Articles Tagged with ''USDA''

President Donald Trump's nominees to lead USDA's regulatory and research programs, Dudley Hoskins and Scott Hutchins, faced questioning from the Senate Ag Committee as to how they would deal with brain drain resulting from the loss of staff through recent buyouts.

Farm groups are largely in the dark about what will be included in an upcoming report on chronic diseases among children, but are bracing for the worst. 

Jimmy Emmons was named assistant chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Caleb Crosswhite joined USDA as deputy general counsel. The Peterson Group hired former House Ag Committee Democratic staff director Anne Simmons as a policy consultant. 

The American Feed Industry Association hired Greg Conner as senior manager of multilateral affairs and market access. Mallory Gaines was promoted to director of global affairs. Three new senior advisers were named to the Surface Transportation Board: Sharon Clark, Rob Reilly, and Chris Bertram. The Midwest Council on Agriculture appointed former undersecretary Greg Ibach as a policy adviser. 

Concerned that the Make America Healthy Again Commission will blame modern agricultural practices for chronic diseases, farm groups are pushing the White House to ensure the panel's initial report is based on "sound science and evidence-based claims."

In a push to make more conservation practices improving water quality and soil health available to landowners, Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., reintroduced legislation to modernize the approval process of conservation technologies. 

Twenty union leaders representing Agriculture Department employees have sent a letter urging congressional appropriators to step in to prevent further Trump administration cutbacks.

Erin Morris has been appointed to lead the Agricultural Marketing Service after Bruce Summers retires this month.

USDA is launching a new application round for the Conservation Reserve Program under both the General and Continuous signup rules. Dates for a Grasslands CRP signup period will be announced later.

The top Republican on the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, Rep. Andy Harris, has long championed state pilots to restrict sweetened beverage purchases in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Now that states are filing waivers for these pilots, and the federal government appears open to granting them, Harris has set his sights on what he calls a “bigger and better” idea: Restricting SNAP benefits to U.S.-grown foods.

The Meat Institute hired Jesse Fulton as director of animal health and welfare. Former National Pork Board CEO Bill Even will be the next commissioner of the South Dakota Governor's Office of Economic Development. Kenneth Selzer was sworn in as associate administrator of the Risk Management Agency. 

USDA's Farm Production and Conservation mission area added new staff: Kaytlin Bemis is now a policy adviser, Matthew Wininger was hired as special assistant, Kelli Evans was named senior adviser and Kyle Allen is a special assistant.