USDA needs a policy, management pro at the helm

Sen. Pat Roberts (R, KS), chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is one federal lawmaker I trust almost blindly.  If Roberts were to look me in the eye, tell me the best thing I could do for American agriculture is strip, paint myself blue and go stand on the Washington Mall, there’d be another naked blue aggie standing between the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument.

Robert delivered this week to Vice President-elect Mike Pence some sage advice viz President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of agriculture nomination. Roberts impressed upon Pence – advice coming from the only individual who’s been chair and ranking member of both House and Senate ag panels, and who’s written more Farm Bills than anyone I know – that the Trump choice for agriculture secretary must be an individual with deep agricultural roots, as well as someone who can manage the second largest bureaucracy in the federal government with one hand while protecting and promoting U.S. agriculture with the other.  In short, someone known and respected by the constituency.

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