Former Governor Vilsack came to meet with me today. Cabinet members generally come around to visit with members of the Senate that are on the committees that would fall in their jurisdiction and since I am a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, he came discuss various issues with me. We talked about civil rights enforcement within the Department of Agriculture as I have been working on that issue over a period of 10 years. We also talked about the lack of enforcement in the Packer and Stockyards Act and making sure regulations of “actively engaged in farming” are followed as outlined in the 2008 Farm Bill so that people who aren’t farmers and people who are dead aren’t abusing the taxpayer’s dollar and receiving payments. He seemed to be sympathetic to those issues. His confirmation hearing is on January 14^th and I don’t expect him to have trouble.