Brashears is back at the USDA’s top food safety post
Texas Tech University’s Mindy Brashears was poised to be confirmed Dec. 17 by the U.S. Senate for an unprecedented second term as USDA undersecretary for food safety. President Trump nominated her on June 2 to the same position she held during her first term in the White House.
His confirmation is among a group of 97 Trump executive and judicial nominees ready to be approved by a single Senate vote. Majority Leader John Thune, R-SD, changed Senate rules to confirm more of Trump’s nominees after Senate Democrats stopped moving nominees at historic speeds.
Thune calls the group’s confirmation, passed by 53 votes to 47, a “tactical nuclear” response to the slowdown. The final vote is expected to take place today.
The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee handled Brashear’s nomination. He held a confirmation hearing on October 29 and reported favorably on his nomination to the full Senate on November 3.
Brashears fills a 333-day vacancy at the nation’s top food safety post, vacant since Dr. Jose Emilio Esteban left the post at the end of the Biden administration.
The last time Brashears was confirmed by the Senate as USDA undersecretary for food safety in 2020, the position had been vacant for more than six years. This was due to a combination of events: President Obama chose not to name a successor to Dr. Elizabeth Hagen when she left the government, and it took more than a year for President Trump to nominate Brashears during his first term.
Brashears is leaving Texas Tech University again as a professor of food safety and public health and as director of the TTU International Center for Food Industry Excellence. Brashears was an expert witness in BPI’s June 2017 lawsuit against ABC News.
As one of the nation’s leading beef experts, Brashears told the Elk Point, SD, jury that BPI’s product was “definitely meat and definitely beef” and not “pink slime” as ABC News repeatedly describes it. Shortly after his testimony, Disney-owned ABC News agreed to settle with Dakota Dunes-based BPI. Financial experts who follow Disney said they paid at least $177 million to resolve the product defamation lawsuit.
A former chair of the National Alliance for Food Safety and Security, Brashears will again chair the U.S. Codex Steering Committee, which organizes the U.S. delegation to the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The Codex Alimentarius, or “Food Code” is a set of international standards, guidelines and codes of practice adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The Commission, also known as CAC, was created to protect consumer health and promote fair practices in the food trade. It held its first meeting in 1963.
His responsibilities also include oversight of the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, including policies and programs. FSIS regulates the nation’s meat, poultry, certain egg products, and catfish.
The Undersecretary for Food Safety was created by the Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994, which was signed into law in October 1994.
In addition to Brashears, Esteban and Hagen, others who have held food safety positions include: Dr. Richard A. Raymond (July 2005 to January 2009); Elsa A. Murano (October 2001 to December 2004); and Catherine Woteki (July 1997 to January 2001).
The law requires the President to appoint an Undersecretary for Food Safety who must be selected from among individuals with specialized training or significant experience in food safety or public health programs.
