Newly minted Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s first day on the job will be a busy one, following the 87-11 confirmation vote in the Senate that ended more than three months of waiting. Perdue scheduled a start-of-the-workday speech to USDA employees this morning and is to join President Trump for an agricultural roundtable discussion at the White House in the afternoon.
Trump plans to name Perdue as chairman of an interdepartmental task force, to be announced today, to review regulations, policies and laws that hinder economic growth in agriculture, said White House agriculture adviser Ray Starling. The president will sign an executive order for the 180-day review.
The 15 farmers, ranchers and specialty-crop producers at the roundtable are expected to stress the importance of farm exports to the economic health of the sector. Panelists include American Farm Bureau president Zippy Duvall, of Georgia.
At the North American Agricultural Journalists meeting, Starling said Trump recognizes the hard work and tight margins of modern agriculture. “He said, ‘I love my farmers.’ He said, ‘Farming is tough. Farming is a tough way to make a living,'” said Starling, describing a conversation with Trump.
The strong and bipartisan Senate vote for Perdue was evidence that he was the least controversial of Trump’s cabinet nominees, and of the broad support he has among farm and agribusiness groups. Fifty Republicans and 37 Democrats voted to confirm Perdue. Democrats cast all the opposing votes. Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, of New York State, was the only member of the Senate Agriculture Committee to vote against him. Georgia Sen. David Perdue, a cousin, voted present. Gillibrand also was the only vote against Perdue at the committee level. She said Perdue increased paperwork and work requirements for food-stamp recipients during his two terms as governor.
Perdue was the last of Trump’s original nominees for the cabinet, announced on the day before the presidential nomination. He will have the latest starting date for an agriculture secretary in an incoming administration since USDA became a cabinet department in 1889. Most USDA chiefs begin work on the same day as the president or soon after. Until now, Clayton Yeutter, secretary under George H.W. Bush, had the latest start, a month after the president.
Rural America was key to Trump’s election and polls showed he had landslide support among farmers. Farm groups welcome the president’s actions on tax and regulatory reform, such as withdrawal of EPA’s Waters of the United States rule. However, they worry ag exports might be disrupted by Trump, who also has proposed a 21-percent cut in discretionary spending at USDA for fiscal 2018. The administration has yet to reveal its plans for mandatory programs, such as crop subsidies and food stamps.
Farm groups hope Perdue will intercede on their behalf, to protect farm exports during trade discussions and to oppose large budget cuts at USDA.
Starling indicated the White House may clash with farm-state lawmakers over agricultural spending. Trump campaigned for smaller government and a stronger military, he said. “The idea that we spend less on government … is a goal of the administration,” he said at NAAJ.
Lobbyists for the two largest U.S. farm groups, the Farm Bureau and the National Farmers Union, said the immediate top issues for Perdue will be agricultural trade, improving the federal safety net for cotton and dairy farmers, and “staffing up” at USDA, where dozens of policymaker and agency-leader jobs are vacant due to the turnover in administration.