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Confirmation Hearing on Ag Secretary Nominee Perdue Slated for Thursday
USAgNet - 03/23/2017

Former Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, President Trump's pick to lead the Agriculture Department, could face tense questions during his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday about the administration's proposed cuts to rural assistance programs and his ethics record, reports the Washington Post. Perdue will be Trump's final Cabinet-level nominee to receive a hearing, appearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee nine weeks after he was nominated.

As governor between 2003 and 2011, Perdue frequently clashed with the Georgia State Ethics Commission and refused to place his business assets into a blind trust. In 2005, Georgia state Rep. Larry O'Neal introduced an amendment that made a new tax cut on land sales retroactive to sales from the previous years. Perdue saved $100,000 on taxes thanks to the measure.

Perdue also has significant agriculture business holdings that could pose a conflict of interest if he is confirmed at USDA, includes Georgia-based grain merchandiser called AGrowStar. If confirmed as agriculture secretary, Perdue has vowed to turn over his business holdings to new trusts that will not benefit him or his wife, according to public documents sent to the Office of Government Ethics.

The Senate Agriculture Committee may also probe Perdue on deep proposed cuts at the department that would reduce its discretionary spending power by $4.7 billion, or about 20 percent. USDA's annual budget for 2016 was $164 billion, but the bulk of those appropriations go toward mandatory spending programs including the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program and crop subsidies. The rest of its budget, known as discretionary spending, goes toward agricultural research, rural development programs, food safety, and nutritional assistance for women and children.


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