Farm Bill Confidence & Columbia River Treaty plus Expanding Wireless

Farm Bill Confidence & Columbia River Treaty plus Expanding Wireless. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Yesterday we discussed possible delays in the Food, Farms and Jobs Act due to the Memorial recess coming up but Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack is confident Congress will get there in a timely fashion.

VILSACK: I think the key here is first and foremost getting it through the committee process and I think both Chairwoman Stabenow and Chairman Lucas and the ranking members, Senator Cochran and Representative Peterson are committed to working in a bi-partisan way to get a bill through their committee process and on to the floor in the Senate and the House. The good news is that I think we also have commitments from House leadership and Senate leadership to actually have a floor action on the bill at some point in time.

It will soon be time for the U.S. and Canada to sit down and discuss the Columbia River Treaty. The Treaty plays a large part in how water resources and projects are managed in the Northwest. It allows each country the right with a 10-year notice to make any modifications, changes or to terminate the treaty. That 10-year time period begins next year so U.S. groups are meeting to get feedback from the four states impacted including Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.

Now expanding wireless access for farmers markets. Susan Carter has more on this story.

(USDA Report)

Thanks Susan. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.