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Agriculture Secretary Vilsack leaves job a week early

President-elect Trump has yet to select a replacement

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press
Published: January 13, 2017, 9:39pm

WASHINGTON — Secretary Tom Vilsack left the Agriculture Department a week before his tenure ends and before President-elect Donald Trump has chosen his replacement.

Vilsack, who has led USDA for eight years and was President Barack Obama’s longest-serving Cabinet secretary, told employees in an email that Friday was his final day. The email did not say why he was leaving early. He has said he wants to remain involved with agriculture after leaving government, but has not detailed those plans.

As Vilsack leaves the department — aides said Friday morning that the former Iowa governor had left the building and was boarding a flight to his home state — some in farm country are worried that agriculture may be a low priority for the new administration. It is the only Cabinet position Trump has not moved to fill, yet rural voters were key to delivering him the presidency.

“When that individual is named, he or she will be at a tremendous disadvantage, in terms of getting up to speed on all this department does,” Vilsack said in a statement, noting he was confirmed on Obama’s first day in office.

Farm-state lawmakers in Congress say they are eagerly awaiting the decision.

“We brought him home,” Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, the Republican chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said Thursday of delivering on Trump’s win. “Farmers, ranchers and small-town America brought him home. So obviously they’d like to see a secretary of agriculture that would be their champion. That hasn’t occurred yet. So we hope it will.”

Vilsack is one of the nation’s longest-serving agriculture secretaries and has remained generally popular in farm country as he worked to balance the needs of high-dollar production agriculture with other growing parts of the industry, including organics. During his tenure, he also focused on rebuilding rural communities, making school meals healthier and resolving civil rights claims against the department.

Michael Scuse, undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services, will be acting secretary until Trump is inaugurated.

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