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You're Hired: Tracking the Trump Administration Transition - December 20, 2016
Trump Administration (first term)  Vice President Mike Pence Cabinet • White House staff • Transition team • Trump's second term |
Domestic affairs: Abortion • Crime and justice • Education • Energy and the environment • Federal courts • Firearms policy • First Amendment • Healthcare • Immigration • Infrastructure • LGBTQ issues • Marijuana • Puerto Rico • Social welfare programs • Veterans • Voting issues Economic affairs and regulations: Agriculture and food policy • Budget • Financial regulation • Jobs • Social Security • Taxes • Trade Foreign affairs and national security: Afghanistan • Arab states of the Persian Gulf • China • Cuba • Iran • Iran nuclear deal • Islamic State and terrorism • Israel and Palestine • Latin America • Military • NATO • North Korea • Puerto Rico • Russia • Syria • Syrian refugees • Technology, privacy, and cybersecurity |
| Polling indexes: Opinion polling during the Trump administration |
This is the December 20, 2016, edition of a daily email sent from November 2016 to September 2017 that covered Donald Trump's presidential transition team, potential cabinet appointees, and the different policy positions of those individuals who may have had an effect on the new administration. Previous editions of "You're Hired" can be found here.
Electoral College Vote
Yesterday, the 538 members of the Electoral College met in state capitals around the country and formally voted for the next president of the United States. Donald Trump won. He received a total of 304 votes, 34 more than the 270 needed to secure a majority. Hillary Clinton ended up with 227 votes. Former secretary of state Colin Powell—who did not run for president—came in third place, with three votes. Tied for fourth place were Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, and Native American tribal leader Faith Spotted Eagle (we’ll explain all of this in a minute).
The one last step of the 2016 election will take place on January 6, 2017, when Congress officially counts the votes and declares the winner.
Ordinarily, the Electoral College vote attracts little fanfare, but yesterday’s vote was different. Following the election on November 8, various groups and activists—and even some electors—lobbied members of the Electoral College to deny Trump the presidency by casting their votes for other candidates. Driving their efforts were concerns over the possibility of Russian interference in the general election and Clinton's 2.8-million-vote-lead over Trump in the popular vote.
But, in the end, only two Republican electors voted for individuals other than Trump, who was projected to receive 306 electoral votes. Both from Texas, one voted for Kasich, the other for Paul. On the other hand, five Democratic electors voted for individuals other than Hillary Clinton, who was projected to receive 232 electoral votes. In the state of Washington, four electors broke ranks: three for Powell and one for Faith Spotted Eagle. One Democratic elector in Hawaii voted for Sanders. This was one of the largest numbers of faithless electors in U.S. history. In fact, throughout the presidential elections that took place between 1900 and 2012, there were a total of only eight known instances of electors voting for someone other than their party’s nominee.
You can read more about the Electoral College and yesterday’s vote, and if you want to read about the history and causes of splits between the popular vote and the Electoral College, we have more on that too.
Potential nominees
Secretary of Agriculture
The two high-level nominations Trump has yet to make are the secretaries for the departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs. Below, we take a look at where things stand with the search for an agriculture secretary.
What does the Department of Agriculture do?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, helps to shape U.S. policy on food, agriculture, farming, natural resources, rural development, and nutrition. It oversees assistance programs such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children) and federal agencies such as the Farm Service Agency, the Forest Service, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, and the Agricultural Marketing Service, which helps develop international marketing opportunities for U.S. farmers. (Note: the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, falls under the Department of Health and Human Services.)
Though three well-known aspects of Trump’s campaign platform—opposition to environmental regulations, immigration, and international trade—could all have significant impacts on U.S. farmers, his stances on issues related directly to the USDA’s areas of oversight and agricultural policy are less clear. Here’s what we know:
- Assistance programs: In his 2011 book Time to get Tough, Trump said that fraud is a major problem in food assistance programs like SNAP and WIC. Trump has also suggested that too many Americans rely on these programs.
- Regulations: In a speech from August 2016, he spoke about removing regulations that affect farmers. He said, “We are going to get rid of a lot of those regulations that don't mean anything except cost you a lot of money and a lot of time and, in many cases, you lose your farms over the regulations.” Trump, however, voiced support for the Renewable Fuel Standard, a government program that mandates that transportation fuels contain an annually increasing minimum amount of biofuel. Trump said, “We are going to protect the Renewable Fuel Standard.”
