Three nominations for senior USDA posts overseeing research, food safety, and civil rights died with the 115th Congress on Wednesday, and the path forward for those nominations in the two-year session that opened on Thursday is unclear. “The three nominations have been returned to the White House. No comment beyond that,” said a USDA spokesman.
The Trump administration has moved slowly in putting its appointees to work at the USDA. Five of 13 posts requiring Senate confirmation are vacant, including the three nominations that lapsed this week. They were Mindy Brashears for undersecretary for food safety, Scott Hutchins for undersecretary for research, and Naomi Earp for assistant secretary for civil rights. The Senate Agriculture Committee cleared the nominations for a floor vote in early December, but they were not part of a calendar-clearing push this week.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue was President Trump’s final cabinet nominee, announced the day before inauguration, and did not take office until April, a historically late start at the agency. The White House has yet to announce a nominee for USDA chief financial officer or undersecretary for nutrition, the official who oversees the bulk of USDA spending.
Perdue has proposed sweeping changes to USDA anti-hunger programs, notwithstanding the absence of a Trump appointee to run those programs. He proposed “America’s Harvest Box” of food in 2017 to provide a portion of SNAP benefits, supported stricter SNAP work requirements in the 2018 farm bill, and unveiled a proposed regulation last month for stricter enforcement of time limits on SNAP benefits to able-bodied adults without dependents. “People’s eyes are on the ‘what,’ ” said an anti-hunger activist, “and not on who is doing it” — meaning the undersecretary who would ordinarily set the tone.