AFBF Rural America Not Given The Respect It Needs

The political fight over President Trump Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch has scuttled any chance the Senate will confirm  Sonny Perdue as Agriculture Secretary before Congress’s Easter recess.

“Once again, it feels like agriculture is not being given the respect, that rural American is not being given the respect it needs," the American Farm Bureau's Dale Moore said.

Moore added the latest delay in confirming the next leader for the Department of Agriculture is frustrating.

"Agriculture which is typically is the least partisan in terms of party politics, anyway, and here we are almost four months in to President Trump’s new administration, and we still don’t have a Secretary of Agriculture.

The Senate could have made quick work of the Perdue nomination this week, but that would have taken a bipartisan time agreement, or unanimous consent of all 100-senators to consider Perdue in tandem with Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes Perdue will likely need to wait until late April or even early May to take his post at the Department of Agriculture. That’s because when Senators return after recess, they will have five workdays to fend off a partial government shutdown.

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