There aren’t many days left on the Congressional calendar, and a ton of work has been put off for long enough. In what has become more the rule, rather than the exception, we face another government shutdown and another year without updated farm and food legislation.
Iowa Secretary Mike Naig says enough is enough.
To call the Congress “sluggish” on a new Farm Bill, would be like calling the eruption of Mount St. Helens a “seismic disturbance.” There is a lot of pressure around a Farm Bill and rural America, and it is threatening to pop once again. Secretary Naig says that this has been a political game, and the American farmers are the only ones who will lose.
Naig says that now it is going to be time to bite the bullet and extend the Farm Bill once again. It’s not the outcome we hoped for, but what can we expect in this incarnation of the Congress?
Naig says that he is ready for “Trump 2.0.” He says that the President-Elect is looking like is wants to hit the ground running on January 20th.
Naig reflects on Trump’s pick to lead the USDA.
Speaking of the EPA, the two that served during Trump’s first term; Scott Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler, didn’t have the best track record of supporting the biofuels industry, which is something we need to have happen in earnest. Naig talks about his hopes for the EPA head.
Naig says there is work to be done, but “we would have work to do no matter what administration was coming in.”
