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Alright, let’s get to it –
Helena
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Congress reaches new level of dysfunction with farm bill, food safety failures
The Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday narrowly advanced the farm bill. Plenty of media outlets covered the fact that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was the clincher for getting this bill out of committee, returning to Congress this week after being out for three months while recovering from a fall over the summer.
Clips of McConnell’s vote in committee went a bit viral this week because it initially appeared that the Kentucky Republican (and former Senate Majority Leader) was confused about his vote. (It turns out that Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) was actually the one confused, but either way McConnell looked quite frail and barely participated in the meeting.)
While so many have been focused on McConnell’s mental fitness — a fair question, to be clear — I think we’ve lost sight of the fact that it is astonishing his vote was even needed to get this sweeping legislation out of committee in the first place.
Throwback: The last farm bill Congress passed was in 2018, and the Senate version was so bipartisan the Senate Agriculture Committee cleared it in a 20-1 vote. Many farm bills in the past have been so bipartisan that they cleared out of committee on voice vote! (This means individual votes aren’t recorded — most people in the room just say aye and they move on.) This week, Senate staff had to wheel an ailing 84-year-old lawmaker into the room to eke out a 12-11 vote, with all Republicans voting for it and all Democrats voting against it.
The farm bill — which covers not just farm policy but also the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and many other topics — has long been seen as one of the last bastions of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, but even this once reliable process is breaking down as Congress becomes an increasingly dysfunctional institution.
The farm bill is supposed to be reauthorized every five years. The 2018 farm bill was originally set to expire in 2023 but has now been extended three times and looks on track to be extended a fourth time this fall because the Senate lacks the 60 votes needed to pass the one that just squeaked out of committee.
Wellness check: There are some real policy disputes at play here. Democrats remain angry that House and Senate Republicans enacted sweeping cuts to SNAP in a budget reconciliation package last year, and they want some of that policy further delayed in the farm bill. But I think if you step back a bit, this stalemate is more so the latest sign that the legislative branch is falling apart.
Congress has become noticeably less functional every year I’ve been on this beat, regardless of which party is in power or who holds the presidency. I’m far from the only one making this observation — members of Congress, lobbyists, journalists, etc. all openly talk about how much Congress has gone off the rails. Scholars have been studying and writing about this for a long time.
This dysfunction extends far beyond the farm bill. Congress routinely struggles to pass spending bills to keep the government funded and careens from potential shutdown to potential shutdown, creating funding chaos for agencies like FDA and USDA (and the rest of the federal government). Congress slowly and quietly just stopped doing child nutrition reauthorization bills — the legislation that covers school meals and other similar programs — which also used to happen every five years. It’s now been more than 15 years.
Oversight MIA: We also see so much less routine oversight from Congress.This was put in sharp relief over the summer when we saw a disastrous cyclospora outbreak tied to romaine lettuce from Mexico (and potentially other sources that have not been identified). It was the largest foodborne illness outbreak we’ve had in three decades, and it didn’t spark a congressional hearing. Nearly a year ago, we had a botulism outbreak tied to infant formula that put 50 babies in the hospital (!) and also not a single hearing.
A decade ago, these incidents would have almost certainly been subject to much more congressional interest and scrutiny. I shudder to think about what kind of disaster would actually grab Congress’ attention these days — and even then, would they actually do anything about it?
Just look at what’s happening with AI right now — we have credible warnings from inside the industry itself that this technology poses a real threat to Americans (and all of humanity). That’s been enough to get people talking, but not enough to get Congress to do anything.
The Boston Globe recently published a great analysis of just how “wildly dysfunctional” Congress has become, complete with charts and data points: “Congress has been locked in a sort of death spiral,” writes Tal Kopan, a veteran reporter in Washington. “Compounding effects of increased partisanship, decreased efficacy, and general malcontent fuel a self-perpetuating cycle in which the body becomes even less productive and uses less of its authority, and the public is rendered less impressed.
“Although dysfunction and congressional unpopularity have long been something of a truism, the situation is more extreme than anything in recent norms,” she adds. “Not only has Congress slumped to its lowest measurable output in decades, but the body’s overall decline has come in conjunction with a president who has reveled in demolishing precedents and with an electorate seemingly more infuriated with its representatives than ever before.”
Off the job: House Speaker Mike Johnson this week sent the House of Representatives home early ahead of the looming midterm elections — a move that sparked derision and memes about House Republicans not being able to meet the very work requirements they’ve imposed for safety net programs like SNAP and Medicaid. If you step back from the political fighting heading into election season, though, I think we’re witnessing the slow rot of what was supposed to be our most important branch of government.
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What I’m reading
How Trump’s new green card policy could affect immigrant families (New York Times). “Starting Friday, immigrants trying to become lawful permanent residents could be rejected if they or certain relatives use public benefits such as Medicaid, food stamps or even student financial aid,” reports Madeleine Ngo. “Green card holders are allowed to live and work in the United States permanently, and obtaining the status is the final step toward citizenship. The policy is the Trump administration’s latest effort to restrict legal immigration and deter people from signing up for welfare programs. The administration installed a similar policy during the president’s first term but was later blocked by the courts. This week, a coalition of more than 20 states and several local governments sued the administration over the new version, calling it a ‘catastrophic’ move that would force families to make the difficult choice between forgoing public assistance that helps meet their basic needs or risk deportation in the future.”
