The Senate Agriculture Committee cleared three USDA nominees for a floor vote on Wednesday, but significant Democratic opposition could prevent a confirmation vote this year on Naomi Earp, President Trump’s nominee to be the agency’s assistant secretary for civil rights. Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the senior Democrat on the committee, said she was not certain Earp “will be as strong as she should be.”
The other nominees, Mindy Brashears for undersecretary for food safety and Scott Hutchens for undersecretary for research, are expected to sail through a Senate vote before the end of the lame duck session. Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts urged that all three nominees be confirmed as quickly as possible.
“Given the vote in committee on Ms. Earp, it will probably not be possible to move that [nomination] at this point,” said Stabenow following rapid-fire votes on the nominees in a meeting that lasted less than five minutes. At least six Democrats, including Stabenow, voted by voice against Earp, according to an unofficial tally.
When Earp testified before the Agriculture Committee a week ago, she said she would prioritize preventing sexual assault and harassment, which have been long-standing problems in the U.S. Forest Service. She chaired the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission during the closing years of the George W. Bush administration and is returning to government from retirement. Stabenow questioned Earp sharply when, while discussing assault, she referred to the “silliness” of on-the-job harassment. “I do not consider it less serious,” responded Earp. “It chills the workplace.”
After the committee vote on the nominees, Stabenow said she was not satisfied with Earp’s testimony. “It’s not just waiting until something happens and acting. It’s how you create an atmosphere where it doesn’t happen.”
Farm bill negotiators are waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to finish its cost estimate of the farm bill before releasing their compromise version. “It’s a big bill, it’s a lot of pages,” said Stabenow, one of the four lead negotiators. Another of the “four corners,” Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson, has said the final version of the bill may be filed in the House on Monday.
“That would be the hope to do that so the House can take it up next week and then the Senate,” said Stabenow. Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts told Agri-Pulse that some minor changes in the legislation meant that the CBO needed to revise its “score” of the bill.
One-third of farmers polled by Purdue University said they are “very concerned” that there was no replacement yet for the 2014 farm law, which expired on Sept. 30. A quarter of respondents said they were “not at all concerned,” and 42 percent chose “somewhat concerned” to describe their view.
The 2108 farm bill would make only small changes to the farm programs currently in force. It would legalize industrial hemp as a crop and put the USDA in charge of regulating production.