[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 11 (Tuesday, January 20, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S661-S662]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    INAUGURAL AND VILSACK NOMINATION

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I take to the floor right now to talk 
about my good friend, the former Governor of Iowa and our soon to be 
Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack.
  Before I do, I would be remiss if I did not at this time talk about 
what it was like to be at the inauguration of the 44th President of the 
United States. This is my ninth inauguration. My first was Jimmy Carter 
when I was a freshman Congressman in 1977 and then two Reagans, Bush, 
two Clintons, two more Bushes. And so this is my ninth.
  I can tell you, I have never seen anything such as this. To be out 
there today, I mean this is once in history that something such as this 
happens. I was watching a television program yesterday, a news program, 
and Jim Clyburn, our colleague on the House side, was talking about the 
importance of today and what it meant to him.
  He went on to talk about not only himself but so many people from 
where he is from in South Carolina and other places, elsewhere. He 
said, I remember my grandparents telling me about their parents being 
slaves and how close the connection was. And to think that today 
America saw inaugurated as our 44th President an African-American.
  Not only does this say a great deal about Barack Obama, but it says a 
great deal about America and how far we have come. Someone asked me 
what I thought earlier about his speech. I thought three things: 
uplifting, sobering, and challenging. I think that is what we want from 
a President. We want a President who will lift us up, a President who 
will be honest and square with us but a President who also challenges 
us.
  That is what I thought President Obama did in his speech today. So it 
was a great day, not only for President Obama and Michelle and their 
family, for our great friend, Joe Biden, now our Vice President, and 
Jill and his family, a great day for America, a real turning point, I 
think, in our history.
  So we look forward with confidence and with optimism to the future. I 
wished to take the floor today to say a few words about my friend, Tom

[[Page S662]]

Vilsack, who I hope the Senate today will concur in his being passed 
through for being Secretary of Agriculture.
  I have known Tom well since the 1980s. He was a lawyer in Mount 
Pleasant, IA, at that time. We had a terrible catastrophe in 
agriculture; farmers were going broke, a lot of suicides were being 
committed in my State and around rural America.
  Tom Vilsack was a small-town lawyer. I did not know him from anybody. 
But he took upon himself the job of defending a lot of these small 
farmers, helping them to work through their problems, and getting them 
through these hard times.
  That is the first time I ever came in contact with him. I thought he 
was one of those rare individuals who saw something that was wrong 
which needed to be done and he would involve himself in it. He did not 
make any money doing this. There was no money to be made. But he got 
involved in it, and I can tell you, he helped many small farmers hang 
onto their farms.
  Well, later on, by then a tragedy happened in Mount Pleasant, IA. Tom 
Vilsack was then on the city council. There was a terrible tragedy in 
which the mayor had been murdered, and they asked Tom to take over as 
mayor--again, another catastrophe in that small community. So Tom 
Vilsack then took over as mayor of Mount Pleasant, pulled the city 
together, kept it going, and lifted it up.
  Shortly after that then, he ran to be a State Senator and was elected 
as a State Senator. He served very admirably there. He then later ran 
to be Governor and served for two terms as the Governor of our State of 
Iowa. He had a great two terms--8 years, 4 years each--as our Governor. 
Again, he showed he could bring people together. That is why I think he 
is going to be good with our former colleague, now President Obama.
  For the entire 8 years Tom Vilsack was Governor, he had a Republican 
legislature, but he worked with them. They worked together. We got some 
good things done in the State of Iowa, both with a Republican 
legislature and a Democratic Governor. I think that showed his method. 
That, plus what he had done earlier, I think showed the true mark of 
this individual.
  So I could not have been happier when I found that President Obama 
had picked him to be Secretary of Agriculture. Tom Vilsack knows 
production agriculture. He knows what is happening out on the farms. He 
also is one of the strongest proponents of the conservation of natural 
resources and clean water and clean air. Suffice to say, I think all my 
friends at Pheasants Forever and Ducks Unlimited and all the people I 
go hunting with every year love Tom Vilsack because of all he has done 
to encourage wildlife habitats and the conservation of our natural 
resources--something, again, I feel very strongly about.
  Then, again, in his hearing before our Agriculture Committee, he 
talked about nutrition and the role nutrition plays in health care 
reform and how we have to think about prevention and wellness. That 
starts with our kids. And what starts with our kids? School lunches and 
school breakfasts and the foods they eat in school, the women, infants, 
and children's supplemental feeding program, what kind of food are they 
getting?
  Now, before the Agriculture Committee this year, Senator Chambliss 
and I will be working together on our committee to reauthorize the 
Child Nutrition Act. That is the school lunch, school breakfast, and 
the WIC program, the women, infants, and children's supplemental 
feeding program. We have to do better for our kids. We have to get 
better food, locally grown foods, healthier foods, fruits and 
vegetables, and things such as that for our kids to eat. He talked 
about this in his hearing before our committee.
  So I do not wish to take any more time of the Senate. I see our 
distinguished leader is in the Chamber. But I wished to thank President 
Obama for asking Governor Vilsack to be Secretary of Agriculture. I 
have asked Senator Chambliss. We know of no objections--not one 
objection on our committee--to his nomination.
  So I hope the Senate will, this afternoon, by unanimous consent, 
clear him so tomorrow he can be at the door. He said: As soon as I am 
confirmed, the first thing I want to do is go to the Department of 
Agriculture and stand outside at 7 o'clock in the morning to greet all 
the people coming in because I want them to know I care about them, 
that I honor their work and look forward to being Secretary of the 
Department. The one Department I always say, of all the Secretaries we 
have--the Secretaries of State and Treasury get all this publicity, and 
they travel around the world and all that and get a lot of publicity--
the Secretary of Agriculture hardly gets any publicity. But no 
Department--no Department--touches every American every day as closely 
and as intimately as the Department of Agriculture: the food you eat, 
the clothes you wear, the food safety programs. Things happen to our 
kids in school, what they eat--all this is in the Department of 
Agriculture.
  So I hope the Senate will, by unanimous consent, follow the lead of 
the Agriculture Committee in unanimously approving Tom Vilsack to be 
our next Secretary of Agriculture.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a letter, dated January 
20, 2009, be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