New weight-loss pills curb snacking less than GLP-1 shots (Bloomberg). “Users of GLP-1 pills for weight loss curbed their snacking less than those taking the treatment through shots, according to new research from Bloomberg Intelligence,” reports Kristina Peterson. “Among those taking the drugs orally, 74% said they were eating fewer salty snacks, compared to 80% for those taking a GLP-1 via injection, according to the BI report. Similarly, 76% of pill users said they were eating fewer baked goods, lower than the 82% for those taking a shot. That pattern was repeated in other categories, including confections and shelf-stable foods like soup. ‘Though oral GLP-1s still pose a challenge for food makers like Mondelez, Hershey, Kraft Heinz and General Mills, growth in pill use could reduce the negative impact of weight-loss drugs on product sales,’ Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Jennifer Bartashus and Keana Bloomfield said in the report, which is based on the findings of a survey of 1,001 people in the US in July.”
Women built MAHA. MAGA bros have taken it over. (Mother Jones/FERN). “This past February, as Super Bowl viewers chowed down on Buffalo wings and loaded nachos, they found themselves unexpectedly admonished,” writes Jill Filipovic. “On their TV screens, in a black-and-white close-up, was former heavyweight champion and convicted rapist Mike Tyson. As he tore into an apple, white block script was superimposed over his face: ‘Processed Food Kills. Eat Real Food.’ The ad was sponsored by the nonprofit MAHA Center, whose leader, publisher Tony Lyons, also co-founded MAHA pac. And it signaled a telling shift. This wasn’t your mother’s MAHA (or Gwyneth Paltrow’s, for that matter). This was manly MAHA. Much attention has been paid to the MAHA moms, and rightly so. Women have powered the movement. But it’s the movement’s men who have ascended to the highest levels of power. With the midterm elections approaching and MAHA voters increasingly dissatisfied with Trump, it’s worth asking: How exactly did a cause powered by women turn into one run by men? And will the women who built the MAHA movement ever revolt?”
Trump’s beef plans keep cattle experts concerned (Civil Eats). “The Trump administration has released a flurry of announcements in recent weeks with actions intended to lower beef prices and boost domestic cattle herds,” Rebekah Alvey reports. “President Donald Trump and his Republican Party are facing considerable political headwinds less than two months from midterm elections, and the moves appear to be aimed at lowering food costs without alienating a symbolic portion of the base—ranchers. In practice, experts say it’s too early to tell if this will work. With midterms approaching, the president is caught between lowering persistently high beef prices for consumers and addressing issues ranchers have raised for years, like a lack of transparency in beef labeling and competition in the marketplace. Experts say the recent executive action is a good signal, but unlikely to directly resolve these issues. Instead they are hoping it spurs more movement from Congress.”
The FDA’s rebuilding effort is running into a new challenge (STAT). “To hear FDA leaders tell it, everything is going swimmingly — a far cry from the dark days of April 2025, when Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service took a chainsaw to the agency, slashing 3,500 workers and triggering a broader staff exodus,” reports Margaret Manto. “Just over a year later, Musk is out and hiring is in. The FDA is now looking to add more than 2,000 workers. Yet for all the talk of a hiring spree, the reality is more complicated, STAT has learned: The FDA’s hiring push is mired in bureaucratic delays, thanks to the same DOGE cuts the agency is trying to address. Prospective new employees are stuck in pre-onboarding limbo. Human resources staff are stretched thin. And other routine administrative tasks, like purchase approvals and travel payments, have fallen by the wayside.”
Food and Ag agencies top list on workforce reduction spending (Civil Eats). “The Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the government’s workforce last year led to a sixfold increase in the money federal agencies paid employees not to work, a new report finds. Food and agriculture agencies were some of the top spenders,” reports Lisa Held. “According to a report released by the watchdog Government Accountability Office (GAO) this week, the government spent about $9.5 billion on salary costs for employees on paid administrative leave in 2025, up from $1.5 billion in 2023 and $1.7 billion in 2024. About 75 percent of the spending was driven by the administration’s “Deferred Resignation Program,” or DRP. Starting in early 2025, leadership at both the USDA and the HHS began encouraging employees to accept DRP offers, in which they would leave their positions in exchange for retaining their salaries for months after. DRP drove most of the workforce reductions at the agencies. USDA cut its staff by about 20 percent in 2025, HHS (which houses the Food & Drug Administration) by 18 percent.”
Nothing blows up a parent group like a fight over school snacks (Wall Street Journal). “By now, much of the internet has heard of Oreo-gate: a viral social-media saga in which a kindergarten mother named Michelle asks other moms in a group chat to stop sending Oreos in their children’s lunches because it was making her daughter jealous,” writes Sabrina Siddiqui. “The drama escalated quickly. The other moms rejected the request. Some sent in Oreos in an act of defiance. Side chats splintered off. The school was forced to weigh in. Screenshots of the exchange racked up millions of views on Instagram. Oreo itself chimed in with a cheeky comment. The posts have since been linked to a promotional campaign for an AI music app. While the origins of Oreo-gate may be fake, the warfare over school snacks is real.”
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