WASHINGTON 鈥� The Senate on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to confirm Tom Vilsack as agriculture secretary, his second run at the Cabinet post.
The former Iowa governor spent eight years leading the same Department of Agriculture for former President Barack Obama's entire administration. He was confirmed Tuesday on a 92-7 vote.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to be a USDA that represents and serves all Americans,鈥� Vilsack said after the vote. 鈥淚 am optimistic about the future and believe our brightest days are ahead.鈥�
In his testimony, Vilsack, 70, heavily endorsed boosting climate-friendly agricultural industries such as the creation of biofuels, saying, 鈥淎griculture is one of our first and best ways to get some wins" on climate change.
He proposed 鈥渂uilding a rural economy based on biomanufacturing鈥� and 鈥渢urning agricultural waste into a variety of products.鈥� Vilsack also pledged to work closely with the Environmental Protection Agency to 鈥渟pur the industry鈥� on biofuels.
With systemic racial inequity now a nationwide talking point, Vilsack also envisioned creating an 鈥渆quity task force鈥� inside the department. Its job, he said, would be to identify what he called 鈥渋ntentional or unintentional barriers" that prevent or discourage farmers of
Vilsack also heavily backed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program 鈥� commonly known as food stamps, or SNAP 鈥� as a key instrument in helping the country's most vulnerable families survive and recover from the pandemic era. His Trump-era predecessor, Sonny Perdue, had sought to purge hundreds of thousands of people from the SNAP-recipient lists.
Vilsack received minimal pushback or criticism during confirmation hearings. One of the 鈥渘o鈥� votes came from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats. Sanders later said that Vilsack would 鈥渂e fine鈥� but he would have liked 鈥渟omebody a little bit more vigorous in terms of protecting family farms and taking on corporate agriculture.鈥�
Vilsack's approval was hailed by the Food Research and Action Center, which focuses on food security and equity. The organization said Vilsack's department faces a looming challenge to 鈥減rotect and strengthen federal nutrition programs to help address our nation鈥檚 hunger crisis that has been deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic.鈥�
Ashraf Khalil, The Associated Press
