Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey during a hearing on his nomination.
Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey’s nomination to a position in the U.S.D.A. cleared the committee level in the U.S. Senate last week, but he isn’t sure when the final step will take place.
“I’ve kind of given up making predictions, we are a step closer but still need that full Senate approval. So we’ll see when that happens — it could happen in the short term or it certainly could be awhile yet,” Northey says. Northey says he continues to work at his current job and is doing what he can to prepare when the final approval comes.
“As we think about getting folks ready — whoever that next secretary is — we make sure that we have all the documents that help that next secretary learn what the department is doing to make that transition really easy,” Northey says. “We have great folks at the department. I am very blessed to have folks who know what they are doing, do a great job.” Northey was nominated on September 1st to become the U.S.D.A. Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation. He’s been waiting for the process to take its course since then.
“It does seem like it is getting closer. It’s getting a little more real now as a possibility — but again — I don’t know if that’s months away are days away,” according to Northey. Northey became Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture in 2007.