Bill Tomson

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.

Democrats are pushing toward a final vote on President Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package, although the legislation will have to go back to the House after Democratic leaders made a series of revisions to shore up support for the measure. Those changes include new language allowing state and local funding to be used for broadband improvements.

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.