Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow said the Senate Agriculture Committee is making progress on stocking the USDA with President Biden’s choices for sub-cabinet posts. The committee advanced two nominations to the floor on Tuesday, creating the possibility of confirmation votes before the Senate adjourns for its summer recess.
The undersecretary nominees, USDA climate adviser Robert Bonnie and former New Mexico Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, join California agriculture official Jennifer Moffitt on the waiting list for Senate action.
Bonnie was nominated to become undersecretary for farm production and conservation, Torres Small for undersecretary for rural development, and Moffitt for undersecretary for marketing. There are eight undersecretary posts at the USDA, each overseeing one of the agency’s operating arms. At present, all the posts are vacant. Janie Hipp, the USDA’s head lawyer, is the only executive confirmed by the Senate this year, on July 30.
Torres Small and Bonnie “are incredibly well qualified and will be valuable advocates for our farmers, ranchers, foresters, and rural communities,” said Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat. Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, the senior Republican on the committee, said the unanimous recommendation by the committee of Senate confirmation for the nominees was an example of the panel’s tradition of bipartisanship.
Separately, the USDA announced the appointment of John Rapp as director of the USDA budget office; he was serving as acting director. Five other appointments were made, including Brooke Jamison, who has a 23-year career in agriculture and international policy development, as associate administrator of the Foreign Agriculture Service.