New Trump USDA Appointee May Not Be Legally Qualified For The Post

Sonny Perdue, the Trump administration's secretary of agriculture, has announced the nomination of Samuel H. Clovis Jr. as undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture's division of Research, Education, and Economics (REE) — and at least one qualified observer, Ricardo Salvador, director of the Food and Environment Program for the Union of Concerned Scientists, warned last week that the nomination might be illegal.

Clovis, described in the press as a former conservative radio talk show host and climate-change skeptic, was an unsuccessful candidate for state treasurer and the U.S. Senate in his home state of Iowa before joining the Trump campaign as an advisor in 2015, then serving as national co-chair for the Trump-Pence ticket during the 2016 election.

Salvador points out that the section of the U.S. Code dealing with the specific post to which Clovis has been nominated requires that the post be filled "from among distinguished scientists with specialized training or significant experience in agricultural research, education, and economics." The REE is responsible, according to the code, for "Renewable energy, natural resources, and environment; food safety, nutrition, and health; plant health and production and plant products; animal health and production and animal products; agricultural systems and technology; [and] agricultural economics and rural communities." The division's undersecretary influences decisions on allocation of a $3 billion annual budget applied to food and agriculture issues.

Before entering politics, Clovis was a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and a corporate executive at Logicon Corporation, which later became part of Northrup Grumman. His academic background includes an MBA from the unaccredited Golden State University (now Honolulu University) and a doctorate in public administration from a now-defunct program at the University of Alabama.

Clovis has had no apparent scientific education, though in reference to climate change, he once told an interviewer on Iowa Public Radio: "I have looked at the science and I have enough of a science background to know when I'm being boofed."