Secretary of Agriculture
This page in a nutshell: Head of the US Department of Agriculture |
The United States secretary of agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture. The position carries similar responsibilities to those of agriculture ministers in other governments
| United States Secretary of Agriculture | |
|---|---|
| File:US Department of Agriculture seal.svg Seal of the department | |
| File:Flag of the United States Secretary of Agriculture.svg Flag of the secretary | |
since February 24, 2021 | |
| United States Department of Agriculture | |
| Style | Mr. Secretary (informal) The Honorable (formal) |
| Member of | United States Cabinet |
| Reports to | President of the United States |
| Seat | Jamie L. Whitten Building, Washington, D.C. |
| Appointer | The President with Senate advice and consent |
| Term length | No fixed term |
| Constituting instrument | 7 U.S.C. § 2202 |
| Formation | February 15, 1889 |
| First holder | Norman Jay Coleman |
| Succession | Ninth[1] |
| Deputy | United States Deputy Secretary of Agriculture |
| Salary | Executive Schedule, level I |
| Website | usda.gov |
The department includes several organizations. The 297,000 mi2 (770,000 km2) of national forests and grasslands are managed by the United States Forest Service.[2] The safety of food produced and sold in the United States is ensured by the United States Food Safety and Inspection Service.[3] The Food Stamp Program works with the states to provide food to low-income people.[4]
Secretary of Agriculture is a Level I position in the Executive Schedule,[5] thus earning a salary of US$221,400, as of January 2021.[6]
List of secretaries of agriculture
When the Department of Agriculture was established in 1862, its executive was a non-Cabinet position called the commissioner of agriculture. The commissioners of agriculture were:[7]
| No. | Name | State of residence | Took office | Left office | President(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Isaac Newton | Pennsylvania | July 1, 1862 | June 19, 1867 | Abraham Lincoln | |
| Andrew Johnson | ||||||
| 2 | Horace Capron | December 4, 1867 | July 31, 1871 | |||
| Ulysses S. Grant | ||||||
| 3 | Frederick Watts | Pennsylvania | August 1, 1871 | 1877 | ||
| 4 | William Gates LeDuc | Minnesota | July 1, 1877 | 1881 | Rutherford B. Hayes | |
| 5 | George B. Loring | Massachusetts | July 1, 1881 | 1885 | James A. Garfield | |
| Chester A. Arthur | ||||||
| 6 | Norman Jay Colman | Missouri | April 3, 1885 | February 14, 1889 | Grover Cleveland | |
The position of secretary of agriculture was created when the department was elevated to Cabinet status in 1889. The following is a list of secretaries of agriculture, since the creation of the office in 1889.[8]
- Parties
Democratic (14) Republican (18)
Status
Acting Secretary of Agriculture
Nominee for Secretary of Agriculture
| No. | Name | State of residence | Took office | Left office | President(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Norman Jay Colman | Missouri | February 15, 1889 | March 6, 1889 | Grover Cleveland | |
| 2 | Jeremiah McLain Rusk | Wisconsin | March 6, 1889 | March 6, 1893 | Benjamin Harrison | |
| 3 | Julius Sterling Morton | Nebraska | March 7, 1893 | March 5, 1897 | Grover Cleveland | |
| 4 | James Wilson | Iowa | March 5, 1897 | March 3, 1913 | William McKinley | |
| Theodore Roosevelt | ||||||
| William Howard Taft | ||||||
| 5 | David F. Houston | Missouri | March 6, 1913 | February 2, 1920 | Woodrow Wilson | |
| 6 | Edwin T. Meredith | Iowa | February 2, 1920 | March 4, 1921 | ||
| 7 | Henry Cantwell Wallace | Iowa | March 5, 1921 | October 25, 1924 | Warren G. Harding | |
| Calvin Coolidge | ||||||
| 8 | Howard Mason Gore | West Virginia | November 22, 1924 | March 4, 1925 | ||
| 9 | William Marion Jardine | Kansas | March 5, 1925 | March 4, 1929 | ||
| 10 | Arthur M. Hyde | Missouri | March 6, 1929 | March 4, 1933 | Herbert Hoover | |
| 11 | Henry A. Wallace | Iowa | March 4, 1933 | September 4, 1940 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | |
| 12 | Claude R. Wickard | Indiana | September 5, 1940 | June 29, 1945 | ||
| Harry S. Truman | ||||||
| 13 | Clinton Anderson | New Mexico | June 30, 1945 | May 10, 1948 | ||
| 14 | Charles F. Brannan | Colorado | June 2, 1948 | January 20, 1953 | ||
| 15 | Ezra Taft Benson | Utah | January 21, 1953 | January 20, 1961 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | |
