10-3 NWR TPP Stall

This is your Northwest report for Monday, October 3, I'm David Sparks and the Trans Pacific Partnership talks are still bouncing around on Capitol Hill. Many of the nation's most influential ag groups are pushing for a vote on TPP in the lame duck session. That is largely based on concerns that presidential candidates Trump and Clinton might not sign the agreement but of the current president would. Kentucky Republican and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has said before and reiterated at the end of last week that he doesn't want to bring up TPP this year. He pointed out that the next president would still have trade promotion authority and the ability to advance the TPP. "The mechanism by which you can submit an agreement and get a vote is still in place and TPP is still out there. So I would hope that whoever is elected president, we can get back into having a serious discussion about the benefits to America of being in the trading business. America has been a great trading country going back to its being founded. Right now it is politically toxic and I don't think Congress is ready to tackle it in any positive way.

Wheat growers dealing with wet conditions in the Pacific Northwest say the quality discounts that local elevators are giving them for their grain will unfairly hurt their future crop insurance coverage.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers from the region is appealing to USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) to reconsider its policy.