The scheduled lame duck session wound to a close this week with midnight passage Thursday of a massive tax compromise and an unclear path for the FY2011 budget.

Bayer CropScience this week announced two new partnerships that will enhance the company’s work in conventional and genetically modified wheat research.

Wheat and barley researchers and stakeholders met last week in Milwaukee for the U.S. Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative’s (USWBSI) annual conference.

Congress focused much of its attention this week on a compromise tax package negotiated by President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders to extend existing unemployment benefits; maintain Bush-era tax rates; modify the estate tax to levels supported by NAWG and many other agriculture organizations; and extend biofuels tax incentives through 2011.

While a tax compromise grabbed the headlines this week, work continued in Congress to determine how the government will be funded for the remainder of FY2011.

A new report prepared for the Agricultural Nutrient Policy Council and released this week shows significant differences in Chesapeake Bay pollutant load estimates done by USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), calling into question the data EPA is using in preparing new regulations for the region.

With just a few short weeks before the end of the year, the lame duck Congress took some action this week on priority legislation.

Reports emerged Friday afternoon that the United States and South Korea have reached a deal that will allow a pending free trade agreement between the two countries to move forward.

Eleven of 18 members of President Barack Obama’s national debt commission signaled at the commission’s final meeting Friday they would have voted for the proposal, but no formal vote was taken and the commission disbanded after the meeting, leaving action on its concepts to Congress.