United States Secretary 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
Seal of the department
Flag of the secretary
Incumbent Tom Vilsack 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]

Since February 24, 2021, the current secretary is Tom Vilsack, who had previously served as the 30th secretary of agriculture in the Obama administration.

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]

United States commissioners of agriculture

No.	Portrait	Name	State of residence	Took office	Left office	President(s)
1		Isaac Newton	Pennsylvania	July 1, 1862	June 19, 1867		Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865)
							Andrew Johnson (1865–1869)
2		Horace Capron		December 4, 1867	July 31, 1871
							Ulysses S. Grant (1969–1877)
3		Frederick Watts	Pennsylvania	August 1, 1871	1877
4		William Gates LeDuc	Minnesota	July 1, 1877	1881		Rutherford B. Hayes (1877–1881)
5		George B. Loring	Massachusetts	July 1, 1881	1885		James A. Garfield (1881)
							Chester A. Arthur (1881–1885)
6		Norman Jay Coleman	Missouri	April 3, 1885	February 14, 1889		Grover Cleveland (1885–1889)

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

No.	Portrait	Name	State of residence	Took office	Left office	President(s)
1		Norman Jay Coleman	Missouri	February 15, 1889	March 6, 1889		Grover Cleveland (1885–1889)
2		Jeremiah McLain Rusk	Wisconsin	March 6, 1889	March 6, 1893		Benjamin Harrison (1889–1893)
3		Julius Sterling Morton	Nebraska	March 7, 1893	March 5, 1897		Grover Cleveland (1893–1897)
4		James Wilson	Iowa	March 5, 1897	March 3, 1913		William McKinley (1897–1901)
							Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909)
							William Howard Taft (1909–1913)
5		David F. Houston	Missouri	March 6, 1913	February 2, 1920		Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921)
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 (1921–1923)
							Calvin Coolidge (1923–1929)
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 (1929–1933)
11		Henry A. Wallace	Iowa	March 4, 1933	September 4, 1940		Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945)
12		Claude R. Wickard	Indiana	September 5, 1940	June 29, 1945
							Harry S. Truman (1945–1953)
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 (1953–1961)
16		Orville Freeman	Minnesota	January 21, 1961	January 20, 1969		John F. Kennedy (1961–1963)
							Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969)
17		Clifford M. Hardin	Nebraska	January 21, 1969	November 17, 1971		Richard Nixon (1969–1974)
18		Earl Butz	Indiana	December 2, 1971	October 4, 1976
							Gerald Ford (1974–1977)
19		John A. Knebel	Oklahoma	November 4, 1976	January 20, 1977
20		Robert Bergland	Minnesota	January 23, 1977	January 20, 1981		Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)
21		John R. Block	Illinois	January 23, 1981	February 14, 1986		Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)
22		Richard Lyng	California	March 7, 1986	January 21, 1989
23		Clayton Yeutter	Nebraska	February 16, 1989	March 1, 1991		George H. W. Bush (1989–1993)
24		Ed Madigan	Illinois	March 8, 1991	January 20, 1993
25		Mike Espy	Mississippi	January 22, 1993	December 31, 1994		Bill Clinton (1993–2001)
–		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 (2001–2009)
28		Mike Johanns	Nebraska	January 21, 2005	September 20, 2007
–		Charles Conner Acting	Indiana	September 20, 2007	January 28, 2008
29		Ed Schafer	North Dakota	January 28, 2008	January 20, 2009
30		Tom Vilsack	Iowa	January 20, 2009	January 13, 2017		Barack Obama (2009–2017)
–		Michael Scuse Acting	Delaware	January 13, 2017	January 20, 2017
–		Mike Young Acting	Washington D.C.	January 20, 2017	April 25, 2017		Donald Trump (2017–2021)
31		Sonny Perdue	Georgia	April 25, 2017	January 20, 2021
–		Kevin Shea Acting		January 20, 2021	February 24, 2021		Joe Biden (2021–2025)
32		Tom Vilsack	Iowa	February 24, 2021	Incumbent

Line of succession

The line of succession for the secretary of agriculture is as follows:^[9]

1. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture
2. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agriculture Services (this position no longer exists)
3. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Administration
4. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services
5. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics
6. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety
7. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment
8. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Rural Development
9. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs
10. General Counsel of the Department of Agriculture
11. Chief of Staff, Office of the Secretary
12. State Executive Directors of the Farm Service Agency (in order of seniority by length of unbroken tenure) for the States of:
    • California
    • Iowa
    • Kansas
13. Regional Administrators of the Food and Nutrition Service (in order of seniority by length of unbroken tenure) for the:
    • Mountain Plains Regional Office (Denver, Colorado)
    • Midwest Regional Office (Chicago, Illinois)
    • Western Regional Office (San Francisco, California)
14. Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Agriculture
15. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Civil Rights
16. Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Congressional Relations

References

1. "3 U.S. Code § 19 – Vacancy in offices of both President and Vice President; officers eligible to act". LII / Legal Information Institute.
2. "USDA Forest Service – Caring for the land and serving people". Fs.fed.us. Retrieved September 24, 2005.
3. "Home". Fs.fed.us. Retrieved September 24, 2005.
4. "FNS Food Stamp Program Home Page". Fns.usda.gov. Retrieved September 24, 2005.
5. 5 U.S.C. " § 5312"
6. "Salary Table No. 2021-EX Rates of Basic Pay for the Executive Schedule (EX)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on January 23, 2021.
7. 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". U.S. Department of Agriculture. Archived from the original on October 26, 2018. Retrieved October 26, 2018. Alt URL
8. "Former Secretaries". U.S. Department of Agriculture. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
9. "Amendments to Delegations of Authority, United States Department of Agriculture". Federalregister.gov. Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved October 29, 2016.

External links

• Official website

U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior	Order of precedence of the United States as Secretary of the Agriculture	Succeeded by Gina Raimondo as Secretary of Commerce
U.S. presidential line of succession
Preceded by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland	9th in line	Succeeded by Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo