President-elect Joe Biden has announced he will nominate former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to lead the USDA, trade lawyer Katherine Tai to be the U.S. Trade Representative and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be Health and Human Services Secretary.
Vilsack served as Agriculture Secretary for eight years in the Obama administration from 2008 to 2017. Prior to USDA, Vilsack served two terms as the Governor of Iowa, in the Iowa State Senate, as the mayor of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and practiced law.
“Secretary Vilsack’s willingness to serve is an extraordinary act of selflessness and commitment to public service as demonstrated by his distinguished career serving Americans and Iowans as a past two-term Secretary of Agriculture and of Iowa Governor for eight years,” NCC President Mike Brown said. “While leading USDA, Secretary Vilsack was instrumental in modernizing the poultry inspection system and was a key leader in expanding access to U.S. agricultural exports. Should he be confirmed, he will be no stranger to the important issues facing the meat and poultry industry and all of U.S. agriculture.”
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Katherine Tai currently serves as the chief trade counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee, having first joined the committee in 2014. Born in Connecticut and raised in Washington, D.C., Tai received a law degree from Harvard University before serving at USTR’s Office of General Counsel from 2007-2014. Fluent in Mandarin, she assumed the role of chief counsel on China trade enforcement in the Obama administration.
If confirmed by the Senate, Tai will be the first Asian-American to serve as U.S. Trade Representative.
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Prior to becoming California attorney general, Becerra was a member of the House of Representatives, representing downtown Los Angeles from 1993-2017. Becerra was the chair of the House Democratic Caucus from 2013-2017. He holds a law degree from Stanford University and practiced law prior to winning his seat in Congress.
If confirmed by the Senate, Becerra will be the first Latino to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
