Farm bill negotiators say the end-of-the-year deadline and pressure from vulnerable farmers will yield a lame duck deal — though disagreements remain about spending more than $17 billion from the IRA, Daniel writes.

Why it matters: Time is running short for Congress to pass the 10-year, $1.4 trillion bill that funds conservation efforts, food-assistance benefits and commodity programs.

• Lawmakers are hoping to reallocate the IRA funding into the farm bill baseline to keep it from expiring in 2031.

Flashback: In November 2023, Congress passed an extension of the 2018 farm bill until Sept. 30. Members of both parties said they'll likely have to extend it until the end of 2024, but they want to avoid another year of delay as farms face economic headwinds.

Friction point: How to spend the IRA's climate dollars has been one of the central disagreements.

• Republicans want to lift "climate guardrails" that restrict IRA funding to farming practices that are proved to either lower greenhouse gas emissions or sequester carbon.
• The limits exclude practices like water quality and conservation in drought-stricken areas, they say.
• "When you go out west, it's water, water, water," John Boozman, the top Republican on the Senate Ag Committee, told Daniel.
• "It's good for the ground, it's good for the climate — but it's not sequestering carbon. So you're leaving out many practices that have co-benefits" with climate change mitigation.

The other side: Democrats argue that although many conservation projects are good for the environment, they don't target climate change.

• The guardrails are "not as narrow as people like to characterize it," said Rep. Chellie Pingree. "It's been one of the fights that have held up Democratic support" for a House GOP proposal reported May 24 by the Agriculture Committee.

State of play: Debbie Stabenow, the Democratic chair of the Senate Ag Committee who has criticized the House GOP proposal as unworkable and unfunded, told Politico in August that the parties continue to make progress.

• Glenn "GT" Thompson, the House Ag Committee chairman, "has no red lines when it comes to the funding proposal," a House GOP committee aide said. If Stabenow has ideas of how to fund the bill, "the chairman is willing to consider it," the aide said.

Our thought bubble: Both parties appear set to use deadline pressure to reach a deal by the end of the year. Which side has leverage in the lame duck session hinges on who wins control of the Congress and the White House in November.

• "Everybody has a few reasons" to support the farm bill, Pingree said. "We don't know yet who would have the greatest advantage."

👀 1. An environment of social governance: The House will, at long last, vote this week on a package of anti-ESG bills from the Financial Services Committee.

• It includes measures to limit SEC reporting requirements to "material" information, allow companies to exclude ESG-related shareholder proposals, and stop regulators from engaging with international financial groups on climate risk.
• The panel advanced the legislation more than a year ago.
• The House also plans to vote on a separate suite of ESG-related legislation from the Education and the Workforce Committee to limit ESG considerations by retirement fund fiduciaries.

🚗 2. Standard review: In other floor action this week, leadership has a vote planned on a GOP Congressional Review Act resolution to roll back the Biden administration's auto emissions standards.

⚡️ 3. November preview: The House Budget Committee will bring in witnesses from conservative think tanks for a hearing Thursday blasting Biden energy policies.

• One of them — Heritage economist and former Trump official Diana Furchtgott-Roth — wrote the Project 2025 chapter on the Department of Transportation, something Democrats will inevitably bring up.

📺 4. Split screen: The House E&C environment subcommittee will also be in action Thursday morning for a similar hearing on EPA's "green" policies.

• And we'll probably hear some anti-regulation talking points during the Oversight Committee's hearing Thursday on the Biden administration's "policy failures."

☢️ 5. Funky fusion: Senate ENR will hear from a DOE official Thursday on fusion energy development, an area of intense interest for Congress in recent years.

⛏️ 1. Palladium plea: Sen. Jon Tester wants palladium mining in his state to qualify for the 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit. The Montana Democrat wrote to the Treasury Department on Friday after the Sibanye-Stillwater mine announced layoffs.

• The administration should "prevent the world from becoming dependent on Russia for palladium," Tester wrote. Tester also introduced a bill Thursday to ban Russian imports of palladium, a USGS-defined critical mineral.

🛢️ 2. Methane rule stayed: A District Court blocked the implementation of a Biden administration rule that aims to cut methane emissions and conserve natural gas produced on federal lands.

• Sen. John Barrasso said in a statement that the Interior rule duplicates EPA regs and "would kill jobs and stifle growth."

🏭 3. Return to regulation: Four independent power generation companies launched a coalition to promote competitive energy markets.

• The Alliance for Competitive Power wants policymakers and the public to reject any utility move to own power stations again as electricity demand has raised incentives to build new generating plants.