Farmers are fretting about the lack of an Agriculture Secretary.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

It’s been seven weeks since the White House named former Gov. Sonny Perdue (R-Ga.) as the nominee for the next secretary of agriculture, but a confirmation hearing has yet to be set, leaving farm groups antsy as the USDA is without its chief executive.

According to AgDay contacts in Washington D.C., there’s a delay in Perdue’s necessary paperwork which includes financial history, ethics disclosures and a background check from the FBI.

Without those requirements, the Senate Ag Committee is unable to schedule a confirmation hearing. Without an ag secretary, routine processes grind to a halt.

“It’s not just the secretary,” said Mary Kay Thatcher, senior director of congressional relations with the American Farm Bureau Federation. “We can’t move onto thinking about confirmation hearings and even names for deputies and undersecretaries until we get a secretary in place. It’s funny—people call me and want to know, and I think three months ago I could pick up the phone and called USDA and had an answer in 10 minutes. Now, there’s nobody there to ask."

http://www.agweb.com/article/sonny-perdue-whats-the-hold-up-naa-ashley-davenport/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTkRWbU56RTBOR1prTW1OaSIsInQiOiJzZ09TdVphZTlkb1ZCbFVtT0VNVWJyUDdFT09UVlwvTmVUc2lIeFg4cFo0MGpINEMrUXdyXC9GNm4wNkdsaUhDdWQ5SlR4YlwvRDU3aXJ1OTlQTkYycVczWEJiYmZtWVJUaEl2djJaQUNTcjVraFNudGJkRFhBWUtBQnNGRnRLcktDZCJ9

More dysfunction and ineptitude in Trump's government. And I wonder what the delay is in "paperwork which includes financial history, ethics disclosures and a background check from the FBI"?

[Fast Walker 52]

1. the Trump team is still trying to figure out if this is the same guy who runs the giant chicken farm

but more seriously, Ag is a HUGE deal, and the Trump team is clueless

[Achilleaze]

2. they should also fret about the hordes of farm workers being driven away

by the republican Draft-&-Tax-Dodger-in-Chief and his Cabal of Corporate Cronies.

the repubes are totally screwing farmville. the results of their idiocy will eventually show up on everyone's grocery bills, restaurant tabs, and dinner plates.

MEME OF YESTERYEAR, SUGGESTING REPUBE/FARM FUTURE FAIL

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. When it's time to harvest those crops they'll notice. Bigly.

[gratuitous]

4. I wonder how AFB members voted - Trump or Clinton?

If they voted for Clinton, then they should know that the shaft is coming, because people who didn't vote for Trump can expect short shrift from this administration. If they voted for Trump, then it appears they were very badly fooled by his self-portrayal as an ultra-competent businessman. Too bad nobody warned them that it was just a pose. Well, nobody important, just a bunch of dirty fucking hippies and city people who don't know which is the business end of a hoe, let alone anything about farming, so they shouldn't be listened to.