By Tom Hance
They took it right up until Christmas Eve, but Congress passed an omnibus appropriations package to fund government programs for fiscal year 2023. The package totals $1.7 trillion with $858 billion in defense funding, including $44.9 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine and NATO allies, and $772.5 billion for non-defense discretionary programs. For agriculture, the bill includes discretionary funding of $25.48 billion. The Continuing Resolution (CR), which keeps the government operating at FY2022 levels, was set to expire Dec. 23 so the new appropriations package came just in the (saint) nick of time! Following are provisions of interest to the canola sector: