Brashears is back at the USDA's top food safety post

Mindy Brashears from Texas Tech University was confirmed on Dec. 17 by the U.S. Senate for an unprecedented second term as Under Secretary of the USDA for food safety. President Trump nominated her on June 2 to the same position she held during his first term in the White House.

Her confirmation came as part of a group of 97 Trump executive and judicial nominees approved by a single Senate vote. Majority Leader John Thune, R-SD, amended Senate rules to get more Trump appointments confirmed after Senate Democrats ceased moving the nominees at historic speeds.   

Thune calls the group confirmation, which passed on a 54-47 procedural vote, a “tactical nuclear” response to the slowdown. The final vote should come today.

The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry managed Brashear’s nomination. It held a confirmation hearing on Oct. 29 and reported her appointment favorably to the full Senate on Nov. 3.

Brashears fills a 333-day vacancy in the nation’s top food safety position that has been open since Dr. Jose Emilio Esteban left the job at the end of the Biden administration.  

The last time Brashears was confirmed by the Senate as Under Secretary for Food Safety at USDA in 2020, the position had been vacant for more than six years. This was due to a combination of events — President Obama opted not to name a successor to Dr. Elizabeth Hagen when she left government, and it took President Trump more than a year to nominate Brashears during his first term.

Brashears again leaves Texas Tech University 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 the June 2017 trial of BPI v. ABC News. 

As one of the nation’s top beef experts, Brashears told the Elk Point, SD, jury that BPI’s product was “definitely a meat and definitely beef” and not “pink slime” as repeatedly depicted by ABC News. Shortly after her testimony, the Disney-owned ABC News agreed to settle with the Dakota Dunes-based BPI. Financial experts who follow Disney said it paid at least $177 million to resolve the product-defamation lawsuit.

A past-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 collection of international standards, guidelines and codes of practice adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The Commission, also known as CAC, was established to protect consumer health and promote fair practices in food trade. It held its first meeting in 1963.

Her responsibilities also include oversight of the USDA’s 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, the others who have held food safety posts are: 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 act requires that the president name an Under Secretary for Food Safety who must be selected from among individuals with specialized training or significant experience in food safety or public health programs.