Last week, by a vote of 359-57, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through Dec. 11. The CR includes critical provisions that allow the USDA to use the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to make payments to farmers with no interruption to their expected farm bill benefits this fall and access to the second round of Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP2) payments.

The CCC-specific provisions from the CR include:

• Replenishing USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) account, necessary to ensure processing of farm bill benefits such as Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC).
• Prohibiting the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) or USDA from providing payments or otherwise supporting fossil fuel refiners and importers.

Other agriculture-specific provisions from the CR include a one-year extension of expiring surface transportation programs, along with an infusion of $13.6 billion to the Highway Trust Fund — $10.4 billion of which will be allocated to the highway account. This extension ensures that state departments of transportation will have funding for ongoing projects before a long-term 5-year reauthorization is agreed to. Regarding the Grain Standards Act, the CR extends authorization through Dec. 11, 2020. This allows USDA’s Federal Grain Inspection Service to continue to collect user fees for grain inspection and weighing services, and to continue their work on export markets for grain. Prior to the CR, authorization for grain standards was set to expire on Sept. 30.

Read the full summary of CR provisions here.