Articles Tagged with ''Chuck Grassley''

Republicans have so far focused their attacks on President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package on the scope of things it would fund – like home health care – that aren’t traditionally thought of as infrastructure. But Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is also drawing attention to the $174 billion the president wants to spend to shift Americans into electric vehicles.

Longtime Senate appropriator and GOP dealmaker Roy Blunt of Missouri is the fifth GOP senator to announce that he’s not seeking re-election. Blunt is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and former ranking Republican on the Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee that writes the annual budgets for USDA and FDA.

In an interview with Agri-Pulse, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack said he’s open to helping aspiring Black farmers acquire the acreage they need by tapping federal land holdings. Vilsack made clear that his goal as secretary is to address the impact of a legacy of discrimination against minority farmers. It’s no longer an issue of just compensating producers who were the victims of discrimination themselves.

Tom Vilsack will be back in very familiar surroundings today after winning easy Senate confirmation as agriculture secretary. He is expected to be sworn in today.