President Trump on Wednesday formally nominated Ted McKinney to be undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs and Sam Clovis to be USDA’s chief scientist. With this announcement, President Trump has now nominated four out of approximately 250 political appointees at USDA. However most of those do not require Senate confirmation.
McKinney is director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. The newly created undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs will require him to travel to oversees markets. Previously, McKinney spent most of his career working in corporate affairs for Dow AgroSciences and Elanco.
If confirmed, Clovis, an Iowa academic who served as a co-chair of Trump’s campaign and led USDA’s transition effort, will take on the position of undersecretary for research, education and economics.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a statement that McKinney would be a person “who wakes up every morning asking how we can sell more American agricultural products in foreign markets.” Perdue said about Clovis that he had become “a trusted adviser and steady hand” at USDA.
The White House also sent to the Senate Agriculture Committee its notice of intent to nominate Stephen Censky for USDA deputy secretary. The committee plans to schedule a confirmation hearing once it goes through all the proper protocols. Key members of the Senate Agriculture Committee, including Chairman Pat Roberts and ranking member Debbie Stabenow, typically meet with political appointees to USDA before their confirmation hearing. President Trump announced on July 14 the nomination of Censky, who has been CEO of the American Soy Association for the last 21 years.
