After two years with a title that suggested he was a placeholder, Brandon Lipps formally became deputy undersecretary for nutrition at the Agriculture Department on Monday. The Trump administration has not filled the top nutrition post at USDA, so Lipps will continue to run programs such as SNAP and school lunch, as he has since July 2017.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue elevated Lipps and Pam Miller during a swearing-in at USDA headquarters. Lipps formerly was the acting deputy undersecretary for nutrition and head of the Food and Nutrition Service. Miller became FNS administrator after serving as a senior associate administrator since last September.
“Both Brandon and Pam have extensive experience in nutrition policy…I am confident they will hit ground running and continue the great work,” said Perdue in a statement.
The White House has not nominated a candidate for nutrition undersecretary since President Trump took office in January 2017. A USDA spokesperson was not immediately available to say if a nomination was expected. Votes are pending in the Senate on four other USDA executives, including nominees for undersecretary for research and undersecretary for food safety. Thirteen positions at USDA require Senate confirmation.
There has been little discussion on Capitol Hill or among hunger organizations of the absence of a nutrition undersecretary. “What difference would it make to the policy?” said one activist.
In July, the administration said it wanted to restrict so-called categorical eligibility for food stamps, potentially ending benefits for 3 million people. It also would restrict the ability of states to exempt able-bodied adults from the usual 90-day limit on food stamps unless they work at least 20 hours a week. In both cases, the administration said it was protecting the integrity of SNAP. Anti-hunger groups say the proposals disregarded the congressional decision in the 2018 farm bill against major change in food stamps.
Lipps helped engineer $8.6 billion in food stamp cuts in the 2014 farm law while a staff worker on the House Agriculture Committee. The USDA said the cuts were “the first reforms to, and fiscal savings from, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program since the welfare reforms of 1996.” The savings were generated by requiring states to pay at least $20 a year in energy assistance to a household before USDA would increase food stamp benefits for the household. Lipps was chief of staff for the chancellor of Texas Tech University system for the three years between the 2014 farm bill and his appointment in July 2017 as acting deputy undersecretary.
Miller was a House staff worker for 20 years before moving to USDA, working for the Agriculture and Appropriations committees with expertise in nutrition, specialty crop and meat safety programs.