The National Turkey Federation (NTF) has been somewhat limited with its outreach to federal officials in the second Donald Trump administration, as key leadership positions within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have not been filled.
NTF Vice President of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Lindy Chiaia and Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Dale Nellor gave an update on the governmental matters during an April 9 presentation at PEAK in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Chiaia noted that Brooke Rollins has been confirmed as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and has been very active since taking office, frequently travelling and making agency announcements.
However, other senior level leaders are still lacking.
Steven Vaden has been nominated as the deputy secretary, but so far, “he’s not yet at USDA,” said Chiaia. Vaden is presently a judge on the Court of International Trade, and he served as general counsel for USDA during the first Trump administration.
Regarding the Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory programs, Dudley Hoskins has been nominated, but similar to Vaden’s situation, a confirmation hearing has not yet been scheduled. This is a key position concerning animal health issues and the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) response, as the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and Veterinary Services (VS) are overseen by the person who holds this under secretary position. A former USDA employee, Hoskins was chief of staff for marketing and regulatory programs from 2017-2019 and then a senior adviser in the department from 2019 to 2021.
Also nominated but with no confirmation hearing scheduled is Luke Lindberg, the nominee for the Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Ag Service. Lindberg is the president and CEO of South Dakota Trade.
While at least people have been nominated for those three positions, the same cannot be said for the open position of Under Secretary for Food Safety, which includes oversight of the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS).
Why the delay?
Nellor said the nomination process has been “extremely slow” for the current administration and new Congress.
“I would argue it’s slower than what it historically has been,” he said.
During Trump’s first term as president, the process was also slow, attributing it to inexperience and not necessarily knowing what needed to be done and “all the boxes that needed to be checked.”
Nellor said he believes the Trump administration is more organized than it was eight years ago, but delays are still being seen.
“I think it’s a variety of things. We’ve got a lot of contentious issues going on, so that’s kind of slowing the process down and making the nomination process a little more complicated,” he said.
“We’re hoping that those can move through the committees much quicker, so the political teams can be down at the department and then we’ll have more folks that we can interact with.”
