President Donald Trump tapped former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue to be his agriculture secretary six weeks ago, but the administration still hasn’t formally provided the Senate with the paperwork for the nomination.
The delay is frustrating farm-state senators, who represent many of the core voters who helped elect Trump.
“I don’t know yet,” Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said Wednesday when asked about Perdue’s paperwork, which Roberts needs before he can schedule a confirmation hearing. “I wish to hell I did. We need a champion for agriculture, we need him on board.”
Roberts also complained about the delay at a committee hearing in Kansas last week. He predicted that Perdue would be confirmed quickly once the Senate can get started on his nomination.
The White House said the paperwork, including ethics forms and an FBI background check, is coming soon. The only other nomination that hasn’t been sent to Capitol Hill is that of Alexander Acosta, who was nominated to be labor secretary on Feb. 16 after the withdrawal of the original nominee, Andrew Puzder.
Senators say they haven’t been given an explanation for the delay involving Perdue.
Perdue was the last member of the Cabinet to be named, aside from the need to find a new labor secretary candidate when Puzder dropped out. While Trump began picking department heads in November, he waited until Jan. 18, two days before his inauguration, to choose an agriculture secretary. At the time, farm-state lawmakers and farm groups said they worried that the new pick would be at a disadvantage getting started.
Perdue, 70, is a farmer’s son who built businesses in grain trading and trucking before becoming the first Republican governor of Georgia since Reconstruction. He would be the first Southerner in the post in more than two decades.
While Perdue’s nomination is pending, Acting Agriculture Deputy Secretary Mike Young is in charge.
Source: www.capitalpress.com