Biden picks Tom Vilsack to lead USDA for a second time

Tom Vilsack

President-elect Joe Biden has chosen former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack to once again lead the Department of Agriculture. Vilsack was secretary under Barack Obama until the last week of Obama's eight-year administration. 

Vilsack is expected to bring institutional knowledge to the role, and he'll need it, Dartunorro Clark, Geoff Bennett, and Kristen Welker report for NBC News: "If confirmed, Vilsack, 69, would lead an agency at a time when American farmers have been hit hard by Trump's trade war with China, but still largely remain loyal to the outgoing president, and as the poorest Americans are struggling with food security during the coronavirus pandemic."

Bloomberg Government takes a deeper dive into the issues Vilsack will need to address as secretary. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the first person to serve non-consecutive terms in the job, but even if he served eight more years, he would still fall a week short of the 16-year tenure of James Wilson, also from Iowa, who served under William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, the longest service of any Cabinet member.