ed to start by february. despite the shutdown, the agriculture department says it will be providing food stamps to 38 million americans through the end of february. initially, the agency could only guarantee them until the end of january. agriculture officials say they will use a provision which allows them to make obligated payments within 30 days of a funding lapse. they re now working with states to issue food stamp benefits $4.8 billion worth by january 20th. all right. it may be the clearest coordination of evidence between the trump campaign and russia. it came out in a botched court filing by lawyers of paul manafort revealing that the former trump campaign shared polling data with an alleged russian operative. we get more from cnn s sara murray. good morning, christine and dave. we re now learning that paul manafort shared campaign-related polling and discussed ukrainian
millions every single day. it comes from honeybees. when her maps floodwater swept through the southern state last fall it took 7500 hives with it according to agriculture officials in florida. investigating the investigators, gop lawmakers accusing the fbi for abuses, we will talk to the former director of the fbi next, chick-fil-a creating its own version of the happy meal, the big reveal coming up. needles.
audit, finding that several agencies within the department of agriculture were involved in this. the natural resources conservation service for example, sent out more than 10 1/2 million dollars in payments between 08 and 2012 to more than a thousand people who had been dead for more than a year. the department s risk management agency which overseas crop insurance paid $22 million to 3400 people who have been dead at least two years. agriculture officials admit the agency needs to do a better job identifying who is alive and who is not. the gao s report suggests that the department actually begin using a database, called the death master file. that is the same list that the social security agency uses to i.d. dead people. sound like a good idea, don t you think, jon? jon: sound like it would be a pretty inexpensive way to save some money. reporter: a no-brainer. jon: hard to find that in government. thanks very much, rick folbaum.
nearly every year the production of oranges is falling. 140 million boxes this year. now, growers say that s not just because of citrus greening, but it s a primary reason. agriculture officials say there is a tipping point. if the number of boxes falls below 100 million, then the industry begins to become irrelevant. it s a trickledown, from the guys who produce the cartons to put the juice in to the harvester that picks the fruit. at the u.s. department of agriculture lab, researchers are looking into several possible solutions. including a spray-on antibiotic that would be absorbed by the tree, and then kill the bug. i admit, i lose sleep at night worrying about it. are we going to find the answer soon enough. reporter: so how is it such a small insect could destroy an industry? well, these bugs live less than two months. and during their life span, a single female cylid can lay 800