On a voice vote, the Senate Agriculture Committee cleared for a floor vote three administration nominations for senior posts at USDA: Mindy Brashears for undersecretary of food safety, Scott Hutchins for undersecretary for research, and Naomi Earp for assistant secretary of civil rights. It was the second time in five months the committee approved the nominations; the Senate adjourned last session without voting on them.
Committee chairman Pat Roberts said Brashears, Hutchins, and Earp “have proven their abilities and are more than ready to serve.” Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the senior Democrat on the committee, dropped her opposition to Earp, who chaired the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the closing years of the George W. Bush administration. Stabenow questioned Earp sharply during a nomination hearing in November 2018, where Earp, in discussing sexual assault, referred to the “silliness” of on-the-job sexual harassment. “I do not consider it less serious,” responded Earp.
On Tuesday, Stabenow said Earp “has worked with the committee to clarify her past comments and has committed to working proactively with the Forest Service on sexual harassment issues.” At last year’s hearing, Stabenow said it was USDA’s duty to provide a safe work place. “It’s not just waiting until something happens and acting. It’s how you create an atmosphere where it doesn’t happen.”
Shortly after the White House renominated Brashears, Hutchins, and Earp, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue appointed them to high-level jobs that effectively put them in charge of the programs they would oversee if confirmed. Before USDA, Brashears was a Texas Tech professor of food safety and public health and Hutchins was a senior executive of Corteva, the seed and agriculture chemical division of DowDuPont.