Devon Westhill will be sworn into office this week as USDA deputy assistant secretary for civil rights, effectively putting him in charge of an office that has not had a Senate-confirmed leader under President Trump. The USDA announced the appointment on Friday, the same day that Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue named Bette Brand as deputy undersecretary for rural development.
The administration has no active nominations for assistant secretary for civil rights or for undersecretary for rural development, according to a website that tracks appointments to top-level federal jobs.
Westhill succeeds Naomi Earp, who resigned last month. He was deputy director of the Labor Department’s office of public liaison and chaired the department’s working group for historically black colleges and universities, said a USDA spokesperson. Previously, he worked for the conservative Federalist Society, which “has helped shift the country’s federal courts to the right,” said Politico, which first reported Westhill’s selection.
Trump nominated Earp for assistant secretary in 2018 and 2019 but the nomination faced strong opposition and never went to a floor vote. The 2018 farm bill recreated the post of undersecretary for rural development, 19 months after it was abolished by Perdue during a reorganization of USDA duties.
Brand, administrator of USDA’s Rural Business Service agency, succeeds Donald LaVoy, who retired almost six months after being appointed deputy undersecretary for rural development. In a statement, Perdue saluted Brand’s “drive and tenacity to fight for those living in rural areas and to increase rural prosperity.” Before USDA, Brand worked for 35 years with Farm Credit of the Virginias.