The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry has advanced the nomination of three people chosen to serve in leadership roles within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Those under consideration are Mindy Brashears for Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety; Naomi Earp to be Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Civil Rights; and Scott Hutchins to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics.
The nominees may now be considered by the full U.S. Senate for confirmation.
Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety
Brashears was nominated for the food safety post by the president on May 4. She currently serves as a professor of food safety and food microbiology and the director of the International Center for Food Industry Excellence at Texas Tech University. Brashears is a past-chair of the National Alliance for Food Safety and Security and of the USDA multi-state research group.
Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Civil Rights
Earp, of Virginia, is a retired career civil servant with more than 20 years of experience in Federal equal opportunity policy, charge processing, complaint handling and employment law. She entered federal services as a GS-9 careerist and worked her way to the senior executive service prior to appointments as chair and vice chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under President George W. Bush.
Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics
Hutchins, of Indiana, was nominated by the president on July 16. He currently serves as the global leader of integrated field sciences for Corteva Agriscience and as an adjunct professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Previously, he served as the president of the Entomological Society of America.
“I am pleased to announce the Senate Agriculture Committee has done its part to get these qualified nominees ready for work at the U.S. Department of Agriculture,” stated Sen. Roberts, R-Kansas, committee chairman. “The full Senate should confirm these qualified nominees as quickly as possible.”
