Senate panel approves Trump’s Agriculture pick

Former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) moved a step closer toward becoming President Trump’s secretary of Agriculture.

The Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday approved by voice vote Perdue to helm the agency, sending his nomination to the Senate floor as Trump inches closer toward filling out his Cabinet.

{mosads}”I’m pleased our committee has made swift strides to move Gov. Perdue’s nomination closer to the finish line,” said panel Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.).

“Our farmers and ranchers have been waiting too long for this important position to be filled. We need to get Gov. Perdue down to USDA to get to work,” Roberts said.

Perdue’s confirmation hearing last week was a relatively friendly affair, with the nominee vowing to expand global trade for the nation’s agriculture producers and promising to protect the already trim spending levels. 

Perdue said he intends to be the chief salesman for U.S. products around the world and be closely involved in negotiating future trade deals alongside the U.S. trade representative and the Commerce Department.

“I believe that USDA will be intimately involved in the personal on-the-ground, boots-on-the-ground negotiations at tables around this world with [agriculture] ministers and foreign dignitaries there selling our products,” he said last week. 

Roberts said the Agriculture Department and the U.S. trade representative have a history of working together to ensure that agriculture has an “influential seat at the trade table.”

Perdue, 70, also vowed to protect federal spending that supports U.S. farmers. Trump’s budget proposal suggests slashing the Agriculture Department’s funding by 21 percent — a cut of $4.7 billion to $17.9 billion, the third-largest cut to any federal agency.