By JERRY HAGSTROM, CongressDaily
Only one Agriculture Department undersecretary and one assistant secretary have been confirmed by the Senate, but when the holders of many USDA sub-Cabinet positions get to their desks they will find that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has already put their confidential and special assistants with proven Obama campaign experience in place.
"These individuals, representing diverse backgrounds, strengths and skills, are a dynamic team prepared to address the issues facing 21st century food and agriculture," Vilsack said in a recent news release announcing the hiring of 14 aides. "They are committed to the president's goals for a prosperous rural America and a strong American agriculture and they believe that U.S. agriculture must play a leadership role in tackling the nation's renewable energy challenges."
Vilsack announced that the confidential assistant for Agriculture Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Jim Miller is Elisabeth Reiter, a director of advance for Obama's campaign who previously worked on many other campaigns, including for Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.
Vilsack also announced that the special assistant to Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Joe Leonard is Cristina Chiappe, the Latino vote director for the Obama campaign in Virginia. Chiappe, a native of Peru, has also been a research associate at the Institute for Educational Leadership's National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth in Washington.
The other campaign aides are assigned to offices in which the undersecretary has not yet been confirmed.
By CONGRESSDAILY STAFF
President Obama late Thursday nominated Edward Avalos, a New Mexico agriculture marketing official, to be USDA undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs.
Avalos has spent 34 years in agriculture marketing, including promoting the sale of chile peppers in 12 states; sheep, goats and cattle in Mexico; and pecans in Japan and China. The position requires Senate confirmation.
By CONGRESSDAILY STAFF
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Tuesday appointed Michael Scuse as USDA's deputy undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services in charge of domestic affairs. Scuse will oversee the Farm Service Agency, which distributes farm subsidies, and the Risk Management Agency, which handles the crop insurance program. Scuse has been chief of staff to Democratic Gov. Ruth Ann Minner of Delaware, and from 2001 to 2008 served as Delaware's secretary of agriculture. Scuse will report to Agriculture Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Jim Miller.
By JERRY HAGSTROM, CongressDaily
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has filled several key posts in his department, including aides who will focus on nutrition programs and rural development. Vilsack appointed Janey Thornton, a former school nutrition director in Elizabethtown, Ky., as deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services. FNS manages the food stamp, school meal and commodity distribution programs that spend about $80 billion per year, two thirds of the agency's $120 billion budget. Vilsack said Thornton, a former president of the School Nutrition Association, will provide policy direction for the FNS and the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. Thornton will report to the undersecretary for FNS, a position not yet filled by President Obama.
Vilsack also appointed Cheryl Cook, a former National Farmers Union official and deputy secretary in the Pennsylvania Agriculture Department, as deputy undersecretary for rural development. Cook will report to the undersecretary for rural development. Obama has nominated Dallas Tonsager, a Farm Credit Administration board member, to that post, but Tonsager has not had a Senate confirmation hearing. Vilsack also appointed Doug O'Brien, a former Senate Agriculture Committee counsel, as chief of staff to Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan. O'Brien has also served as an adviser to Iowa Democratic Gov. Chet Culver, and has been an assistant secretary in the Ohio Agriculture Department. The appointments were announced late Friday.
By CONGRESSDAILY STAFF
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is expected to announce Friday he has chosen Burnham John (Bud) Philbrook to be Agriculture deputy undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services in charge of international affairs. Since 1994, Philbrook has been president and CEO of Global Volunteers, an organization that sends Americans on volunteer vacations on American Indian reservations and 21 countries overseas. The Minnesota native also practiced law, served in the state House and worked as assistant commissioner in the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. As deputy undersecretary, Philbrook will oversee USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, and cover trade and food aid issues. He will report to Jim Miller, the USDA undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services.
By JERRY HAGSTROM, CongressDaily
Following a confirmation hearing Wednesday on President Obama's nominees for three key posts at USDA, Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said he will try to get the nominations through the Senate before Congress leaves this week for recess.
Harkin said he would ask the Senate to discharge the committee from voting on the nominations so he can take them straight to the Senate floor. He said Senate Agriculture ranking member Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., has agreed to that approach.
The nominees are Kathleen Merrigan, a Tufts University professor and former aide to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to be deputy Agriculture secretary; James Miller, the chief of staff at the National Farmers Union and a former aide to Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., to be Agriculture undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services; and Joe Leonard Jr., an aide to Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., and former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, to be Agriculture assistant secretary for civil rights.
The hearing went smoothly for the nominees, but Chambliss told Merrigan, the author of many academic articles, that he was concerned that "in promoting your passion for organic production and sustainable agriculture, you tear down other types of agriculture with different points of view."
