BE SMART ABOUT: USDA Overrun with Trump Campaign Workers With Zero Qualifications

While Trump campaigned to "drain the swamp," in practice he's done the opposite, filling his administration with people who hate the existence of the department they run. Is this case, we have the Department of Agriculture being filled not necessarily by people who despise the USDA, but rather by people who have no idea what the USDA is nor any qualifications to work there.

Trump’s appointees to jobs at Agriculture Department headquarters include a long-haul truck driver, a country club cabana attendant and the owner of a scented-candle company.... the agency has been stocked with Trump campaign staff and volunteers who.... demonstrated little to no experience with federal policy, let alone deep roots in agriculture..... of the 42 résumés reviewed, 22 cited Trump campaign experience..... some of those appointees appear to lack credentials, such as a college degree, required to qualify for higher government salaries.

“There is a clear prioritization of one attribute, and that is loyalty,” said Austin Evers, American Oversight's executive director, who provided the documents after his organization received them in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

He said the group sought résumés for Trump administration political appointees from across the federal government and found an abundance of former campaign workers in positions that did not appear to match their qualifications. 

Here are a few specific examples:

The truck driver, Nick Brusky, was hired this year at USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service... at one of the highest levels on the federal government’s pay scale, a GS-12, earning $79,720 annually.  Though that pay grade requires a master’s degree or equivalent experience, it’s not clear from Brusky’s résumé whether he’s a college graduate. The document lists coursework.... from 2000 to 2013, but does not specify a graduation date.

Christopher O’Hagan, an appointee as a confidential assistant at the Agricultural Marketing Service.... graduated in 2016 from the University of Scranton with a major in history and a minor in economics.... his résumé lists only one work experience prior to joining the Trump campaign in January 2016 — employment as a cabana attendant at the Westchester Country Club in New York...

Trump campaign alum Tim Page, a 2016 graduate of Appalachian State University, is now at the Natural Resources Conservation Service.... Page's résumé indicates that he owns Cutting Edge LLC, a landscaping service in North Carolina.

Brusky, O'Hagan and Page are three of 10 confidential assistants whose résumés were among those obtained by American Oversight..... Nine of the 10 touted their work to get the president elected and most do not have agricultural experience.

All of the appointees are ranked as GS-11, GS-12 or GS-13, positions with annual salaries ranging from $60,210 to $85,816.  Two of the 10 didn't list college degrees on their résumés [guideline for GS-7 or higher].... none of the confidential assistants indicated they had earned a master’s [guideline for GS-9 or higher]

This is the same USDA for which Trump's pick as the CHIEF SCIENTIST for the USDA was Sam Clovis, who is not a scientist and is a vocal climate change denier. 

Trump had picked Clovis for the position despite him not having a background in science, and that lack of experience, alongside a history of racially charged and homophobic comments, made his nomination particularly controversial.

Thankfully, Clovis later had to withdraw from consideration and the reason is very alarming - his direct connections to the Russian collusion investigation.  These are the types of people Trump is filling our government with who supposedly work to better our country.

Meanwhile, if all of this weren't enough to make you sick, Trump newly appointed chief lawyer for the USDA is already causing chaos for the organization.

Stephen Vaden, the Trump administration’s nominee to be USDA General Counsel, assumed leadership in March.  Vaden.... was appointed principal deputy general counsel two months later, is enforcing workplace changes that have provoked unusually bitter labor negotiations.... He also has come under scrutiny for his past work defending state voter ID laws that critics say are discriminatory.   The result is uneasiness and mistrust among the more than 250 legal professionals that he will officially oversee if the Senate confirms his nomination....

A longtime senior attorney at OGC questioned Vaden’s legal judgment, particularly when it comes to issues related to discrimination.  “This isn’t just a matter of policy or politics …” the attorney said. “If you’re not sensitive to discrimination, there are financial consequences down the line. The department had to pay a lot of money in recent settlements” in civil rights cases.

Sources: 

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/21/trump-agriculture-department-usda-campaign-workers-242951

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/04/stephen-vaden-usda-agriculture-department-200905

http://smartdissent.com/article/update-trump-officially-picks-climate-change-denying-non-scientist

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/02/politics/sam-clovis-department-of-agriculture/index.html