efforts in his home state of New Mexico.

Vasquez told MA he considers conservation efforts as some of the biggest “bang for the buck” investments that can come from the federal government. He’s looking to bolster EQIP and other programs, especially for the lavender, chile and other smaller farmers in his district.

“The Agriculture Committee is the committee where people have serious conversations about climate change, and where people understand the value of these federal dollars,” Vasquez said.

On that note, Vasquez said he expects constituents in GOP districts will be “loud and clear” about their interest to protect the climate-smart ag money Democrats passed in the Inflation Reduction Act, as Republicans eye moving some of those funds to different programs.

FOOD AID FIGHT: Vasquez, in a battleground district, has a much more nuanced approach to new work requirements for federal food aid, after Republicans secured another layer of restrictions during the debt limit battle.

Vasquez told MA “we all aspire to make sure that anybody who’s subscribed to these programs is working and has the opportunity to move forward.” But, Vasquez said “work requirements aren’t the silver bullet to SNAP.”

He added that when Congress “squeezes” vulnerable Americans out of SNAP “through arbitrary work requirements, we’re not going to see the results that the American people want to see.”

Another first-term, House Ag Democrat Jill Tokuda told MA she’s also focused on food insecurity given her home state of Hawaii’s fragile food systems and heavy reliance on food imports to the islands. That includes trying to secure crop insurance for specialty crops and better access to federal programs to rural and remote farmers to cultivate more food at home.

Food bank squeeze: Food banks in her district have seen an “exponential” increase in the number of senior citizens seeking food aid, Tokuda said. She’s pushing new legislation to keep seniors fed, exempting them from certain SNAP income eligibility restrictions as increases in Social Security payments remove some seniors from food aid programs.

House Ag member Jasmine Crockett, another first-term Democrat, was blunt about Democrats’ recent ability to push back against GOP efforts to bolster work requirements for SNAP and other federal aid.

“Democrats have not done a good job of communicating,” Crockett said. “Because if you’re not receiving SNAP benefits, you just have one perception.”

“I think we’ve not really wanted to talk about SNAP,” Crockett added. “And we need to be more out front.”

Crockett is pushing the bipartisan SHOPP Act to incentivize frozen vegetable purchases within SNAP as a way to promote healthier choices for recipients, which is a hot topic on Capitol Hill right now. Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn is leading the Senate version of the bill.

CBO RESPONDS TO AG HEADS: One day after MA reported the heads of the congressional Ag Committees put the screws to CBO for speedier farm bill-related scores, the agency responded to the lawmakers saying the CBO is “working hard” to ensure the Ag Committees get what they need to write the bill.

But CBO director Phillip Swagel said in the letter he can’t at this time hire new staff, and that doing so would only further slow down the CBO in producing needed scores for the upcoming farm bill due to training.

Remember: Sens. Stabenow and John Boozman (R-Ark.), along with Reps. G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) and David Scott (D-Ga.), said in a letter earlier this month that they are being slowed down in drafting a farm bill by delays in CBO scores — which lawmakers use to assess the effects of policy changes on the deficit.

The details: Swagel said CBO has already provided more than 1,000 estimates related to this year’s farm bill reauthorization. He said hundreds more will be coming in the upcoming weeks.

He said CBO is also moving staff around to increase work on the farm bill.

Inside CBO’s Budget Analysis Division, “staff members who ordinarily work on other topics are shifting to this analysis and providing estimates for provisions affecting nutrition programs,” Swagel wrote. “Other analysts are assisting by handling unrelated tasks for core agriculture analysts, freeing them to focus entirely on the farm bill.”

Outside that division, “staff members with a breadth of skills are performing critical tasks to contribute to the work on the farm bill.”

Why it matters: Several people familiar, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal delays, tell Meredith that Stabenow and Boozman have not yet started any of the tough conversations around the nutrition and conservation titles — the most contentious parts of the bill.

That’s because they can’t have those discussions until dollar amounts are determined by CBO, the people say.

— Democrats are searching for “lines in the sand” in the farm bill battle, Roll Call reports.

— Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is making the rounds to Black-owned farms in Virginia in the leadup to farm bill reauthorization, reports NBC 29.

— The House Rules Committee on Tuesday will meet to debate a Senate-passed resolution to overturn the listing of the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act.

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