| 16 | Orville Freeman | Minnesota | January 21, 1961 | January 20, 1969 | John F. Kennedy | |
| Lyndon B. Johnson | ||||||
| 17 | Clifford M. Hardin | Nebraska | January 21, 1969 | November 17, 1971 | Richard Nixon | |
| 18 | Earl Butz | Indiana | December 2, 1971 | October 4, 1976 | ||
| Gerald Ford | ||||||
| 19 | John Albert Knebel | Oklahoma | November 4, 1976 | January 20, 1977 | ||
| 20 | Robert Bergland | Minnesota | January 23, 1977 | January 20, 1981 | Jimmy Carter | |
| 21 | John Rusling Block | Illinois | January 23, 1981 | February 14, 1986 | Ronald Reagan | |
| 22 | Richard Edmund Lyng | California | March 7, 1986 | January 21, 1989 | ||
| 23 | Clayton Yeutter | Nebraska | February 16, 1989 | March 1, 1991 | George H. W. Bush | |
| 24 | Edward Rell Madigan | Illinois | March 8, 1991 | January 20, 1993 | ||
| 25 | Mike Espy | Mississippi | January 22, 1993 | December 31, 1994 | Bill Clinton | |
| – | Richard Rominger Acting |
California | December 31, 1994 | March 30, 1995 | ||
| 26 | Dan Glickman | Kansas | March 30, 1995 | January 20, 2001 | ||
| 27 | Ann Veneman | California | January 20, 2001 | January 20, 2005 | George W. Bush | |
| 28 | Mike Johanns | Nebraska | January 21, 2005 | September 20, 2007 | ||
| – | Charles F. Conner Acting |
Indiana | September 20, 2007 | January 28, 2008 | ||
| 29 | Ed Schafer | North Dakota | January 28, 2008 | January 20, 2009 | ||
| 30 | Tom Vilsack 1st term |
Iowa | January 20, 2009 | January 13, 2017 | Barack Obama | |
| – | Michael Scuse Acting |
Delaware | January 13, 2017 | January 20, 2017 | ||
| – | Mike Young Acting |
Washington D.C. | January 20, 2017 | April 25, 2017 | Donald Trump | |
| 31 | Sonny Perdue | Georgia | April 25, 2017 | January 20, 2021 | ||
| – | Kevin Shea Acting |
January 20, 2021 | February 24, 2021 | Joe Biden | ||
| 32 | Tom Vilsack 2nd term |
Iowa | February 24, 2021 | Incumbent | ||
Line of succession
The line of succession for the secretary of agriculture is as follows:[9]
- Deputy Secretary of Agriculture
- Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agriculture Services (this position no longer exists)
- Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Administration
- Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services
- Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics
- Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety
- Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment
- Under Secretary of Agriculture for Rural Development
- Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs
- General Counsel of the Department of Agriculture
- Chief of Staff, Office of the Secretary
- State Executive Directors of the Farm Service Agency (in order of seniority by length of unbroken tenure) for the States of:
- Regional Administrators of the Food and Nutrition Service (in order of seniority by length of unbroken tenure) for the:
- Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Agriculture
- Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Civil Rights
- Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Congressional Relations
References
- ↑ "3 U.S. Code § 19 – Vacancy in offices of both President and Vice President; officers eligible to act". https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/19.
- ↑ "USDA Forest Service – Caring for the land and serving people.". http://www.fs.fed.us/.
- ↑ "Home". http://www.fsis.usda.gov/.
- ↑ "FNS Food Stamp Program Home Page". http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/.
- ↑ 5 U.S.C. " § 5312"
- ↑ "Salary Table No. 2021-EX Rates of Basic Pay for the Executive Schedule (EX)". https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2021/EX.pdf.
- ↑ Baker, Gladys L.; Rasmussen, Wayne D.; Wiser, Vivian; Porter, Jane M. (1963). "Century of Service: The First 100 Years of the United States Department of Agriculture". https://naldc-legacy.nal.usda.gov/naldc/download.xhtml?id=CAT78693923&content=PDF. Alt URL
- ↑ "Former Secretaries" (in en). https://www.usda.gov/our-agency/about-usda/history/former-secretaries.
- ↑ "Amendments to Delegations of Authority, United States Department of Agriculture". Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2013/07/09/2013-15849/amendments-to-delegations-of-authority.
External links
- Lua error in Module:Official_website at line 90: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).