Tom Vilsack
A Biden possibility: Tom Vilsack as three-term agriculture secretary
Trump wrong on wind, just like ethanol, say Iowa Democrats
Vilsack highlights Biden’s support of ethanol
Former Ag Secretary Vilsack says USDA science nominee lacks credibility
Former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said President Trump’s nominee to head the USDA’s research division wouldn’t be a credible choice with the scientific community, according to Harvest Public Media. Trump nominated former conservative talk radio host and economics professor Sam Clovis to be the USDA’s chief scientist in July, setting off a wave of criticism.
Vilsacks become strategic advisers for CSU project
Colorado State University has appointed former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and his wife, Christie, as strategic advisors for three years in launching new initiatives, including the National Western Center in northern Denver, said the Denver Post. The university intends to turn the site of the National Western stock show into a university-like setting for innovators to tackle global water, food and population issues.
Perdue ‘faces a real set of challenges’ due to late start, says Vilsack
Since January, Sonny Perdue's job has been simple yet slow to come into reach: Win Senate confirmation as agriculture secretary. Perdue's predecessor at USDA, Tom Vilsack, said during a public radio interview, "Gov. Perdue faces a real set of challenges because his confirmation has been delayed as long as it has."
Vilsack backs Perdue as his USDA successor
On the same day that Senate Democrats toughened their opposition to President Donald Trump's cabinet nominees, former agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack said he supports Sonny Perdue as his successor at USDA. With Vilsack, Perdue "is the only cabinet nominee to secure the support of his predecessor in the Obama administration," said the Trump transition team.
Inauguration nears without nominee for agriculture secretary
Like other farm leaders, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley says he's at a loss to explain why President-elect Donald Trump has waited so long to name his nominee for agriculture secretary. Trump "has met with numerous people," Grassley told reporters, so "you can't say he has ignored" the position although the long wait has inspired grumbling, and now rumors, in farm country.
Vilsack’s new job — promoting dairy exports
Two weeks from now, Tom Vilsack, the longest-serving agriculture secretary in half-a-century, will start his new job on the opposite side of the Potomac River from the USDA headquarters. As expected, he will be president and chief executive of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, based in Arlington, Va., which works to expand sales of American dairy products and ingredients.
Vilsack departure puts spotlight on empty chair at USDA
Farmers and other rural voters were instrumental in putting Donald Trump in the White House, but the president-elect, four days away from inauguration, has yet to return the favor at USDA. Democrat Tom Vilsack, the longest-serving agriculture secretary in half a century, underlined the absence of a Trump nominee to head USDA by leaving the job a week before the change of administration.
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.
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.
USDA tweaks Conservation Reserve to protect water, wildlife, wetlands
With enrollment in the land-idling Conservation Reserve nearing its statutory limit of 24 million acres, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced revisions in the program to protect water quality and to benefit wildlife, pollinators and wetlands. Under one of the changes, USDA will pay up to 90 percent of the cost of environmentally beneficial practices, such as bioreactors and saturated buffers that clean up run-off from drainage lines running beneath cropland.
Ethanol mandate won’t be uprooted, says Vilsack
The ethanol industry is too well-established in rural American to be dismantled, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Bloomberg as the deadline nears for an EPA announcement of the so-called ethanol mandate for 2017. "The Renewable Fuels Standard is solid," Vilsack said.
USDA releases $401 million to fight rural poverty
At Berea College in eastern Kentucky, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that 26 community development organizations will be able to draw on $401 million in funding to reduce rural poverty through building or improving essential facilities and services such as education and health care.
Vilsack: ‘Here’s what I know about myself: I’m an executive.’
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack indirectly turned thumbs down on the idea of running for the Senate with words that might also apply to election-season rumors of a possible job as White House chief of staff. "Here's what I know about myself. I'm an executive. I like making decisions," Vilsack said during a National Press Club luncheon.
Obama kept Vilsack in cabinet with a bigger portfolio
President Obama dissuaded his longest-serving cabinet member, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, from quitting in late 2015 by putting Vilsack in charge of the administration's efforts to stem heroin and prescription opioid abuse in rural America, says the Washington Post. Vilsack felt rural issues were ignored in Washington and, after seven years on the job, there was little left for him to accomplish at USDA.
Whoever the president selects for agriculture secretary, it’s usually a surprise
When trying to predict presidential nominations, a parlor game that enchants Washington with special fervor when a new administration is in the wings, recall the unconventional way Mike Espy persuaded Bill Clinton to tap him for agriculture secretary: He wrote him a note before a Democratic Leadership Council dinner at Union Station.