Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa today sought unanimous consent from his Senate colleagues to confirm Secretary Bill Northey to serve as Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Grassley spoke on the Senate floor about the issue and was joined by Senate Agriculture Committee colleagues Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, the Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Listen to his full statement here:
,quality(10),blur(50))
President Donald Trump’s nomination of Northey, the current Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, to serve in this important post has been kept from a vote in the Senate since October 2017 due to an objection from Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Senate approval of the Northey nomination is the last step toward Northey assuming the USDA position.
The Senate Agriculture Committee voted unanimously in October 2017 to send the nomination to the full Senate. Grassley has worked to clear the objection of Cruz, saying that it was based on an issue that Northey will not be involved with at USDA, and that putting an outstanding leader like Northey in place is vitally important to American agriculture during debate this year on a new farm bill.
Barring objection to Grassley’s request for unanimous consent, Northey would have been confirmed to serve at USDA. Cruz objected, further delaying Northey’s confirmation.