No sign of resolution in Senate’s Northey/RFS dispute
Source: By By Ken Anderson, Brownfield News • Posted: Thursday, November 2, 2017
Texas Senator Ted Cruz placed a hold on the Northey vote last week in retaliation against a group of Cornbelt senators, led by Iowans Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst. The Senators had just gotten concessions from the Trump administration on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
Cruz and several other senators say the RFS is hurting jobs in oil-producing states and have demanded a meeting with President Trump to discuss the RFS.
Grassley says such a meeting would be a “waste of time”.
“I think the President made that very clear when he intervened in the case of the RFS and what EPA was trying to do to it,” Grassley says.
At Nebraska ag director Greg Ibach’s swearing-in ceremony Monday in Omaha, U.S. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue expressed his frustration with the delay in Northey’s confirmation vote.
“We’ve always in the United States had a great transition of government and this is poor example of how to transition when we can’t get people into office to go to work,” Perdue said.
Senator Cruz’s office did not respond to Brownfield’s request for comment.