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Congress may make another attempt to reform the chapter 12 bankruptcy law to allow more financially distressed family farmers to restructure debts and remain in operation, CNBC.com reported. Congress has made several changes to the Bankruptcy Code over the years but experts suggest the average size of family farms has grown and the debt caps on chapter 12 have not kept up with the times. In December, Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced a measure to help financially struggling family farmers by proposing to increase the bankruptcy debt limits allowed in chapter 12 filings to $10 million from roughly $4.1 million. The measure didn’t pass, but a spokesperson for Klobuchar, a 2020 presidential candidate, told CNBC yesterday that she plans to reintroduce the bill. Similarly, Grassley was quoted last week as promising to “push ahead with reforms to chapter 12 protection for family farmers that I have been developing as former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.”

U.S. businesses paid an additional $2.7 billion in tariffs in November 2018, according to data from a coalition of U.S. business groups fighting President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, Reuters reported. The group, which brands itself “Tariffs Hurt the Heartland” and includes the Americans for Free Trade coalition and Farmers for Free Trade, crunches tariff payment data nationally and by state. The data is part of a monthly series called the Tariff Tracker, which the group releases in a tie-up with The Trade Partnership, a Washington-based international trade and economic consulting firm. The monthly import data, it said, is calculated using numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, and the monthly export data is compiled using numbers from the Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The November numbers are the latest government ones available due to the recent U.S. government shutdown.

Just when U.S. farmers thought they were catching a break with a second round of federal aid, now there’s concern the impasse in Washington could hamper payments, Bloomberg News reported. After crop prices tumbled amid the U.S.-China trade war, the Trump administration made good on its promise to help farmers by approving the second-round payments this month. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has said the total aid could reach as much as $12 billion, with soybean growers taking the biggest share. But the partial U.S. government shutdown is raising questions about delays for the plan, called the market facilitation program. On Dec. 21, the USDA said in a statement that the aid would continue during the first week of a shutdown, but payments would halt after that for producers who hadn’t certified production. The deadline to apply for the program is Jan. 15.

The U.S. government will make a second, multibillion dollar payment to U.S. farmers struggling against tariffs on American soybeans, pork and dairy products, the Wall Street Journal reported. The move soothed nerves in the U.S. Farm Belt, after some farmers wondered whether the payments would come as trade relations improved between the U.S. and top food-importing countries Mexico and China. Despite a new North American free trade deal signed in November and this month’s trade truce between the U.S. and China, farmers and livestock producers continue to face low prices for many of their goods, pushed down by tariffs that remain in effect. "This assistance will help with short-term cash flow issues as we move into the new year,” said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. However, Perdue also called it the “final” round of trade-related government payments to farmers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated yesterday that both rounds of payments would direct a total of $9.6 billion to farmers hit by tariffs on everything from pork chops to soybeans and cheese.

The White House is delaying a second round of payments from a $12 billion aid package for farmers stung by a trade dispute between China and the United States, amid optimism China will soon resume buying U.S. soybeans, Reuters reported. U.S. President Donald Trump’s Office of Management and Budget at the White House is holding up approval of the payments due to concern over the cost of the program, and wants to see if the trade issues with China get resolved. The U.S. Department of Agriculture in July had authorized up to $12 billion in aid for farmers and ranchers hit by the fallout from Trump’s escalating trade war with China, a major buyer of American agricultural products, and the agency outlined payments for the first half last August. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Dec. 3 that OMB was deliberating on a second round of trade aid, and that it could be outlined by the end of that week. USDA spokesman Tim Murtaugh told Reuters on Tuesday the agency was still in the “final stages” of the process of approving the second tranche of payments.

Key lawmakers said yesterday that they have reached a tentative deal on a massive farm bill, breaking a months-long impasse over legislation that doles out more than $400 billion in federal funds for farm subsidies, the Washington Post reported. Lawmakers have been at odds over a House GOP proposal to boost work requirements for food stamp recipients, but Sens. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), the leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said that they had resolved the debate over the work requirements and other outstanding issues. The senators declined to offer details of the emerging compromise, cautioning that it was not final and could change pending completion of cost analyses and legislative language. Nonetheless, both expressed optimism that the legislation could pass before the conclusion of Congress’s lame-duck session next month. Lawmakers faced pressure from farmers and ranchers to get a deal done, particularly amid a steep decline over the last several years in farm incomes as commodity prices have sagged, said Dale Moore, executive vice president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, an industry group.

Farm bankruptcies are on the rise in the Upper Midwest, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve, doubling from their recent lows in 2014, The Hill reported. At least 84 farms filed for bankruptcy from June 2017 to June 2018 in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Montana, and North and South Dakota, according to analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. The report released earlier this month shows that over the same time period in 2014, 32 farms filed for bankruptcy. The numbers have increased steadily since then, with 46 bankruptcies reported in 2015, 60 bankruptcies reported in 2016 and 67 reported in 2017. In 2010, 70 bankruptcies were reported in the five states, but that was following the financial collapse of 2008–2009 and a brutal recession. Some experts fear the worst is yet to come amid falling commodity prices and the Trump administration's battles with China and other countries on trade.