The Jamie L. Whitten, Federal Building, U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. USDA photo by Ken Hammond.
This column was first published by Nebraska Farmer on March 12, 2021. A preview is excerpted here with permission from Nebraska Farmer/Farm Progress.
The first 100 days of a new president’s term are often looked at as the window for setting the policy agenda for the administration. While the 100-day mark may be an artificial deadline, it certainly provides a picture of the administration’s priorities.
As of the time of this writing in early March, the first 100 days in both the new White House and the new Congress are not yet over. However, there are already some insights from what has and has not been addressed thus far, including some important lessons for agriculture.
The first and certainly the overwhelming policy priority has been a continuation of the focus from late last year on further COVID-19 relief. Even though another round of relief was just passed in December, further assistance immediately became a goal of Democrats as they gained political control of both the White House and the Senate and kept control of the House.