Vilsack Discusses Infrastructure & Reconciliation Bills

As Congress considers the President's Infrastructure Bill and the budget Reconciliation Bills, some lawmakers have talked about possibly cutting back on what the administration has proposed for spending for those bills. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack said some of those proposed cuts worry him, because of the impact they could have on the USDA. Vilsack said he's looking at it in a different way.

"Anything that occurs in terms of the Infrastructure Bill or in terms of the Reconciliation Bill is a plus up; it's not a cut, it's an increase over what we're currently doing. So I think it's important to look at this as it actually is which is a question of 'how much more can we do?' as opposed to 'how much less are we going to do?"

Meanwhile, as work on the two bills continues, "as Congress requests information about needs and about technical assistance and crafting the legislation we've been more than responsive to those requests and we'll continue to do so."

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