WASHINGTON, D.C. (NAFB) – Ag Senators met privately this week with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to discuss legislative priorities. GOP Senator Chuck Grassley spoke with reporters afterward.

Grassley says the meeting was ‘off the record,’ and couldn’t detail what Secretary Vilsack or other senators said, only what he brought up.

Grassley cited an earlier GIPSA rulemaking.

While Grassley continues to fight for his own bill to boost cash trades for independent livestock producers.

Other meeting issues—freeing up more aid to biofuel producers from the December  COVID-19 bill, and not taking too much farmland out of production for CRP inclusion.

Grassley’s urging Biden’s USDA, as it considers increasing CRP acreage, to put only fragile land into the popular program, and avoid being an “unfair competitor.”