Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has left his post a week early on Friday, with no immediate replacement in sight. President-elect Trump has not yet nominated an agriculture secretary, despite outperforming Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in rural areas. Farm and Foreign Agriculture Under Secretary Michael Scuse will serve as acting Agriculture Secretary, according to department spokesman Brian Mabry. “We need to speak more directly to our folks in rural America,” Vilsack remembered telling Biden in a subsequent Post interview. “There’s nobody who has been a better Secretary of Agriculture than Tom Vilsack, period,” she said.

Source: Washington Post January 14, 2017 05:29 UTC