Merrigan, who helped write the USDA organic program when she worked for Leahy, responded that she recognizes organic agriculture is only a "small slice of the pie, 2 to 3 percent" of U.S. agriculture.
Of her writings, Merrigan said, "I've always been a provocateur. That's part of my personality." But she added that when she was administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service in the Clinton administration, she worked on many conventional USDA agriculture programs, including milk marketing orders, check-offs and commodity purchases for feeding programs.
CongressDaily's Jerry Hagstrom reports (subscription) that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today he favors a single food safety agency, but he has not decided whether it should be located in USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, the FDA or an independent agency.
Commenting on the salmonella peanut butter scandal, Vilsack told the U.S. Rice Federation that the issue of centralization is key because food safety is both a human health and market issue. "We are the only industrial nation to have two systems," Vilsack said, a reference to USDA's responsibility for meat, poultry and eggs and FDA's responsibility for most other food products.
Vilsack's statements have come as something of a surprise to lawmakers and lobbyists. Agribusiness has opposed the idea vigorously in the past, and lawmakers have found the job of reorganizing the food safety system daunting.
For more on this story, read CongressDailyPM.
By CONGRESSDAILY STAFF
The Obama administration will reverse two last-minute agriculture decisions made by the Bush administration, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today in his first telephone news conference. The department will scrap a plan to pay for mandatory country-of-origin labeling with $3.2 million from a fruit and vegetable block grant program, and the public comment period on a farm subsidy payment limit rule has been extended for 60 days. It was due to expire Wednesday.
In other administration news, AP reports that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will name Todd Stern, the Clinton White House's top negotiator in the Kyoto Protocol talks, as a special envoy for climate change, according to U.S. officials.
Subscribers can read the full reports on the Agriculture Department moves and the Stern hiring at CongressDaily.
By JERRY HAGSTROM, CongressDaily
(Credit: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
Speculation on who might fill USDA subcabinet posts is intensifying on Capitol Hill and among lobbyists, but Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he would not discuss any personnel matters until they are announced.
After being sworn into office by Vice President Joe Biden, Vilsack told reporters in his office at USDA that he and his staff "are going to take our time" in selecting appointees. Vilsack said he thinks "it's unfortunate there are those who would speculate on [who is going to hold] positions."
The names of three Vilsack aides have been posted on a chart of top personnel in the entrance to the USDA administration building.
They are John Norris, a former Iowa Democratic Party leader and chairman of the Iowa Utilities Board, as chief of staff; Carole Jett, a former Natural Resources and Conservation Service official who retired and contributed money and time to the Obama campaign, as deputy chief of staff; and David Lazarus, a former aide to Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and key Obama rural campaign director, as special assistant.
Meanwhile, a House Agriculture Committee member and a key Senate aide said they believe Chuck Hassebrook, executive director for the Center for Rural Affairs, is a top candidate for deputy secretary.
By CONGRESSDAILY STAFF
In Cabinet confirmation hearings today, Lisa Jackson pledged a focus on science at the Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture pick Tom Vilsack said nutrition would play a role in health care reform, and Eric Shinseki said he would work to transform Veterans Affairs into a "21st-century organization."
Jackson, the head of New Jersey's environmental protection agency, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that "science must be the backbone of what EPA does." Her remarks overjoyed committee Democrats, who have been battling with current EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson over regulatory issues that they said were influenced more by interest groups than scientific findings. Sens. James Inhofe, R-Okla., the panel's ranking member, and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, stoutly defended Johnson but indicated they will not stand in the way of Jackson's confirmation. Jackson also promised committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., that she would promptly review California's request for authority to set clean-air standards that are stricter than the EPA's. Under President Bush, the EPA had denied these requests.
Vilsack -- who as Agriculture secretary would be in charge of food stamps, school breakfast and lunch funding, and programs to help pregnant women and newborns -- told the Senate Agriculture Committee he would "make a serious effort to market good eating habits as a way of helping your country." He said he has agreed to work with Health and Human Services nominee Tom Daschle toward this goal. A strong government push on nutrition could set off bitter lobbying battles among farm groups, but as Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin noted, child nutrition is the only program the Agriculture Committee must reauthorize in 2009. Harkin, a fellow Iowa Democrat, said the committee is likely to approve Vilsack's appointment unanimously; the full Senate is scheduled to vote on Inauguration Day.
Shinseki, who helped begin a massive Army transformation effort when he served as the service's chief of staff between 1999 and 2003, said he expects to face similar challenges modernizing the VA. "Leadership, commitment and teamwork enable the challenges of transformation to become opportunities to innovate and better serve our veterans," Shinseki told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. In the near term, Shinseki said he would work to craft a "credible and accurate" FY10 budget during his first 90 days in office, focus on clearing the department's backlog of medical claims and work with Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ensure a seamless transition for troops leaving the military and entering the VA.
