In response to fires that burned more than 1.5 million acres of rangeland in the southern Plains, the USDA opened the Conservation Reserve, normally off-limits to livestock, for grazing for the rest of the year in three states. The USDA said it acted at the direction of President Trump – a statement used to prod the Senate to vote on Trump’s nominee for agriculture secretary.
“The department must absolutely have someone at the helm,” House Agriculture Committee leaders said in a letter to the Senate to urge speedy confirmation of former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue to run USDA. A Trump transition official faulted the Senate for “negligence” for not yet scheduling a vote. The Agriculture Committee sent the nomination to the floor at the end of last week but debate on Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch has priority this week.
“The farmers and ranchers in the region have suffered the loss of thousands of heads of cattle and hogs, as well as significant property damage,” Trump said in a memo according to the transition official. “This relief will allow those affected to care for their remaining livestock.”
At least 9,000 cattle and 1,900 hogs died in 32 counties of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas from wildfires that have swept the southern Plains in the past month. Farm buildings, stockpiles of hay and feed, and thousands of miles of fencing were also destroyed. USDA listed $60 million in losses and cautioned the total will grow “since the fires are still burning in some places and access to the lands to survey the damage has been limited.”
Landowners are paid an annual rent to idle fragile land in the Conservation Reserve for 10 years or longer to reduce erosion, improve water quality and provide wildlife habitat. Because the land is held out of production, it becomes a living storehouse of vegetation; valuable to ranchers in this case because pastures are charred.
“Producers in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas are struggling to feed what is left of their herds,” said Senate Agriculture chairman, Pat Roberts, of Kansas. “They need all the help they can get.”
Roughly a quarter, or 5.65 million acres, of the Conservation Reserve are in the three states. While USDA opened the reserve for emergency grazing, it set restrictions on livestock on habitat for the lesser prairie chicken, whose population has dropped dramatically.
House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway and the senior Democrat on the committee, Collin Peterson, pointed to the wildfires in saying “very serious challenges” faced rural America. Farm income is in a slump, rural unemployment rates exceed urban areas and avian influenza has been confirmed in poultry flocks in the Southeast.
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture plays the lead role in responding to these and many other serious situations that are unfolding, and the department must absolutely have someone at the helm,” wrote Conaway and Peterson. “We support the speedy confirmation of Gov. Sonny Perdue … We encourage you to complete this process this week.”
“It probably won’t happen,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who also serves on the Agriculture Committee. Grassley said the Gorsuch nomination was the first order of business, with extended debate expected. “I think that priority puts a limit on the secretary of agriculture being approved,” he told reporters, unless Republicans and Democrats unanimously agree to a brief debate and immediate roll call on Perdue.
New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez has removed a hold on the Perdue nomination, said Agri-Pulse, so “hopes are growing” for a vote before the Senate leaves on Friday for a two-week recess. “We may yet seek unanimous consent to go ahead with his nomination,” Roberts told Agri-Pulse. Menendez “was the last known obstacle but other Democrats could block Perdue from being considered under an expedited procedure,” Agri-Pulse reported.
So far, Democrats have demanded full debate on cabinet nominees. Perdue is arguably the least controversial of Trump’s nominees but New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand voted against him when the Agriculture Committee cleared Perdue last week for a floor vote.
The long delay in confirming Perdue can be attributed to the slow start by the administration. Perdue was the last of Trump’s cabinet nominees, announced on Jan. 19 after the longest hunt for a nominee since 1933. Seven weeks passed before Perdue’s background and financial disclosure reports were sent to the Senate. The Agriculture Committee held a confirmation hearing on March 23, two weeks later, and approved the nomination last Thursday. Perdue would start work at USDA later than any other agriculture secretary nominated by incoming administration.
To read the USDA memo on emergency grazing, click here.