January 22, 2001

Ann Veneman was confirmed Saturday by the Senate as secretary of agriculture in the new Bush administration. The Senate Saturday confirmed Veneman along with six other Cabinet nominees.

REUTERS reports the Senate also approved retired Gen. Colin Powell to head the State Department, former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld for a second turn as defense secretary and retired industrialist Paul O'Neill for the treasury post. Also confirmed were Don Evans as commerce secretary, Spencer Abraham as energy secretary and Roderick Paige as education secretary. Bush's choice for director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, pharmaceutical company executive Mitchell Daniels, also was approved in the vote.

Veneman, the first woman to be agriculture secretary, held the department's number-two post in the first Bush administration. An attorney from Modesto, CA, she has also run California's state agriculture agency, and held several USDA posts during the Reagan administration.

Veneman was warmly welcomed at Saturday night's inaugural gala sponsored by the agriculture industry. Intense speculation surrounds the number two and three posts in the department, the deputy secretary and the under secretary for farm and foreign agricultural services. Some press reports – not specific to USDA – say such second-tier posts throughout the government may fill more slowly than in the past because of the recount-shortened transition period.