The U.S. Senate has confirmed Xochitl Torres Small of New Mexico to serve as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, with a sweeping majority in the chamber backing the ascent of the former Congresswoman to that position. A full 84 Senators voted in favor of her nomination, while only eight were in opposition.
Those opposing Small included Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn, Josh Hawley, and Ron Johnson, who hail from Tennessee, Missouri, and Wisconsin, respectively. Small previously held a lower-level position at the Department of Agriculture, serving as Undersecretary for Rural Development, where her work included expanding internet access to underserved rural communities. Her new position will see her serving as second-in-command across the entire department.
She and Senators with whom she prominently interacted as she made her way to confirmation have discussed an aim to streamline government operations that will be under her purview, with a rhetorical eye towards more effectively serving those interacting with the Agriculture Department. “If confirmed as deputy secretary, I would want to focus on being that customer service agency that our farmers and rural people rely on and all of the backend work that supports that effort,” she said amid her confirmation process, as highlighted by Roll Call. For her confirmation, Small had previously faced questioning at the Senate Agriculture Committee, where the panel’s top Democrat and Republican both supported her latest bid.
The Democratic majority in the Senate has meant a consistently clear path for the president to get his personnel picks approved, though the final vote tally is often much closer than the numbers seen with Small. One recent confirmation, for instance, had 49 in favor and 47 against in the final results. The vote on Small’s prospective confirmation took place after a relatively quick turnaround, with the president having announced her nomination in February of this year.
