NCBA President Tracy Brunner said the spending bill marked up by the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee has a number of good things for cattle producers. Specifically, this bill would defund the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Waters of the US” final rule. By defunding it, Congress will prevent members and taxpayers from expending more resources on future court battles. The bill also clarifies agricultural exemptions in the Section 404 process and continues defunding of new regulations under the Clean Air Act and Greenhouse Gas reporting for manure management systems. The Public Lands Council was pleased the bill would block the President’s administrative fee which would be on top of a grazing fee already raised by 25 percent earlier this year.

US corn and corn product exports generated $74.7 billion in economic output in 2014. According to a study by Informa Economics, sales of all US feed grain products added $82 billion to the economy. The analysis says corn and corn product exports added 29.8 billion dollars to the GDP over what would have happened without those exports. The number of full-time jobs linked to those exports, either directly or indirectly, numbered over 330,000. The study also found that for every $1 of grain exports, it adds $3.23 in business sales across the US. The same study also found that if these exports were halted, over 47,000 jobs would be lost and $2.8 billion in GDP would be lost in the farming, ethanol production, and meat production industries alone. NCGA President Chip Bowling said the report underscores the need to approve the TPP, which would give farmers more access to the Asia/Pacific region.

El Nino has ended as the tropical Pacific Ocean has returned to a neutral state, and outlooks are suggesting no chance of returning to an El Nino state. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said that means mid-May marks the end of the event that reduced Indian rainfall, parched farmland in Asia, and reduced cocoa harvest in parts of Africa. Weather watchers are now waiting for La Nina, a cooling of tropical Pacific waters that some view as the opposite of El Nino. The US Climate Prediction Center says there is a 75 percent chance it will develop by years’ end, but some models say it could develop sooner. La Nina can upset agricultural markets as it can change the weather, including more hurricanes in the Atlantic and produce more heavy rains in India and Indonesia. The El Nino that just ended was one of the hottest on record, generating the hottest global temperatures in more than 130 years.

The U.S. is not the only country where momentum for getting the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement passed has been slowed by politics. The Japanese government has also slowed its process to approve the deal despite formal debate being started in the legislature. The current session ends on June first, and sources say lawmakers are unlikely to vote on the TPP for a number of reasons. Politico says an April earthquake in the country has diverted legislative efforts to recovery, taking attention off TPP. Election politics are also in play as an election is set for July in the upper house of Japan’s bicameral legislature. Some lawmakers suggest the Prime Minister may want to see parallel movement on TPP in the U.S. and hopes ratification will take place in a similar timeframe to the United States.

On Monday, the White House threatened to veto the House’s energy and water spending bill, which will hit the House floor this week. The House will consider the 37.4 billion dollar spending bill for 2017, which is slightly larger than what the Senate passed recently. The Hill reports the bill contains a host of environmental riders likely to turn off Democrats. In a statement issued through the Office of Management and Budget, the administration rejected what it called “highly problematic ideological provisions.” In particular, the administration wants more funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, as well as energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.

Monsanto will reject the 62 billion dollar bid from Bayer and seek a higher price. Monsanto company officials say they believe a deal with the German-based Bayer could get antitrust and regulatory approval. That means a deal is not out of the question. However, the Monsanto Board of Directors says the current offer is incomplete and financially inadequate. Bayer will have to decide if it wants to raise its bid in the face of shareholder criticism that the $122 per-share price tag is already too high. Other options for Bayer include walking away from the deal or mounting a hostile takeover bid. Bayer said Monday it would finance the bid with a combination of debt and equity. The Monsanto Board of Directors has not set a timeline for further discussion with Bayer. Global agrochemical companies are trying to consolidate, in part, due to lower commodity prices. Seed and pesticide markets are also increasingly converging.