President Biden recently announced the nomination of Alexis Taylor to be the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs.
Taylor, currently the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s executive director, would serve in the same position that Ted McKinney held during the Trump Administration. Taylor has previously led USDA’s Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services (FFAS) during the Obama Administration, and prior to joining USDA, she worked for several Members of Congress. An Iowa native, Taylor is a graduate of Iowa State University. She has served in the U.S. Army Reserves, where her reserve unit was deployed to Iraq during her junior year of college.
Taylor must be confirmed by the Senate prior to assuming the post.
The White House announcement of Taylor’s nomination can be found here.
President Biden has not named a replacement nomination for the top agricultural negotiator at the U.S. Trade Representative, after Elaine Trevino withdrew her nomination after seeing no clear path forward to gain Senate confirmation.
