By Leah Douglas
The Biden administration will defend funding for climate-smart farming in the $430 billion U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) if Republican lawmakers seek to cut it during negotiations for the next farm bill, an official said Tuesday.
The IRA, which aims to cut emissions across the U.S. economy, includes $20 billion to support farmers in implementing carbon-sequestering conservation practices on their land.
As negotiations begin over the next farm bill, which funds farm commodity, conservation, and nutrition programs, some Republicans have raised concerns about how the IRA funds would be spent and floated reallocating some of the money.
The Biden administration would resist any effort to reallocate the funds, said White House deputy chief of staff John Podesta in a conversation with Reuters reporters on Tuesday.
“The program is popular,” Podesta said. “We’ll fight for it and I think we’ll be successful in the upcoming farm bill negotiations.”
Podesta said President Joe Biden’s administration has heard supp
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