United States Secretary of Agriculture
(Redirected from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture)
The United States Secretary of Agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture. The position carries similar responsibilities to agriculture ministers of other governments.[2]
| United States Secretary of Agriculture | |
|---|---|
| 120px Seal of the department | |
| 130px Flag of the secretary | |
| United States Department of Agriculture | |
| Style | Mr. Secretary (informal) The Honorable (formal) |
| Member of | United States Cabinet |
| Reports to | President of the United States |
| Seat | Jamie L. Whitten Building, Washington, D.C. |
| Appointer | The President with Senate advice and consent |
| Term length | No fixed term |
| Constituting instrument | 7 U.S.C. § 2202 |
| Formation | February 15, 1889 |
| First holder | Norman Jay Coleman |
| Succession | Ninth[1] |
| Deputy | United States Deputy Secretary of Agriculture |
| Salary | Executive Schedule, level I |
| Website | usda.gov |
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Secretaries of Agriculture
The following is a list of Secretaries of Agriculture, since the creation of the office in 1889.[3]
| No. | Portrait | Name | State of residence | Took office | Left office | President(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 75px | Isaac Newton | Pennsylvania | July 1, 1862 | June 19, 1867 | Abraham Lincoln | |
| Andrew Johnson | |||||||
| 2 | 75px | Horace Capron | December 4, 1867 | July 31, 1871 | |||
| Ulysses S. Grant | |||||||
| 3 | Frederick Watts | Pennsylvania | August 1, 1871 | 1877 | |||
| 4 | 75px | William Gates LeDuc | Minnesota | July 1, 1877 | 1881 | Rutherford B. Hayes | |
| 5 | 
|
George B. Loring | Massachusetts | July 1, 1881 | 1885 | James A. Garfield | |
| Chester A. Arthur | |||||||
| 6 | 
|
Norman Jay Coleman | Missouri | April 3, 1885 | February 14, 1889 | Grover Cleveland | |
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The position of secretary of agriculture was created when the department was elevated to Cabinet status in 1889. The following is a list of secretaries of agriculture, since the creation of the office in 1889.[4]
- Parties
Democratic (14) Republican (18)
Status
Acting Secretary of Agriculture
Nominee for Secretary of Agriculture
| No. | Portrait | Name | State of residence | Took office | Left office | President(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Norman Jay Coleman | Missouri | February 15, 1889 | March 6, 1889 | Grover Cleveland | |
| 2 | 75px | Jeremiah McLain Rusk | Wisconsin | March 6, 1889 | March 6, 1893 | Benjamin Harrison | |
| 3 | 75px | Julius Sterling Morton | Nebraska | March 7, 1893 | March 5, 1897 | Grover Cleveland | |
| 4 | 75px | James Wilson | Iowa | March 5, 1897 | March 3, 1913 | William McKinley | |
| Theodore Roosevelt | |||||||
| William Howard Taft | |||||||
| 5 | 75px | David F. Houston | Missouri | March 6, 1913 | February 2, 1920 | Woodrow Wilson | |
| 6 | 75px | Edwin T. Meredith | Iowa | February 2, 1920 | March 4, 1921 | ||
| 7 | 
|
Henry Cantwell Wallace | Iowa | March 5, 1921 | October 25, 1924 | Warren G. Harding | |
| Calvin Coolidge | |||||||
| 8 | 75px | Howard Mason Gore | West Virginia | November 22, 1924 | March 4, 1925 | ||
| 9 | 75px | William Marion Jardine | Kansas | March 5, 1925 | March 4, 1929 | ||
| 10 | 75px | Arthur M. Hyde | Missouri | March 6, 1929 | March 4, 1933 | Herbert Hoover | |
| 11 | 
|
Henry A. Wallace | Iowa | March 4, 1933 | September 4, 1940 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | |
| 12 | 75px | Claude R. Wickard | Indiana | September 5, 1940 | June 29, 1945 | ||
| Harry S. Truman | |||||||
| 13 | 75px | Clinton Presba Anderson | New Mexico | June 30, 1945 | May 10, 1948 | ||
