Senate Ag advances three USDA nominations — but one faced pushback from DemocratsBy Sarah
Zimmerman and Catherine Boudreau
12/05/2018 05:33 PM EDT
The Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday advanced three nominees for top USDA positions, sending them to the full Senate after months of delay.
The nominations of Mindy Brashears, Scott Hutchins and Naomi Churchill Earp were approved by voice vote during a meeting held off the Senate floor late in the afternoon. Committee approval gives the trio a chance to be confirmed in coming days as Senate leadership looks to handle a slate of unfinished business before the lame-duck session draws to a close, including holding a floor vote on the farm bill compromise.
But confirmation for Earp, the White House's selection for the post of assistant secretary for civil rights, is not assured. She was opposed by six Senate Agriculture Democrats, including ranking member Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
Hutchins, the nominee to be USDA's undersecretary of research, education and economics, was easily approved, though Gillibrand opposed him as well. Brashears, the nominee to be undersecretary for food safety, received unanimous approval.
Hutchins' nomination has been pending before the Senate for the least amount of time out of the three — the White Houseannounced his selection in July.
Brashears has been awaiting confirmation since early May, while Earp has been in a holding pattern since February. The trio received a joint confirmation hearing last Wednesday.
Earp, a career civil servant, was director of USDA's civil rights enforcement office from 1987 to 1990. She later served as vice chair and commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission during the George W. Bush administration. Her nomination to the EEOC drew opposition from the NAACP due to what the organization said was her "dismal" record of enforcing civil rights policies in the federal government.
She told Senate Agriculture lawmakers during the confirmation hearing that she felt like she left "some business unfinished" at USDA.
Earp would take office at a time when the department is working to improve its record of handing discrimination and sexual harassment cases, including at the U.S. Forest Service, where numerous female employees have made allegations that a culture of sexual harassment and abuse, discrimination, and retaliation harms their ability to do their jobs.
Earp told lawmakers at the confirmation hearing that she wants to launch a pilot at the Forest Service that would separate complaints alleging sexual assault from those involving harassment, in order to speed up the agency's handling of such matters.
But she faced sharp questioning from Stabenow at the hearing after saying that complaints of sexual assault and abuse, which in some cases could rise to criminal investigations, should be handled separately "from the silliness that goes on as a part of harassment."
"I probably shouldn't have described sexual harassment as 'silliness,' although it is on a continuum," Earp responded.
A USDA spokesperson later told POLITICO that Earp's "silliness" comment was in reference to the time-consuming and bureaucratic Equal Opportunity Employment complaint process, and not to harassment allegations themselves.
After the voice vote on Wednesday, Stabenow defended her opposition by saying that she was not comfortable with Earp's performance during the confirmation hearing.
"This is a very consequential position, given the very troubling history of the USDA. I didn't feel comfortable with her answers," Stabenow told reporters. "We want to get more input from people. ... I just want to be sure. It's not just about sexual assault — it's sexual harassment. It's about how you create an atmosphere where it doesn't happen. At this point, I don't feel comfortable yet that she is as strong as she needs to be."
Hutchins and Brashears both faced criticism over industry ties, though neither nominee came under tough scrutiny during the confirmation hearing.
Hutchins is an entomologist focused on pest management who spent decades in academia and recently retired from his position as global leader of integrated field sciences for Corteva Agriscience, a spinoff from the merger of Dow and DuPont.
USDA's undersecretary for research, education and economics carries with it the responsibilities of being the department's chief scientist, meaning that Hutchins would be tasked with overseeing the department's $700 million budget for research facilities.
If confirmed, Hutchins would take on the role shortly in advance of the House switching to Democratic control next month, a change that is expected to lead to greater scrutiny of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue's plan to relocate from Washington two research-focused USDA agencies — the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Hutchins didn't give a ringing endorsement of the plan during the hearing, saying that while he believes in the "goals" of moving the research entities closer to agricultural production in the heartland, he would want to ensure that doing so wouldn't "sacrifice the quality of the science."
During the hearing, Hutchins was grilled on his opinion of the recently released federal climate assessment report that warned of climate change's disastrous effects on human health and the economy. He said he accepts the "body of work" from climate researchers "that suggests humans are having an impact on the acceleration of that change in a particular direction."
That answer was a stark contrast to President Donald Trump, who said he "doesn't believe" the report's findings.
"I have no reason to doubt the report itself," Hutchins said in response to a question from Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). "I believe that the body of work that supports that report is genuine."
Brashears, if confirmed, would take over the long-vacant role of undersecretary for food safety at a time when foodborne illnessesaffect 1 in 6 Americans each year. Brashears, director of the International Center for Food Industry Excellence at Texas Tech University, would oversee USDA's food safety efforts.
She faced questioning during the confirmation hearing over recent salmonella outbreaks caused by raw ground chicken and turkey that have sickened hundreds across the country. USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service recently released data showing major poultry plants failed the agency's salmonella testing. Brashears called those failures unacceptable and said the agency needs "to take action to get these numbers down."
Pork, beef and dairy industry groups have funded some of Brashears' research, which has focused on developing new technology to improve food safety, The Texas Observer reported. A lobbyist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association heralded her nomination as "great news for us here in the industry."
A USDA spokesperson told the Observer that Brashears will be subject to a two-year "cooling-off" period for political appointees — meaning that during that time she won't work on issues on which she has had direct business interests in the past.
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