Ranking Member Stabenow, Senate Ag Dems Should Oppose Perdue
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Senate Committee on Agriculture is today set to vote on the confirmation of Sonny Perdue as Secretary of Agriculture, moving the confirmation to the full Senate. It is reported that Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) will support Gov. Perdue’s nomination.
Friends of the Earth U.S. President Erich Pica issued the following statement:
Sonny Perdue’s impossibly short and easy confirmation hearing was an embarrassment to the Senate Democrats.
Ranking Member Stabenow and the Democrats on the committee failed to listen to the millions of Americans who are demanding resistance to Trump’s extreme agenda. During the hearing, Democrats on the Committee failed to ask hard-hitting questions of Gov. Perdue and quickly ended the hearing to fly home for a long weekend after just-over two hours of questioning.
Ranking Member Stabenow’s committee was easily charmed by a nominee whose loose ethics make him unfit to protect small farmers, promote school lunch programs, or ensure the safety of our food. While climate change will have major impacts on farmers, Gov. Perdue is a climate change denier.
While Governor, Perdue was dogged by 13 ethics complaints and was twice ruled to have broken the law.
Should he be confirmed, we can be sure that his long-standing ties to his political donors in Big Agribusiness will play a major role in his decision making.
Given her record of supporting organic and sustainable agriculture, Friends of the Earth is surprised and disappointed to see a Democratic leader like Ranking Member Stabenow turn a blind eye to a nominee as unfit as Gov. Perdue.
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Communications contact: Patrick Davis, (202) 222-0744, [email protected]