| 14 | File:Charles F. Brannan.jpg | Charles F. Brannan | Colorado | June 2, 1948 | January 20, 1953 | ||
| 15 | 75px | Ezra Taft Benson | Utah | January 21, 1953 | January 20, 1961 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | |
| 16 | 75px | Orville Freeman | Minnesota | January 21, 1961 | January 20, 1969 | John F. Kennedy | |
| Lyndon B. Johnson | |||||||
| 17 | 
|
Clifford M. Hardin | Nebraska | January 21, 1969 | November 17, 1971 | Richard Nixon | |
| 18 | 75px | Earl Butz | Indiana | December 2, 1971 | October 4, 1976 | ||
| Gerald Ford | |||||||
| 19 | File:John Albert Knebel - USDA portrait.png | John Albert Knebel | Oklahoma | November 4, 1976 | January 20, 1977 | ||
| 20 | 75px | Robert Bergland | Minnesota | January 23, 1977 | January 20, 1981 | Jimmy Carter | |
| 21 | File:John Block.jpg | John Rusling Block | Illinois | January 23, 1981 | February 14, 1986 | Ronald Reagan | |
| 22 | 75px | Richard Edmund Lyng | California | March 7, 1986 | January 21, 1989 | ||
| 23 | 75px | Clayton Keith Yeutter | Nebraska | February 16, 1989 | March 1, 1991 | George H. W. Bush | |
| 24 | 75px | Edward Rell Madigan | Illinois | March 8, 1991 | January 20, 1993 | ||
| 25 | 75px | Mike Espy | Mississippi | January 22, 1993 | December 31, 1994 | Bill Clinton | |
| – | 75px | Richard Rominger Acting |
California | December 31, 1994 | March 30, 1995 | ||
| 26 | 75px | Dan Glickman | Kansas | March 30, 1995 | January 20, 2001 | ||
| 27 | 75px | Ann Veneman | California | January 20, 2001 | January 20, 2005 | George W. Bush | |
| 28 | 75px | Mike Johanns | Nebraska | January 21, 2005 | September 20, 2007 | ||
| – | 75px | Charles F. Conner Acting |
Indiana | September 20, 2007 | January 28, 2008 | ||
| 29 | 75px | Ed Schafer | North Dakota | January 28, 2008 | January 20, 2009 | ||
| 30 | 75px | Tom Vilsack | Iowa | January 20, 2009 | January 13, 2017 | Barack Obama | |
| – | File:Michael T. Scuse official portrait (cropped).jpg | Michael Scuse Acting |
Delaware | January 13, 2017 | January 20, 2017 | ||
| – | 75px | Mike Young Acting |
January 20, 2017 | April 25, 2017 | Donald Trump | ||
| 31 | 75px | Sonny Perdue | Georgia | April 25, 2017 | January 20, 2021 | ||
| – | 
|
Kevin Shea Acting |
January 20, 2021 | February 23, 2021 | Joe Biden | ||
| 32 | 107x107px | Tom Vilsack | Iowa | February 24, 2021 | January 20, 2025 | ||
| – | 
|
Gary Washington Acting |
January 20, 2025 | February 13, 2025 | Donald Trump (2025–present) | ||
| 33 | 107x107px | Brooke Rollins | Texas | February 13, 2025 | Incumbent | ||
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Living former Secretaries of Agriculture
As of January 2026, there are eight living former secretaries of the interior, the oldest being John R. Block (served 1981-1986). The most recent death of a former secretary of state was that of Robert Bergland (served 1977-1981) on December 9, 2018.
John R. Block
(1981-1986)Mike Espy
(1993-1994)- Dan Glickman, 26th Secretary of Agriculture, January 1995 - 2001. - Flickr - USDAgov.jpg
Dan Glickman
(1995-2001) - Ann Veneman (cropped).jpg
Ann Veneman
(2001-2005) - Mike Johanns official Senate photo (cropped).jpg
Mike Johanns
(2005-2007) - SchaferEd-official (cropped).jpg
Ed Schafer
(2013-2017) Tom Vilsack
(2009-2017)
(First term)- Sonny Perdue headshot.jpg
Sonny Perdue
(2017-2021) - 20210427-OSEC-TEW-001 Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (51148817903) (cropped).jpg
Tom Vilsack
(2021-2025)
(Second term)
United States Secretary Of Agriculture Media
Frederick Watts
References
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).
- ↑ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities at line 38: bad argument #1 to 'ipairs' (table expected, got nil).