Vilsack leaving USDA early, no Trump replacement named

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 today is 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 this 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 yesterday 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."

According to exit polls conducted for AP and television networks by Edison Research, about 17 per cent of voters in this year's election were from small cities or rural areas, and 62 per cent of them said they voted for Trump. But Trump has little agricultural history, and spoke rarely about farm issues on the campaign trail.
"People don't know what he stands for in agriculture and everyone's waiting for the secretary to be named so you can get some clues," said Roger Johnson, head of the National Farmers Union. Johnson said there is a "growing, intense frustration" that a secretary hasn't been named.

Trump and his team have interviewed several candidates, including former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado. They have also talked to potential candidates from Texas and Indiana, home state of Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Ted McKinney, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, was at Trump Tower yesterday.