Tom Vilsack won overwhelming confirmation from the Senate Feb. 23 to his second term as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
The 92 to 7 vote included yeas from both of the Republican senators from Iowa, where Vilsack was governor. Vilsack had served as agriculture secretary for almost the entirety of the Obama administration.
The only votes against him came from half a dozen Republican senators and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Vilsack had been criticized by some progressives for what they considered too-close ties to big agribusiness.
During his confirmation hearings, Vilsack stressed normalization of trade, stabilizing the supply chain against the pandemic and combating climate change as priorities.
