DONE DEAL: It took months of on-again, off-again negotiations, but Congress finally reached an agreement on a second round of coronavirus relief programs for struggling businesses, farmers, hungry families, unemployed workers and others. Both chambers are set to pass the roughly $900 billion package today, along with a $1.4 trillion omnibus appropriations bill to fund the Agriculture Department, FDA and all other federal agencies through September. The coronavirus relief measure would provide stimulus checks of up to $600 for individuals; an extra $284 billion for small-business loans through the Paycheck Protection Program; $7 billion to expand broadband access; and $13 billion in increased nutrition benefits, including a 15 percent bump in monthly benefits for all Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program households for six months. The deal also excludes unemployment benefits from counting as income in SNAP eligibility and puts $400 million into the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which will help food banks meet surging demand, per an overview of food and ag provisions released by Senate Agriculture ranking member Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) late Sunday night. There's also about $13 billion in new agricultural aid, including $5 billion in additional $20-per-acre payments for row crop growers and $3 billion for cattle and dairy farmers, contract livestock producers and those who were forced to euthanize animals because of the pandemic. A variety of smaller aid programs are also included, like resources targeted to local ag markets, underserved farmers, small meat processors and other corners of the industry. Read on: POLITICO's Caitlin Emma and Marianne LeVine have more details on the overall package. HAPPY MONDAY, DEC. 21, and happy winter solstice! Welcome to your Weekly Ag report, where we're glad the days are getting brighter from here. Send tips to rmccrimmon@politico.com and @ryanmccrimmon, and follow us @Morning_Ag. WHILE WE WAIT FOR CONGRESS: It's been nearly a full semester and millions of low-income children are still waiting on federal aid to help their families buy groceries in lieu of subsidized school meals, months after lawmakers authorized an extension of the additional food assistance, our Helena Bottemiller Evich writes. What's the hold-up? Congress waited until the so-called Pandemic EBT program was set to expire on Oct. 1 before passing an extension. Then USDA took several weeks to publish guidelines on how to distribute the money. — Now states are seeking approval to restart benefits from the department, and the vast majority of families who qualify for the aid probably won't get any more payments until 2021. As of last week, Massachusetts was the only state that had been approved to restart doling out P-EBT money. Just five states have submitted plans so far. In the meanwhile, child hunger is soaring to record levels: "It should be a four-alarm fire," says Elaine Waxman, senior fellow at the Urban Institute. Waxman said she's never seen food insecurity rates as high as they are right now. The delays are a big loss, given the success of the program early in the pandemic. States and territories collectively handed out some $8 billion to families on debit-like cards to replace the school breakfasts and lunches that students would receive in a normal year. — The program helped lower food hardship for low-income families by about 30 percent, keeping as many as 4 million children out of hunger, according to Brookings Institution research in July. | 
