Ag News: $92.2-Million in COVID Relief

**The USDA is making $92.2 million in competitive grant funding available under the 2018 Farm Bill’s Local Agriculture Market Program, or LAMP.

The LAMP grants are funded through the Farmers Market program as part of USDA’s Pandemic Assistance for Producers Initiative.

USDA launched this in March to address shortfalls and disparities in how assistance was distributed in previous COVID-19 assistance packages, with a specific focus on strengthening outreach to underserved producers and communities and smaller ag operations.

**Many decisions made by his predecessor have been targeted for reversal by President Biden, including at the USDA.

But the relocation of two department research agencies from Washington, D.C. to Kansas City isn’t one of them.

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack tells www.modernfarmer.com, what we’re trying to do is limit the level of disruption, adding the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture will both remain headquartered in the Midwest.

www.modernfarmer.com/2021/04/the-usdas-transplanted-research-agencies-are-staying-put/

**Five former Internal Revenue Service commissioners released an opinion piece in the Washington Post affirming that President Biden's tax plan will improve the tax administrative system and could produce "enormous, lasting benefits."

USDA recently shared details on how the inclusion of critical tax reform within the American Families Plan honors family farms and ensures the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes in order to finance essential investments in workers and families.