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The American Farm Bureau applauded the USDA Friday for the $19 billion in coronavirus aide that will go to America’s farmers.
“The coronavirus pandemic forced the closing of restaurants, schools and college cafeterias, causing commodity prices to fall off a cliff and serious disruptions to food supply chains. This $16 billion in aid will help keep food on Americans’ tables by providing a lifeline to farm families that were already hit by trade wars and severe weather,” said Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau.
Farmers will receive the $16 billion in funding in the form of direct payment, while the additional $3 billion will be to use to purchase meat, dairy products, fruits and vegetables.
Earlier this week, the American Farm Bureau, in partnership with Feeding America, sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue proposing a USDA run voucher program that would send farm products to food banks while helping farmers and ranchers recoup costs from lost markets, such as restaurants and tourism businesses shuttered by the pandemic. It would also help get farm-fresh products quickly to families in need.
The new aide package provides about $850 million for food bank administrative costs and USDA food purchases, of which a minimum of $600 million will be designated for food purchases, according to USDA.
President Trump said Friday that he’s “not happy with China,” suggesting that the country has not been forthcoming in warning the world about the coronavirus.
Asked whether China should be stripped of the privilege of hosting the 2022 Olympics, Trump referenced the US-China trade deal.
“I want to see what’s happening with China. I want to see how they’re doing on it. Are they fulfilling the deal, the transaction?” Trump said.
“I spoke to them and this could have been shut down a long time ago. They knew it. And we couldn’t get it. To all fairness, World Health (Organization) couldn’t get in,” he continued.
Speaking about WHO, which he suggested got into China earlier than other groups, he said they “didn’t report what was happening.”
Trump’s announced on Tuesday that his administration was pausing funding to the WHO while reviewing the group’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
President Trump said he would back a deal in Congress that would couple money for hospitals with more emergency loans for small businesses, after days of deadlocked talks about whether to approve a clean influx of cash for the Paycheck Protection Program.
“Hospitals — hospitals have been decimated by this,” Trump said during the coronavirus task force briefing.
On adding payments to hospitals into a PPP boost – something Democrats have pushed, along with other items, to be included alongside money for small business loans – Trump said, “I’m with that all the way.”
“We could also add in to Phase four. Phase four would be hopefully infrastructure,” Trump said.
He was referring to the expected next stimulus bill, which Trump has pushed to include money for rebuilding roads and bridges.
Talks on Capitol Hill about adding more than $250 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program, which ran out of funding this week after small businesses rushed to secure emergency loans through the Small Business Administration. Republicans have pushed for a clean funding boost, while Democrats have wanted money for hospitals, states and local governments to be included alongside the funding for the SBA program.
Trump also demanded Democrats return to Washington to approve the money, although House Republicans, and the Republican led Senate are also absent from Washington due to the pandemic.
He accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of being “on vacation.”
Lawmakers from both parties are following guidelines that suggest they shelter in place with their families in their homes around the country and both the House and Senate are holding pro-forma sessions where legislation can be passed by unanimous consent if all members agree.
Hundreds of protesters gathered Friday in Huntington Beach, a coastal community in California, to demand the reopening of the state’s economy, according to the event’s Facebook page.
Many protesters ignored the state’s social distancing guidelines as they hugged and took selfies in an effort to show their opposition to the state’s stay-at-home orders.
A large number of people in the crowd waved “Trump 2020” flags and other signage in support for the President’s campaign.
The demonstration included a stream of motorists honking and shouting in support for the protest. Only a handful in the crowd were wearing masks during the gathering.
Approximately two dozen mask-wearing police officers patrolled the event.
Similar protests have garnered attention around the country in other states.
Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina and Utah — states led by both Republican and Democratic governors — have all seen protests in recent days as people grow more concerned about the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. On Friday morning, President Trump said in a series of tweets that states should be liberated.
Trump later defended his tweets, saying the governors are being “too tough.”
President Trump addressed his recent tweets calling to “liberate” Virginia, Minnesota and Michigan — three political swing states that have Democratic governors.
He said the governors who are implementing federal guidelines for stay-at-home orders to deal with the coronavirus are being “too tough.”
On Virginia, he said, “What they’ve done is very powerful. You know you could get the same result with doing a little bit less.”
He then went off on a tangent about the Second Amendment and claimed without proof that, “They want to take their guns away.” Virginia has declared that gun stores are not essential businesses during the pandemic.
“I think some things are too tough,” Trump said during Friday’s White House press briefing.
Asked whether these states should lift their stay-at-home orders, Trump said, “No, but I think elements of what they’ve done are too much. It’s just too much.”
The President said he wasn’t concerned about protesters spreading the coronavirus among participants attending demonstrations calling for states to reopen.
“No, these are people expressing their views. I see the way they are and I see the way they’re working and they seem to be very responsible to me, but they’re been treated a little bit rough,” he said.
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