Vilsack talks about new job as ag secretary

DES MOINES -- U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack compared his new job to being governor of 50 states instead of one - a job that encompasses a wide range of policy matters he tackled as Iowa's governor.

Vilsack was back in the state this weekend to be honored by the Iowa Democratic Party, along with his wife, Christie, and his former lieutenant governor Sally Pederson.

In an interview, Vilsack described his new duties in the Obama administration.

"It's a great job," Vilsack said. "You know, I've described it this way: it's like being governor of 50 states."

The USDA's has been re-branded as an "every day, every way" agency to reflect how it affects people - everything from the house they live in to the gas they put in their cars.

"It's important for people to make that connection between their government and their lives so that they know that there's a purpose behind the USDA," Vilsack said.

He also highlighted the role the USDA is expected to play in doling out stimulus dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Vilsack said he wants people to know they can look to the USDA for assistance in rebuilding rural communities and creating regional economic development opportunities.

"We have a tremendous amount of resources, especially with the Recovery and Reinvestment Act," Vilsack said.

Vilsack noted the department facilitates 60,000-70,000 housing loans per year to put people in homes in rural communities. With money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, that number of will reach 130,000.

The USDA also is expected to pump billions of dollars into bringing broadband access to rural parts of the country. USDA dollars also go for health care facilities, police and fire stations and day care centers in rural communities.

"Very few people understand its breadth," Vilsack said of the department, which has 103,000 employees and $113 billion budget.

Two-thirds of the department's budget is devoted to food assistance programs, which help one out of five American families.

"Americans do enjoy plentiful, relatively inexpensive and relatively safe food, in large part because of what USDA does," Vilsack said.

The USDA also runs the U.S. Forest Service, which encompasses roughly 200 million acres. Overall, Vilsack estimates half of the land mass of the country is impacted by the USDA.

With 90 offices around the world, the USDA does business with 154 countries. The department also is sending teams to Afghanistan and Pakistan to help them grow new crops and move away from poppy production as part of what Vilsack called President Obama's new approach in those countries.