Former Gov. Sonny Perdue is approaching the end zone in his months-long bid to become the Trump administration’s top agriculture official.
The Agriculture Committee voted nearly unanimously on Thursday to advance the Republican’s nomination to be secretary of agriculture to the full Senate for its consideration.
In a meeting that lasted less than 90 seconds, committee members registered their support for Perdue via an informal voice vote, a protocol typically reserved for noncontroversial business. The only senator to vote against Perdue was Democratic U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who said he increased paperwork and work requirements for food stamp recipients when he was Georgia’s governor.
“The result of his work was a lot less people got access to the food they needed,” Gillibrand told reporters after the hearing. “Food stamps are a really important issue in my state. We have a lot of families that are struggling to feed their children, and it’s one of my highest priorities being on the ag committee.”
U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., a member of the committee, was in attendance but declined to vote since he is the former governor’s first cousin.
The panel's favorable decision came exactly a week after Perdue's friendly confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill and 10 weeks after President Donald Trump first tapped him for the Cabinet-level position.
It’s unclear when exactly the Senate will debate and vote on Perdue’s nomination.
The chamber is in session for only one more week before it leaves for its two-week spring recess, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has signaled he’d like to use much of the interim time debating Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch and legislation that would nullify Obama-era regulations. It’s very possible that Perdue does not get confirmed until after the Senate returns the week of April 24.
On the other hand, since Perdue’s nomination is considered fairly noncontentious, party leaders could strike an agreement to vote on his nomination quickly next week, with little debate on the Senate floor.
Perdue boasts the bipartisan support of Senate Agriculture Committee members, including top Democrat Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, his Obama-era predecessor and more than 650 agricultural and farming organizations.
But a quartet of environmental groups criticized senators Thursday for going easy on Perdue.
Some ethics watchdogs had dinged Perdue for his tussles with the state ethics office when he was governor, as well as a bill that his then-lawyer shepherded through the state Legislature that gave Perdue $100,000 in tax breaks. None of those issues came up during the Republican’s confirmation hearing last week.
“Allowing the Trump administration to smoothly confirm a nominee dogged by ethics complaints and vexed with deep personal ties to Big Agribusiness is reprehensible,” said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth. “Perdue’s inability to separate business and politics make him unfit to serve, and we hope Democrats will not turn a blind eye to his ethics.”
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