In one of its final acts of 2025, the Senate on Thursday voted to confirm a package of nearly 100 nominees to fill administration positions, including the top ag negotiator, Julie Callahan, and President Donald Trump's picks to fill three positions at the Agriculture Department.
The 97 nominees cleared the Senate in 53-43 vote along party lines. Among those approved are Callahan, who will serve as chief agricultural negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; John Walk to be the inspector general at USDA; Mindy Brashears to be undersecretary of agriculture for food safety and Stella Yvette Herrell to an assistant ag secretary position.
Callahan will move to the chief ag negotiator position from her role as USTR’s assistant USTR for agricultural affairs and commodity policy. She has been at the agency since 2016. Dozens of ag industry groups threw their support behind her candidacy. She also managed to pick up three Democratic votes in the Finance Committee, despite opposition from the committee’s top Democrat.
Brashears returns to the same role she held under the first Trump administration following a stint as a professor at Texas Tech University.
Walk moves to the inspector general position from his previous role as USDA judicial officer and senior adviser to the secretary. The president fired eight inspectors general in January, including USDA’s Phyllis Fong. A federal judge later found that the action violated a 1978 law requiring Congress to be notified in advance but declined to order the IGs reinstated.
“These are good people. They're going to do a tremendous job and USDA needs them,” Senate Ag Committee Chair John Boozman, R-Ark., told Agri-Pulse on Thursday ahead of the vote.
“I'm pleased that that we have the quality of candidates that we do and the fact that they're willing to do this,” he added. “It's a hard job.”
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Also confirmed was Jeffrey Hall, to be EPA’s assistant administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, and Michael Selig, to chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
“Jeff Hall has been absolutely pivotal in advancing the critical work of the Trump EPA this year, and I’m confident he will be exceptional in his new role,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement.
The package brings the total number of nominees confirmed in President Donald Trump’s first year to 415 – more than he achieved in 2017 and President Joe Biden secured in 2021.
Earlier this year, Republicans changed Senate rules to allow lawmakers to vote on lower-level administration appointees en banc and speed up the confirmation process.
Speaking on the Senate floor on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he was proud of what Senate Republicans have been able to achieve.
“It’s an impressive number all on its own,” Thune said of the more than 400 confirmations. “But it’s particularly impressive when you consider the obstacles Democrats have put up.”
He accused Democrats of dragging their feet and insisting on roll call votes for appointees to many lower-level positions.
Democrats have argued that the “historically bad” nominees the president has put forward require greater levels of scrutiny.
In addition to securing the confirmation of more than 400 nominees this year, Trump has also withdrawn a record number of nominees in his first year, according to analysis from Politico.
Lydia Johnson contributed to this report.
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