WASHINGTON, June 5, 2017 - President-elect Donald
Trump is continuing his search for an agriculture secretary. At least one more
potential candidate has an interview at Trump Tower today.
Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts discussed
the issue with Vice President-elect Mike Pence yesterday during a closed-door
meeting with GOP senators. Roberts said after the meeting that the agriculture
secretary search was still “fluid.” Roberts declined to say whether he had
discussed individual names with Pence.
Trump spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters yesterday
that Trump continues to meet with “highly qualified individuals” about the USDA
job.
Spicer went on to say that the cabinet pick will be
someone who “understands and demonstrates the greatest ability to implement the
president’s agenda and make America great again.”
Former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue still appears to be
very much in the mix. Perdue wouldn’t add the ethnic diversity to Trump’s cabinet
selections that the transition team seemed to be seeking.
But one source close to Trump’s agricultural
advisory team believes that resistance to Perdue appears to have fallen away in
recent days, clearing the way for his nomination.
Pruitt to meet with farm-state senators. Trump’s
nominee to run the EPA, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, will be on
Capitol Hill this afternoon to discuss biofuel policy with a group of
farm-state Republican senators, including Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts,
R-Kan.
Pruitt has opposed the RFS, but allies of the
biofuel industry are counting on Trump to ensure that Pruitt enforces the
biofuel mandates in a way that protects the health of the ethanol and biodiesel
sectors.
One of the senators who will be in the meeting, John
Thune of South Dakota, told reporters yesterday that he’s “pretty confident”
that the Trump administration will maintain the RFS.
Environmental group set to fight nominees, Trump
agenda. Rhea Suh, CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, says her
2-million-member organization is gearing up to fight not just Pruitt but three
other Trump nominees: Rex Tillerson for State, Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke
for Interior and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry for Energy.
Suh says Tillerson is a “walking conflict of
interest,” even though under his leadership Exxon Mobil acknowledged man-made
climate change and supported a tax on carbon. “Handing over U.S. global policy
to a big oil chief is a mistake,” she said.
NRDC is widely seen as one of the more effective
environmental advocacy outfits in the country, particularly on the issues of
renewable energy and energy efficiency. Suh says NRDC has gained more members
since the election, but the group’s government affairs director, David Goldston,
says NRDC’s expenses are growing, too.
NRDC’s policy experts say they expect Republicans to
“overreach” in their efforts to roll back environmental protection, much as
they did when they tried to weaken ethics oversight, which prompted a backlash
from voters and an about-face by the GOP.
House to vote on CFTC reauthorization. The
House will be debating a CFTC reauthorization bill next week as Republicans
continue to move a series of bills aimed to rolling back President Obama’s
regulatory agenda.
A similar bill passed the House in 2015, but died in
the Senate because of Democratic resistance, and the new legislation could face
the same fate.
House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas,
says the version that the new version will drop some provisions that are no
longer needed but will cap annual appropriations for the agency at the existing
level.
Other details of the new bill aren’t available
yet.
Newhouse gets Appropriations seat. Rep. Dan
Newhouse, a former Washington state agriculture director, has been awarded a
coveted seat on the House Appropriations Committee, which deterimines spending
for all government agencies.
There is no word yet on whether Newhouse will have
to give up his seat on the House Agriculture Committee.
Newhouse also has had an important seat on the Rules
Committee, which decides what amendments get debated on the House floor.
EPA shutting down RIN auditor. EPA is moving to
end a company’s role in the RFS program because of its involvement in verifying
fraudulent Renewable Identification Numbers generated by two other firms. The
targeted company, Genscape, has been serving as a third-party auditor for
certifying RINs generated by biofuel producers.
The EPA’s proposed action would strip the company of
its ability to verify future RINs and replace the 68 million invalid ones. EPA
says it is “aggressively pursuing bad actors in the RFS program to maintain a
level playing field for firms that play by the rules.”
Genscape, which provides data and analysis on energy
and commodities, didn’t respond to a request to comment on the EPA
actions.
Smithfield: Housing conversion nearly complete. Smithfield
Foods, says it is on schedule to finish converting sow housing systems in all
of its company-owned farms by the end of this year. The company says 87
percent of its sows have now been transitioned into group housing from the old
systems that use gestation stalls. That’s a 6 percent increase from 2015.
He said it. “Tell him to relax.” - Senate
Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., when asked about Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack’s comments last month that Trump was moving too slowly to
set up his team at USDA.
Steve Davies and Spencer Chase contributed to this
report.
