Backers say President-elect Donald Trump is conducting a thorough search for the next agriculture secretary although the search, the longest since 1933, is creating anxiety in farm country and could mean a late start for the Trump ag agenda. Agriculture is the last department without a Trump nominee now that the president-elect announced his choice for secretary of veterans affairs.
During his first news conference in six months, Trump said his team interviewed “at least 100 people” en route to selecting Undersecretary David Shulkin to become secretary.
Trump met face-to-face with with half-a-dozen potential agriculture nominees — none this month — without finding his ideal choice. Early this week, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said he believed Trump was being “very thoughtful” in making the selection.
Kansas farmer Doug Keesling, a member of the Trump agriculture advisory team, told Kansas Agland that Trump “is trying to get the right person in … USDA is very big and diverse, with over 100,000 employees.” Its portfolio ranges from food aid and domestic nutrition programs to farm subsidies, soil and water conservation, ag research, crop insurance and the national forests.
“I want to send out this message of reassurance to people,” Keesling said in a Kansas Agland interview. “It is not abnormal for some past administrations to take up to the inaugural day for their cabinet members. It’s not unprecedented to take this long.” The publication said Keesling is under consideration for a USDA post. “We really need someone (as agriculture secretary) who understands production agriculture,” said Keesling, meaning the heavily mechanized form of agriculture that uses hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers and synthetic pesticides and dominates food and fiber output.
Rural Americans often are social and fiscal conservatives. They voted by 2-to-1 for Trump, key to his victory.
Leaders of Monsanto and Bayer briefed Trump on their plan to combine into the world’s largest seed and agricultural chemical company, said Dow Jones. The $66-billion purchase by Bayer, announced last September, is one of three deals that would reshape the sector. Dow and DuPont, two U.S. companies, are merging and state-owned ChemChina is buying Syngenta, based in Switzerland. Some farm groups fear the deals will result in higher prices and fewer options in seed and pesticides.
Just-retired Texas Rep. Randy Neugebauer met Trump separately, sparking speculation that he is under consideration for a federal post, said The Hagstrom Report. Neugebauer chaired the House Financial Services subcommittee on consumer credit during the congressional session that ended on Jan. 3 and also was the fifth-ranking Republican on the House Agriculture Committee. There have been reports he was a potential head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
More than a dozen possible nominees have been mentioned as possible nominees for agriculture secretary. Some have met Trump aides but not Trump. Those interviewed by Trump range from a food scientist Elsa Murano to a California winegrower, Abel Maldonado, and Sonny Perdue, the first Republican governor of Georgia since Reconstruction. Repeatedly, Perdue has been reported at the top of the list for USDA.
The Senate Agriculture Committee probably cannot consider a USDA nominee until later this month at the earliest. Nominees traditionally go through a background and financial disclosure check before a confirmation hearing is called. In 2009, the Senate Agriculture Committee scheduled a hearing on Obama nominee Tom Vilsack within a week of receiving his nomination papers.