Katherine Tai has been confirmed by the Senate to be the next U.S. Trade Representative, and Kristi Boswell has joined Alston and Bird as a counsel.

Cannon Michael has been reelected as chairman of the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority Board and Keith Murfield has announced his retirement as CEO of the United Dairymen of Arizona.

Wisconsin native Kelliann Blazek has been brought on to the Biden administration as a special assistant to the president for agriculture and rural policy, and Sonny Perdue joins the board of directors at Kalera.

The Agriculture Department hasn’t made up its mind on whether to move forward with a proposal to take over regulation of biotech animal products, asking Friday for more comments on the subject.

Tom Vilsack, set to take a historic second stint as agriculture secretary, is pledging to make climate change and racial justice top priorities for the Agriculture Department, assuring senators that he understands the times and challenges have changed since he left the government four years ago.

The balance of power in the nation’s capital has shifted; Democrats now control both the presidency and Congress for the first time in a decade.

President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Virginia Ag Commissioner Jewel Bronaugh as his selection for Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and Janet McCabe as deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Food and Drug Administration is pushing back against a Memorandum of Understanding released Tuesday and designed to divide regulatory authority over genetically-engineered animals between USDA and FDA.

The Labor Department finalized a series of changes Friday to ease some application and employment rules for the H-2A visa program.