In other confirmation developments, Treasury pick Timothy Geithner's hearing has been rescheduled for Jan. 21 after GOP senators blocked his unanimous consent request to hold it on Friday. Reports that Geithner failed to pay self-employment taxes when he worked at the International Monetary Fund several years ago threw his nomination into doubt Tuesday. Geithner also faces questions about the immigration status of a former housekeeper. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., reiterated that he thought Geithner would still be confirmed despite his missteps: "This was an honest mistake."
BY JERRY HAGSTROM, CongressDaily
Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin said he expects his committee to swiftly confirm fellow Iowa Democrat Tom Vilsack as Agriculture secretary, but other congressional leaders were a little more restrained in their praise and farm leaders were mixed on the former governor.
"Tom Vilsack has a strong record in Iowa on building opportunities in renewable energy, conservation, food and nutrition, experience that will serve him well as secretary of Agriculture," Harkin said. "With our economy in a downturn, Tom Vilsack knows how to bring change that will rebuild rural economies and keep them vibrant. As someone who has been a supporter of Tom Vilsack from the time he ran for governor to the time he ran for president, I believe he will be a strong Secretary of Agriculture and I expect a swift confirmation by the Senate Agriculture Committee."
President-elect Barack Obama and Vilsack may, however, have some fence-mending to do with the Iowa senators. Both Harkin and Republican Charles Grassley noted in early news releases that they had heard about the nomination from news reports, not from the Obama transition office. "This comes as a surprise since about three weeks ago Governor Vilsack stated that he was not in contention for the job, but it sure isn't a surprise because of his qualifications," Grassley said. "As governor of Iowa, he has a firsthand look at the role of agriculture in our global economy. I'm happy for him, happy for Iowa, and this is welcome news for agriculture."
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., who had earlier said that he would prefer someone more experienced with Washington than a governor, congratulated Vilsack and called him "a strong advocate who understands the changing landscape of our nation's rural economy." On Nov. 5, Peterson told Reuters that Obama should nominate for Agriculture secretary "somebody who understands agriculture, who has knowledge of agriculture." Peterson added, "I'm not big on governors and so forth."
Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said he was looking forward to working with Vilsack, but also said, "With the selection of Governor Vilsack, Iowa agriculture will be well represented in both the legislative and executive branches." Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., who opposed the farm bill, said, "I am optimistic about this appointment -- Tom Vilsack has a strong commitment to land and water conservation policy, and has indicated a desire to reform USDA agriculture payments, including a tighter cap on commodity subsidies."
Continue reading Harkin Expects Quick Confirmation For Vilsack.
By JERRY HAGSTROM, CongressDaily
President-elect Barack Obama is considering nominating Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., for Agriculture secretary, according to a statement from Salazar.
In response to a request for comment from the Denver Post today, Salazar, 55, issued a statement confirming that he is under consideration. "I am humbled that I may be under consideration as a possible nominee for Secretary of Agriculture," Salazar said. "Should President-elect Obama honor me with a nomination to Agriculture, I would certainly consider it. However, at this time, I am continuing my work on behalf of my constituents in the Third Congressional District and preparing for the many difficult challenges facing the 111th Congress."
Salazar told the Denver Post that he had talked to the Obama transition team but had not been interviewed. The newspaper reported that he also said, "I've lived agriculture and I sleep agriculture. I certainly want to make sure that this country continues to be able to produce a safe food supply. It would be a sad day in America if... we ever have to depend on other countries to produce our food."
If nominated and confirmed, Salazar would be the first Hispanic Agriculture secretary. His brother, Ken Salazar, is a U.S. senator from Colorado.
A potato seed farmer and cattle rancher on Colorado's Western Slope, Salazar in 2004 won an open seat in a district that had been held by Republican Scott McInnis for six terms. Parts of the district have been occupied by Spanish-speaking people for 350 years, but it also includes the city of Pueblo and the ski resort town of Vail.
Salazar serves on the House Agriculture Committee and played a role in the 2008 farm bill by insisting on more aid for fruit and vegetable growers and for renewable fuels research. During the farm bill debate, he told a National Farmers Union audience that the bill had to be written on a bipartisan basis because "there are too few of us to divide ourselves along partisan lines and partisan bickering."
A Republican commodity lobbyist said today that Salazar "would be incredible," a "great pick." The lobbyist added that Salazar is "respected on both sides of the aisle, and fair."
Meanwhile, sources close to Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said she is not interested in the Agriculture post. Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who has been frequently mentioned as a likely secretary, last week told the Des Moines Register that the Obama transition team had not contacted him about the Agriculture position or any other in the administration.
Subscribers can read Salazar's full profile in the Almanac of American Politics.
