Reuters reports that the Senate US Senate confirmed Tom Vilsack to head the Department of Agriculture, returning the former Iowa governor to the job he held under ex-President Barack Obama.
As secretary of the sprawling department, Vilsack will oversee about 100,000 employees responsible for food stamps, crop insurance, land conservation and other missions at a time U.S. farmers are benefiting from high soybean and corn prices but hunger is on the rise throughout America.
Vilsack has said the White House wants to tap a pool of funds from the agency’s Commodity Credit Corporation to support on-the-farm efforts to fight climate change, a policy priority for new President Joe Biden.
