In today’s newscast:
Farm bill passes U.S. House, leaves out Democratic priorities
The Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026—also known as the farm bill—has cleared the U.S. House of Representatives.
Although aspects of the bill received bipartisan support, it was mostly a party-line vote on Thursday.
“Even though Democrats offered a number of amendments to the farm bill that would provide billions for specialty crop assistance that would go directly to our local producers, those amendments were all rejected by the Republican Party,” said Central Coast Democratic Congressman Jimmy Panetta, in a voice message to KAZU.
Panetta was among the 197 Democrats and three Republicans who voted against the bill.
In addition to its lack of support for fruit and vegetable producers, he cited the continuation of food assistance cuts passed last year.
“Unfortunately, this farm bill did very little to offset those dramatic cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” Panetta said.
The bill does include a program that would expand local market access for small and mid-sized farms, effectively reviving a program the Trump administration ended. But there’s no mandatory funding for it.
The farm bill now heads to the Senate.
New bill seeks protections for immigrant faculty at California Community Colleges
CapRadio reports that a new bill moving through the state Capitol would create safeguards for immigrant professors working at community colleges.
It would require those colleges to offer remote teaching opportunities to faculty who were deported or denied re-entry to the U.S. after a brief trip.
The bill has passed the Assembly Higher Education Committee along party lines.
It heads to the Appropriations Committee for a hearing on May 6.
