Agriculture nominee Perdue will get hearing next week

WASHINGTON – The Senate Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing next week to consider Sonny Perdue’s nomination to be agriculture secretary.

President Donald Trump announced in January that he would nominate Perdue. After a seven-week delay, Perdue submitted the necessary ethics paperwork last week and said he would step down from several companies bearing his name.

Perdue, 70, is a farmer’s son who would be the first Southerner in the post in more than two decades.

The hearing was announced by Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, and the panel’s top Democrat, Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

Perdue is one of the few remaining Cabinet nominees waiting to be confirmed. The nominations for Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s pick for U.S. trade representative, and Alexander Acosta, his choice for labour secretary, are also pending.