- Taxation: Also in his speech from August 2016, Trump said, “We are going to end this war on the American farmer. That includes our plan to lower the tax rate on family farms down to 15 percent, and to stop the double-taxation of family farms at death – helping to ensure that the family farm tradition in Iowa continues to thrive and flourish.”
- General agriculture and food policy: In November, Politico obtained a list of agriculture-related talking points from the Trump campaign, which said, “the Trump-Pence administration will use the best available science to determine appropriate regulations for the food and agriculture sector; agriculture will NOT be regulated based upon the latest trend on social media.”
- Immigration: That same list said, “Mr. Trump recognizes the unique labor challenges facing the American farm community and will include farmers and ranchers in the process of determining the best possible immigration policies.”
Who are the known potential nominees to lead the USDA?
Below we profile four of the known potential nominees for the USDA head. See here for a complete list of names that have been floated.
- Butch Otter is the third-term Republican governor of Idaho, most recently re-elected in 2014. He also served three terms in the U.S. House and was the president of the potato company Simplot International. Otter initially supported Ohio Gov. John Kasich for president in the 2016 Republican primaries but later endorsed Trump. Otter has been a vocal supporter of international trade agreements, particularly agreements between the U.S. and countries in East Asia. In 2013, he wrote an op-ed titled “The Importance of Pacific Trade to My State.” He argued, “The Asia-Pacific is ‘open for business’ and the Obama administration and Congress would do well to encourage future agreements in the Asia-Pacific such as the KORUS-FTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Through these kinds of agreements, we can add to a strong foundation of cooperation and trust that has been built in the Asia-Pacific.” Opposition to free trade agreements like TPP was a cornerstone of Trump’s 2016 campaign platform.
- Heidi Heitkamp is a first-term Democratic Senator from North Dakota and previously served as the state’s attorney general from 1992 to 2000. She’s up for re-election in 2018. On December 10, 2016, Politico reported that she was Trump’s leading choice for the position. If she was offered the position, accepted it, and was confirmed by the Senate, North Dakota would hold a special election to fill her seat. Democrats could have a hard time holding on to it. Trump won North Dakota by more than 30 points, and Heikamp narrowly defeated her Republican challenger in 2012, 50.5 to 49.5 percent. In the Senate, she has made agriculture one of her signature issues. She sits on the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry committee and has occasionally broken ranks with her party. In 2014, for example, she voiced opposition to the Obama administration’s Waters of the United States rule, which seeks to clarify federal jurisdiction over rivers, lakes, marshes, and streams throughout the country, because of its potentially negative impact on North Dakota farmers. She wrote in a letter to the EPA, “Issues with conservation compliance enforcement and potential loss of farm program payments are in the front of producers’ minds, and implementing a WOTUS rule … will only add to the anxiety and distrust.”
- Sid Miller is the Texas agriculture commissioner. He served in the Texas State House from 2001 to 2013. A Republican, Miller was a staunch supporter of Trump throughout the 2016 election and made headlines in November when his staff called Hillary Clinton a derogatory term in a tweet sent from his Twitter account. As agriculture commissioner, Miller has sought to remove government regulations on food services in Texas schools. In 2015, for example, he removed bans in public schools on deep-fat fryers and the sale of sodas, saying, “Parents, superintendents, principals and locally elected school board members are best equipped to make decisions for their own communities, and I trust them to make the right choice for their schools.” His office has also created programs aimed encouraging awareness of locally-grown foods in Texas. Miller has supported cuts to assistance programs associated with the USDA.
- Sam Brownback is the second term Republican governor of Kansas, one of the top agricultural producing states in the country, and was a member of the Trump’s campaign’s agricultural advisory committee. He previously served in the U.S. House (1995 to 1996) and the U.S. Senate (1996 to 2011) and was the secretary of Kansas’ board of agriculture from 1986 to 1993. He initially endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for the 2016 Republican nomination but later endorsed Trump. As governor, Brownback has pursued policies aimed at reducing the number of Kansas citizens participating in food assistance programs. In 2013, for example, his administration reinstated work requirements for some individuals to receive benefits from programs such as SNAP. In 2015, Brownback signed legislation that banned individuals convicted of two or more drug felonies from receiving benefits from food assistance programs.
Programming note: With the holidays coming up we will be taking a break from our normal schedule. Expect updates throughout this week and an update next Wednesday. Tweet at us, @Ballotpedia, if you're looking for news between now and then.
See also
- You're Hired: Tracking the Trump Administration Transition
- Donald Trump presidential transition team
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