The new USDA Secretary says trade will be at the top of his list.
Perdue spoke to a crowded room at the Whitten building in Washington, D.C. Tuesday morning.
?I?ve been waiting to you see you all. It looks like you all have been waiting to see me too. It is so good to be here at the department and the Whitten building seeing all of you here. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is such a meaningful agency.?
Perdue says he wants to make sure everyone is welcome at the department and says it’s important to consider different opinions. The word he used most frequently was “family”.
?I view USDA worldwide as a family. We are going to treat one-another as family. As you know, in families, we don?t always agree but we are always going to come back to the point of understanding making the best decisions for the family at large.?
At the top of his list to focus on, is trade.
?I visited with over 75 senators [and they expressed] the need for good trade policy. Our producers out there have been so productive we?ve got a lot of stuff we need to sell. We?re going to sell it worldwide.?
Perdue?s father taught him to leave something better than he found it.
?That?s my goal for the USDA, this department, is to leave it better than we found it; leave America better than we found it, leave our consumers better than we found it, investors, shareholders, employees better than we found it,? Perdue says.
Perdue was sworn in as the 31st U.S. Secretary of Agriculture by fellow Georgian and Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Clarence Thomas in a brief ceremony Tuesday at the Supreme Court building. The U.S. Senate confirmed Secretary Perdue by a vote of 87-to-11 on Monday evening.
