Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act
Latest action. Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act
This bill addresses provisions related to agriculture, food, and fuel, including by providing funds for nutrient management, precision agriculture, and biofuel infrastructure.
Specifically, the bill provides funding for the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to (1) assist agricultural producers with the costs of crop nutrient use or adopting precision agriculture practices, and (2) provide grants to eligible entities (e.g., fueling and distribution facilities) for biofuel infrastructure.
The bill establishes within USDA the Office of the Special Investigator for Competition Matters, which must investigate and prosecute violations of the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 by packers and live poultry dealers.
Additionally, USDA must (1) establish an agriculture and food supply chain task force, and (2) provide assistance to address fertilizer shortages and reduce dependency on foreign sources for fertilizer.
The bill allows USDA to make loans and grants for livestock and poultry processing.
Further, the bill incorporates support for precision agriculture into various USDA programs.
USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service must enter into certain cooperative agreements for establishing supply chain regional resource centers to support small- and medium-sized producers of agricultural products and agricultural businesses.
The bill also applies the Reid vapor pressure (a measure of gasoline's volatility) requirements that are applicable to gasoline blended with 10% ethanol (E10) to gasoline blended with more than 10% ethanol. Thus, the waiver given to E10 gasoline, which allows an increase in the Reid Vapor Pressure volatility, is extended to gasoline blended with more than 10% ethanol.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Passed House" stage on June 16, 2022. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on June 21, 2022: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 117th Congress (2021-22), 362 of the 15,242 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 2.4 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) introduced it on April 27, 2022, and 3 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 2 Democrats, 1 Republican.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on April 27, 2022, 1597 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 1542 days ago, on June 21, 2022.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 117th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2023 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers