Tom Vilsack confirmed by the Senate for a second stint as Agriculture Secretary

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

The Senate voted Tuesday to approve President Biden’s nomination of Tom Vilsack as agriculture secretary. Vilsack had been expected to have a smooth path to confirmation after the Senate Agriculture Committee voted unanimously earlier this month to advance his nomination, and many Republicans voted in favor of his confirmation.

Still, Vilsack had faced intense criticism from civil rights activists saying he did not go far enough to eradicate racial discrimination at the agency or support farmers of color during his first stint in the role. He will head the agency at a time of rising food insecurity because of the pandemic. An estimated 50 million Americans are food insecure and food banks and pantries around the country are running low on food.

Vilsack will also face demands to provide assistance to farmers after the Biden administration held up $2.3 billion in aid for farmers approved by the Trump administration. “We have a lot of work ahead of us to contain the pandemic, transform America’s food system, create fairer markets for producers, ensure equity and root out systemic barriers, develop new income opportunities with climate smart practices, increase access to healthy and nutritious food, and make historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy in rural America,” Vilsack said in a statement.

Vilsack said during his confirmation hearing that he will prioritize food assistance programs such as SNAP (food stamps) and WIC. “The USDA needs to do a better job of educating people about the existence of these programs,” he said at the time. “It’s important to get state and local leaders involved in this as well, and that we make access to these programs more convenient.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/23/tom-vilsack-confirmed-by-senate-second-stint-agriculture-secretary-time-growing-food-insecurity-because-pandemic/

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Full headline: Tom Vilsack confirmed by the Senate for a second stint as Agriculture Secretary at a time of growing food insecurity because of the pandemic

[Brush Bunny]

1. Much needed Department head.

The Ag Department is just a shell of its self and restaffing will be his job one. With Commodity prices at a five year high,he will catch a break from the get go.

[Wild blueberry]

2. Only Biden pick I disagree with

Vilsack's been in bed with corporate agriculture and factory farms. We need someone who will help actual farmers.

[George II]

4. Can you give us specifics? Thanks!

[BumRushDaShow]

6. WaPo has a long article from January

One issue -

Tom Vilsack’s nomination as agriculture secretary reopens old wounds for Black farmers

By Laura Reiley
Jan. 14, 2021 at 7:00 a.m. EST

Three days before Christmas, Tom Vilsack, Joe Biden’s pick for agriculture secretary, convened a videoconference with nine prominent civil rights activists and advocates for Black farmers. Vilsack mostly listened. What call participants wanted, first and foremost, was an acknowledgment that the Agriculture Department had marginalized and systematically discriminated against Black farmers for decades. And some on the call expressed anger and frustration that Vilsack, in his first stint as agriculture secretary, during the Obama administration, did not fulfill his promise to right those historical wrongs.

(snip)

Black farm organizations and advocates say Vilsack squandered eight years of opportunity to address long-standing complaints of discrimination in access to USDA loans and other programs. His inaction, they say, exacerbated a catastrophic loss of land and livelihood for many Black farmers over the past century, widening the racial wealth gap. Many civil rights activists resent Vilsack for demanding the resignation of Shirley Sherrod, the first Black director of rural development in Georgia, a decade ago.

Sherrod, who was also on the Dec. 22 call, was forced to resign after conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart published excerpts of a speech in which Sherrod appeared to endorse discriminating against a White farmer, drawing immediate rebukes from the NAACP, the White House and others. When the full speech came to light, however, it showed Sherrod had been quoted out of context. Vilsack offered Sherrod a new position two days later, but she declined.

“He has to create a culture of racial and social justice across the agency to even begin to undo the harm that has occurred,” Sherrod said in an email to The Post before the call. “There are no easy fixes. He has to be holistic in his approach to setting things right.” Sherrod, through a spokesman, offered no further comments on the videoconference meeting but said she did not oppose Vilsack’s confirmation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/14/vilsack-usda-black-farmers/

[Cha]

14. I hope to hell that he's learned

his lesson & Pres Biden has had serious talks about what he expects from him on his second time as AG Sec!

[BumRushDaShow]

16. There's a new Farm Bill coming up in 2023 (5-year Ag appropriations authorization/planning bill)

and I expect the GOP will try to take an ax to it like they tried in 2012 (delaying it until 2013) and again in 2018 - particularly the SNAP parts of it. The Farm Bill used to be "sacred" and untouchable because it was one of the last big pieces of pork for the red states. But the extremist loons also realized that food stamps (SNAP) and WIC and other things that HELP people were also included in there, and they started attacking it and were willing to throw their own farmers under the bus - particularly those who get commodity subsidies (like milk, grains, etc.), through the Farm Bill, just to "stick it to the lazy socialist marxist commie fascist libs".



So we will literally have to "crawl over glass" to make sure that we can maintain control of both the House and Senate, which will be hard since the GOP states are racing to put in voter suppression laws.

[Cha]

18. TY for that info, BRDS!

[BumRushDaShow]

19. YW Cha!

So much to do and so much more to fix.

[Cha]

20. I know.. so Overwhelming!

The Enemy Within

[Wild blueberry]

7. Sure

Here's one: https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/tom-vilsacks-cozy-relationship-big-ag-makes-him-non-starter-usda

Another: NYT (paywall) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/21/us/politics/vilsack-usda-small-farmers.html

Jim Hightower on how a good choice for Secretary of Agriculture could benefit all of us: https://hightowerlowdown.org/article/push-hard-and-fast-dont-settle-demand-big-change/
From Hightower Lowdown, Vol 22, No 11, December 2020 (link above):
"As the former Agriculture commissioner of Texas, I know that the US Department of Agriculture (created in 1862 by Abe Lincoln to be the “people’s department”) could become a transformative force for the Common Good. The agency:

has major anti-monopoly authority
has its own banks
controls a huge rural development program
runs nutrition programs including food stamps (SNAP), school lunches, and has responsibility for food safety and pesticide regulations
directs the Forest Service and numerous conservation, wildlife, and other environmental policies
has sweeping civil and labor rights responsibilities
is mandated to serve consumers and the poor
has a $119 billion budget, some 100,000 employees, and an office in every county in America, and
most powerfully, the secretary of Agriculture has broad authority to be a national advocate for the people against the corporate plutocracy now controlling policy.

In other words, ag secretary is a BIG office–if you dare to use it. But recent presidents have relegated it to a third-tier Cabinet slot meant to keep BigAg content and in charge. Thus, USDA’s top leadership has been somewhere between indifferent and hostile to the majority of workaday rural people who need an ally."

Note: I'm not an expert, but do live in rural Wisconsin and have seen too many small dairy and other farms collapse.

[Peregrine Took]

11. I agree. Not ever a fan of his. Mr. Big Agra - why he got chosen. n/t

[catrose]

12. I would rather have Cindy Hyde-Smith's opponent from Mississippi, Mike Espy.

[Raine]

17. Totally agree, I'm no fan of his! 👎 nt

[George II]

3. Here are the seven Senators who voted against Vilsack's nomination:

Cruz
Hagerty
Hawley
Paul
Rubio
Sanders
Scott

[lamp_shade]

5. I wonder what Bernie's issue is.

[George II]

8. It should be noted that he voted WITH Hawley and Cruz, and Manchin voted with the Democrats.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

9. I'll go out on a limb and speculate ...

It's for quite different reasons than the others.

[George II]

10. And obviously different reasons than the 47 Democrats and other Independent Senator.....

Last edited Tue Feb 23, 2021, 07:04 PM - Edit history (1)

....(corrected, Shaheen of NH didn't vote)

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

13. Not sure

He explains it here but it makes little sense.

[George II]

15. "I heard from many family farmers in Vermont....." There are only 623,000 people in Vermont....

...farmers and non-farmers.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

21. 'Tired of getting slapped in the face': older Black farmers see little hope in Biden's agriculture

pick'

Vilsack’s first term should have offered some hope – he was appointed by the first Black president, who also oversaw the 2010 $1.25bn settlement of Pigford II, the second part of a 1999 class-action lawsuit that alleged that from 1981 to 1997, USDA officials ignored complaints brought to them by Black farmers, and that they were denied loans and other support because of rampant discrimination.

Instead, a two-year investigation by reporters at the Counter found that during Vilsack’s eight-year tenure under Obama, fewer loans were given to Black farmers than during the Bush administration, and the USDA foreclosed on Black farmers who had discrimination complaints outstanding, despite a 2008 farm bill moratorium on this practice.

Many of those complaints were left unresolved. The report states that from 2006 to 2016, Black farmers were six times as likely to be foreclosed on as white farmers.

This disappointment is compounded by Vilsack’s kneejerk firing in 2010 of Shirley Sherrod, a longtime Black farmer advocate and civil rights activist who was serving as the Georgia state director of rural development for the USDA, when a deceptively edited clip that made her appear racist towards a white farmer was circulated by the rightwing propagandist Andrew Breitbart. Vilsack later apologized and offered her a different high-level USDA role, which she declined.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/24/black-farmers-tom-vilsack-us-department-agriculture

Like many of us, Bernie's issue with Vilsack is his lack of support for small farmers during his first stint as USDA head. He showed himself to be the champion of big corporate agribusiness. Vilsack is one of the two of President Biden's nominations that I disagree with.