Biden risks strain with Congressional Black Caucus over USDA pick

The CBC argues the agency needs to be refocused to better serve minority communities.

• "80% of the Agriculture Department’s work has nothing to do with farming," Clyburn told Fox News host Juan Williams early this month. “It is food stamps, nutrition, building schools in rural areas, making sure people have broadband.”
• Fudge, a former prosecutor and mayor, has focused on education, child nutrition, food stamps and other community-support programs during her 12 years in the House.

Why it matters: While the president-elect is striving for racial and gender diversity in his Cabinet, it’s becoming clearer he will have a difficult time keeping all groups happy.

• He appeased some members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus by picking Xavier Becerra to run Health and Human Services, but there's a push by others to give a Latina a high-profile job.

Those problems will be compounded, lawmakers say, if Biden selects white candidates for positions where minorities were being either promoted or considered.

• After leaving Agriculture, Vilsack earned almost $1 million his first full year leading the U.S. Dairy Export Council, a nonprofit representing dairy producers, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
• The Biden transition team declined to comment.