Inside D.C.

USDA must be A Team Trump White House player

Why is President-elect Donald Trump taking his sweet time naming his secretary of agriculture?  Why has his transition team allegedly nearly ignored USDA when it comes to cooperating on the department hand-off from Obama to Trump?

Agriculture secretary is one of two cabinet nominations still unannounced, sharing that status with the secretary of veterans’ affairs slot. Now in fairness, President Obama didn’t name his ag secretary until December 17, following his first election in 2008.

Given the critical support from rural voters in the Trump run for the White House and the specter of a complex Farm Bill rewrite on the 2017 horizon, some argue ag secretary should enjoy higher status than in previous administrations.  Others contend the delay – and the number of names new to his list of prospective candidates – is an unfortunate continuation of the White House treating agriculture as part of the cabinet B Team, rather than as a key component of the incoming administration.

Those who believe USDA is on Trump’s B Team, point to the lack of active transition work between Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s USDA and the incoming Trump team.  Things were proceeding apace until Vice President-elect Mike Pence took over the Trump transition and summarily purged all registered lobbyists from the transition.  This knocked lead aggie Mike Torrey off the transition list, where he’d worked for months.  Torrey was replaced by Joel Leftwich, chief of staff to Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Pat Roberts (R, KS), reportedly assisted by “landing team” volunteer Brian Klippenstein, head of Protect the Harvest, a pro-ag/anti-activist group funded by millionaire oilman and Trump supporter Forrest Lucas.  Klippenstein is also a veteran of senior staff jobs for leading Republican lawmakers on both sides of Capitol Hill.

Vilsack confirmed the lack of Trump attention in an interview with a trade publication this week. “We haven’t had much activity from the transition team,” he said, emphasizing he’s allotted office space and ordered staff to prepare materials for the Trump folks to smooth the transition.  Vilsack referenced a single visit to the department by Torrey before he quit the transition team, and “then we had a second person and we’ve seen him like once and that’s it,” referring to Leftwich.

Critics contend Leftwich is hamstrung in what he can do because the committee he runs will be vetting and confirming those named by Trump to run USDA, including who gets the secretary nod.  Klippenstein has reportedly only recently begun visiting the department as a one-man transition “landing team,” another anomaly given other departments boast a dozen or more volunteers on designated Trump transition landing teams.  Even the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) office – another unannounced nomination – and its 250-person staff has a five-person landing team.

USDA’s apparent backseat status is not informed by a lack of secretary nominee.  While most DC aggies would like to see veteran aggie Chuck Conner take the reins – Conner was deputy USDA secretary in the last Bush Administration and carries an almost unmatched agriculture policy/management resume – former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, a small businessman and cousin of sitting Sen. David Perdue (R, GA), wants the job.

Also complicating the selection process is whether Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D, ND) is actually a viable candidate – she interviewed with Trump in New York City – or does she carry so much political and issue baggage as to be untenable?  When her name was floated last week, Trump’s ag advisory committee was buried under complaints and outright opposition.  North Dakota Democrats, however, contend Heitkamp wouldn’t take the job if it’s offered.  “Heidi’s not going anywhere,” said one former North Dakota Democrat lawmaker, citing her upcoming reelection run in 2018.

Three-term Idaho Gov. Butch Otter’s folks “confirmed” to the media this week his name is now on the USDA secretary wannabe list.  Otter, who served as president of Simplot International, was Idaho lieutenant governor for 14 years before being elected to the House in 2000, serving three terms with Pence before opting to leave the House to run for governor.

The Trump transition needs to recognize agriculture is much more than WOTUS, TPP and biofuels.  It’s 100,000 USDA folks working for food production writ large, from farm to fork; ag is the only positive in our balance of trade, ag is food safety and the responsible use of new technologies, ag is assistance to the needy and malnourished, ag is science and research, and the whole shebang rests on the shoulders of only about 1.5 million full-time farmers and ranchers.

It’s time to move USDA to the Trump cabinet A Team.

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