Donald Trump
Trump to spell out plans for TPP and NAFTA, farm groups react
President-elect Donald Trump, selecting a China critic as U.S. Trade Representative, "will further lay out some of the exact ways" that he will pull out of TPP and seek to re-write NAFTA once he takes office, a spokesman said. The aim of these moves will be to shrink the trade deficit, expand economic growth, strengthen U.S. manufacturing and stop jobs from moving overseas, spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters.
Sonny Perdue is leading contender to head USDA
Out of a cavalcade of candidates, Sonny Perdue, the first Republican governor of Georgia since Reconstruction, is President-elect Donald Trump's leading candidate to become agriculture secretary in what has become the lengthiest selection process in at least 40 years. Perdue would be the second southerner to serve as agriculture secretary in the USDA's 118 years as a cabinet department.
Trump to meet Elsa Murano, ‘a candidate’ for agriculture secretary
Cuban-born Elsa Murano, the top USDA meat safety official during the Bush era and later president of Texas A&M university, will meet President-elect Donald Trump next week as a candidate for agriculture secretary, said the Trump transition team. She would be the first person to meet Trump in nearly a month as a potential USDA nominee and could become the first Texan to lead the department.
Trump looking for ‘absolute most highly qualified, best person’ for USDA
President-elect Donald Trump is flirting with the record for the slowest announcement of a nominee for agriculture secretary in 24 years, but transition spokesman Jason Miller says "the focus is making sure that the president-elect picks the person he wants to go with and that he's comfortable that he's picking the absolute most highly qualified, best person."
The future of WOTUS, under the new POTUS
President-elect Donald Trump has promised repeatedly to get rid of WOTUS — a rule that the EPA says is crucial to keeping pollution out of America’s waterways. And if WOTUS’ future wasn’t already uncertain, Trump has enlisted one of the rule’s greatest detractors to head the EPA. “What is this all about?” Scott Pruitt says in a Facebook video he posted last year about the Waters of the U.S. rule. “It’s about power. It’s about the EPA trying to assert itself in decision making that is exclusively the providence [sic] of the states, of the private property owners.”
Another USDA possibility emerges, along with a candidate for USTR
Texas rancher Susan Combs, the first woman elected as state agriculture commissioner and a former state comptroller, was to meet Vice President-elect Mike Pence, said the Trump transition team. The move ignited speculation that Combs might be in line for USDA chief.
Trump transition team tells one of its own to ‘back off’ about Sen. Heitkamp
Republican lawyer Gary Baise helped assemble Donald Trump’s agricultural advisory committee last summer. But now he’s been chastised by at least one member of the presidential transition team for his public remarks about Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who Trump is considering for secretary of agriculture.
Trump’s latest contender for USDA passed toughest ‘ag gag’ law
President-elect Donald Trump is considering Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter for secretary of agriculture, despite his record — or maybe because of it — of opposing animal rights activists, says Politico. In Idaho, Otter signed the country’s toughest “ag gag” law, which carries up to a year in jail and a maximum fine $5,000 if a person is caught using a fake ID to access a farm and then film the activities there.
States urge Trump to nix Clean Power Plan
Officials in 24 states want president-elect Trump to cancel the Clean Power Plan put forth by the Obama administration, says Reuters. The plan calls for lowering power-plant emissions 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, but the Supreme Court has delayed its implantation until a U.S. district court in the District of Columbia decides whether the order is legal.
Safeguard nutrition programs, antihunger groups ask Trump, Congress
The antihunger community asked President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress to protect public nutrition programs, from food stamps and school lunch to commodity donation programs.
Weeks from departure, Obama team revamps fair-play rules in livestock marketing
As quickly as the Obama administration unveiled a package of rules meant to make it easier for livestock producers to prove unfair treatment at the hands of processors and packers, the largest cattle and hog groups called on the incoming Trump administration to blunt their impact.
UN leader worries about Trump’s climate-change deniers
Erik Solheim, executive director of the UN Environment Program, says he’s troubled by president-elect Trump’s appointments so far, says Reuters. " I am concerned that some elite American politicians deny science. You will be in the Middle Ages if you deny science," he said.
USDA and VA are last on Trump list for nominees
President-elect Donald Trump has selected 13 of the 15 nominees for the cabinet. "He's been on a tear," says the Washington Post. The remaining slots are secretary of Agriculture and of Veterans Affairs. There hasn't been much talk about USDA since Republican activists objected to Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, being considered for the post.
DOE says no to Trump team, but it might have to say yes to Rick Perry
The U.S. Energy Department says it won’t provide President-elect Trump’s Energy Department transition team with a list of department employees involved with climate science or the society memberships of lab workers, says Reuters.
Scientists scramble to download U.S. climate data ahead of Trump
Worried that federal climate databases might soon be taken offline, scientists are frantically trying to download as much data on climate change as they can before the Trump administration takes office, says The Washington Post.
Trump chooses Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke for Interior
In a switch, President-elect Donald Trump settled on Rep. Ryan Zinke, a Montana Republican just elected to his second term in the House, for secretary of the Interior, said NBC News, one of several news organizations to report the decision. Zinke, 55, "described as an avid hunter and fisherman, was an early and consistent supporter of Trump's campaign," said NBC.
Forceful Trump to press regulatory relief first, say farm policy hands
The Trump administration will focus on regulatory relief in its early days in office, said two farm-policy hands, who pointed to EPA's Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule as a prime example of federal over-reach. Chuck Conner, of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, said President-elect Trump will be forceful in rolling back regulations, and Dale Moore, of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said the regulatory burden saps farmers' bottom lines.
An oil advocate for Interior, who for USDA?
More than a quarter of the land in the United States, mostly in the West and Alaska, is owned by the federal government, a massive stewardship challenge and a frequent cause of friction with local governments. President-elect Donald Trump apparently has settled on Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a proponent of oil and gas development, to run the Interior Department, which oversees 416 million acres. But transition officials are silent on his choice for the Agriculture Department, which controls nearly 193 million acres of forest and grassland.
Trump and Vance oppose funding bill that includes farm aid
President-elect Donald Trump called for a “streamlined spending bill” that also increases the federal debt ceiling on Wednesday as a replacement for the three-month government funding bill that congressional leaders produced the preceding day. That bill included $10 billion to offset a decline in farm income and $21 billion in disaster relief for agriculture.