         U.S. Senate, Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and 
           Forestry,
                                 Washington, DC, January 20, 2009.
     Re Nomination of Thomas J. Vilsack to be Secretary of 
         Agriculture

     Hon. Harry Reid,
     Majority Leader.
     Hon. Mitch McConnell,
     Republican Leader.
       Dear Leaders: On December 17, 2008, President-elect Obama 
     announced his intention to nominate Thomas J. Vilsack, of 
     Iowa, to be Secretary of Agriculture.
       The Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 
     forwarded the Committee's nomination questionnaire to 
     Secretary-designate Vilsack. The Committee requires each 
     nominee to complete a questionnaire relating to the nominee's 
     qualifications and potential conflicts of interest. Governor 
     Vilsack's responses to the questionnaire provided basic 
     biographical and financial information.
       As part of the confirmation process, the Committee received 
     the nominee's Public Financial Disclosure Report and a copy 
     of Governor Vilsack's letter to Mr. Raymond J. Sheehan, 
     Designated Agency Ethics Official, U.S. Department of 
     Agriculture. This letter details the steps that Governor 
     Vilsack will take to avoid potential conflicts or the 
     appearance of a conflict of interest.
       In anticipation of the nomination, the Committee conducted 
     a hearing on January 14, 2009, in public session, to 
     carefully review the credentials and qualifications of 
     Secretary-designate Vilsack. Governor Vilsack was the only 
     witness at this hearing.
       After the hearing and after Committee Members had the 
     opportunity to review responses to written questions 
     submitted for the record, the Committee polled all Members of 
     the Committee to ascertain their positions regarding this 
     nominee. We are pleased to report that the Committee on 
     Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry unanimously supports the 
     nomination of Thomas J. Vilsack for the position of Secretary 
     of Agriculture.
     Tom Harkin,
       Chairman.
     Saxby Chambliss,
       Ranking Member.

  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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