The Colorado Farm Bureau was among those pleased by the news Tom Vilsack will again be the secretary of agriculture.

Vilsack, the former Iowa governor who served in the Obama administration, was confirmed Tuesday by the Senate on a 92-7 vote.

Sen. Bernie Sanders joined six Republicans opposing the pick. Colorado’s Democratic senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, supported it.

Vilsack campaigned with Bennet in Iowa two years ago when Colorado’s senior senator was running against Biden for president, a month after Hickenlooper dropped out of that race. 

Bennet sits on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, which unanimously supported Vilsack’s confirmation on Feb. 2.

“Colorado Farm Bureau congratulates Secretary Vilsack on his nomination to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture,” the organization’s president, Carlyle Currier, told Colorado Politics in a statement Tuesday night. “Secretary Vilsack’s previous leadership at the department will ensure that agriculture and rural America are served well.

“We have worked with the secretary in the past and look forward to working with him in the Biden administration as we tackle huge problems facing agriculture and rural Colorado.”

Vilsack and his wife, Christie, have worked for Colorado State University, and their son, Doug, is Colorado’s assistant director for parks, wildlife and lands at the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. The younger Vilsack received his undergraduate degree at Colorado College and his law degree from the University of Colorado.

In 2019, Vilsack spoke to a sold out audience at the second Water in the West Symposium at Colorado State University, where he applauded the the billion-dollar redevelopment of the National Western Center in Denver. He returned to Colorado last year for a groundbreaking for the complex’s three buildings dedicated to work by CSU.

“As we focus on solutions and problem-solving around water issues at this event, we want everyone at the table to be part of this critical conversation for an issue that impacts everyone, regardless of where they live,” he said during the event at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Aurora.

He maintained a presence in northeastern Colorado for months in 2008 after the New Frontier Bank, a primary lender for farmers, closed, endangered 2,500 farm families, officials said at the time.