[3], In 2006, Perdue was re-elected to a second term in the 2006 Georgia gubernatorial election, winning nearly 58% of the vote. He continued his effort to cut their wages, ultimately teaming with the Department of Labor on a rule change that will result in an aggregate wage cut worth at least $170.68 million annually over the next ten yearsa transfer of money from low-wage workers to relatively wealthy farm owners. Find them all here. He served two terms,. [3], In 2004, Perdue sued the Environmental Protection Agency to block environmental regulations on reformulated gasoline. Perdue is a kind of an easy-going Southern version of the president he served so zealously. What's the implication there? He shortly thereafter became a committee chairman, then climbed the leadership ladder to majority leader and to Senate president pro tempore. [54] In December 2018, he changed the nutrition standards for school lunches to allow more refined grains, allow milk with added sugar, and increased sodium. GPB is committedto bringing you comprehensive news coverage from Georgia, across the country and around the world. The complex arrangements were criticized as breaking the spirit of the rule, however, and that Perdue and his family's ties to his corporation were not distanced as much as the law intended. In 2010, at the tail end of his second term as governor, Perdue named his cousin, David Perduewho had just stepped down as chief executive of Dollar General discount storesto the board of the Georgia Ports Authority. Perdue addressed the crowd, saying "We've come together here simply for one reason and one reason only: to very reverently and respectfully pray up a storm" and "God, we need you; we need rain." Earlier this week, Georgia's Board of Regents announced that Sonny Perdue was the sole finalist for the job. 260 14th St. NW There, he managed a workforce of 110,000 employees in the U.S. Department of Agriculture with the stated objective of being the most efficient, effective and customer-friendly agency in the . Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do. All Rights Reserved. Eric Stirgus: Well, he didn't go into specifics that day. Eric Stirgus: Last March, we started hearing talk you know that Perdue was interested in the job or that some board members on the Board of Regents were interested in him becoming chancellor. So we have Brian Kemp in this fierce battle against David Perdue primary battle for governor. [6] His nomination was approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee by a 191 voice vote on March 30. On January 18, 2017, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate Perdue to be Secretary of Agriculture. Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation. But you know, we are hearing, you know, some of the newer members could be a lot more supportive of Sonny Perdue. So, you know, we've been hearing that this from faculty members who have been upset about, you know, some of his credentials in that space. Caught in the middle of a Republican overhaul of education, teachers feel under attack, Senate bill cracks down on local school boards' ability to eject disruptive parents from meetings. Sonny Perdue was its sole finalist to become chancellor, a choice that has outraged some professors and led a regional agency to threaten the accreditation of the 26-school system. So, you know, it'll be interesting to see. David Perdue is running against Democrat Jon Ossoff in one of two runoff elections in the state that will determine control of the U.S. Senate in the next Congress. [18], Perdue was elected as a Democrat in 1991, 1994, and 1996. By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from Mother Jones and our partners. Critics argued that the deal should be investigated, and speculated that ADM, which spends millions of dollars on lobbying regardless, used the property sale as a bribe for favorable treatment. Perdue restructured his original family trust into a new fund that he did not oversee, and the fund then sold off two of his businesses directly involved in agriculture the only assets that posed potential conflicts, according to a USDA spokesperson. Perdue announced the final relocation site in a letter that was distributed to employees Thursday morning. In the podcasts final episode before the election, released Oct. 29, Perdue hosted another MAGA loyalist, the high-living former Wall Street man and TV personality Larry Kudlow, the non-economist who Trump improbably chose to lead the National Economic Council. He was confirmed by the Senate on April 24,[49] with Bernie Sanders and nine Democrats voting against him. It pays pretty well. Lance Cheung/USDA; Mother Jones Illustration. [News tape] WSB: He called being named a finalist a quote wonderful capstone to a career in public service. Steve Fennessy: Sonny Perdue is a Republican, so when he uses an expression like Cultural Revolution, what is he referring to? We've been hearing that Gov. Steve Fennessy: So he left in June. Jess Mador is the lead podcast producer at GPB News. [47], Perdue was constitutionally ineligible to seek a third consecutive term as governor in the 2010 Georgia gubernatorial election. Yes, there is a acting chancellor. Sonny Perdue was its sole finalist to become chancellor, a choice that has outraged some professors and led a. Terms of Service apply. George Ervin "Sonny" Perdue III[1] (born December 20, 1946) is an American veterinarian, businessman, politician, and university administrator who served as the 31st United States Secretary of Agriculture from 2017 to 2021. An investigationby the Food and Environment Reporting Networks Leah Douglas found that at least 40 percent of chicken plants operating at the higher speeds experienced COVID outbreaks, versus 14 percent for the overall meat sector. Steve Fennessy: When did we first hear that Sonny Perdue who was the outgoing Secretary of Agriculture in the Trump administration, of course a two-term former governor of Georgia was interested in the job of chancellor? He's a two-term former governor, Secretary of Agriculture. [51], Perdue was the designated survivor on January 30, 2018, for President Trump's first State of the Union address. Listen on Apple Podcasts. [News tape] WSB: After what the board's chairman described as a nationwide search with, quote, "numerous highly qualified candidates," in the end, the board voted to pick Perdue as the sole finalist for the job. He oversees 26 public colleges and universities with a $9.8 billion annual budget, 48,000 faculty and staff and more than 340,000 students. [News tape] WSB: As governor, Perdue's record on education is also being called into question. But last year, he disclosed he had become trustee of a newly formed fund that includes many of the same assets as his original family trust. As governor from 2003 until 2011, he celebrated the states legacy of chattel slaverysigning 2009 legislation making April Confederate History and Heritage Month, honoring the more than 90,000 brave men and women who served the Confederate States of America. He was an early adopter of race-motivated voter suppression, signing into law one of the nations first strict ID laws. You know, we reported as soon as we got the copy of the letter. Faster kill lines boost packer profits even as they put already pandemic-stressed workers under greater strain, while also making proper social distancing even more difficult. The secretarys office contends he has complied with the agreement. [69] Perdue lives in Bonaire, Georgia. What does it mean to be a chancellor? And you know, I think there have been a couple of state lawmakers who have publicly come out against the idea. And you know, in saying, you know, this is why we, you know, we are concerned about Sonny Perdue becoming chancellor. "The. Eric Stirgus: Yes, definitely. Steve Fennessy: Chancellor of the University System of Georgia it's one of the most coveted jobs in higher education. [News tape] FOX5: Students against Sonny have collected more than a thousand signatures on a petition on Change.org. Steve Fennessy: But in the state of Georgia, I would think that, at least of jobs that are sort of in the employ of the state of Georgia, there are few that are more prominent or important than chancellor. [40], In 2008, Perdue worked with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency to implement Ready Georgia, a campaign to increase disaster preparedness throughout the state. You know, he's a strong conservative, you know, and he's David Perdue's cousin. Perdue and the department have argued that the move will lower living costs, save . Eric Stirgus: Correct. Two-thirds of the reassigned USDA employees chose to quit rather than accept relocation. However, Perdue was faced with a Democratic House that would not allow the 1956 flag to be included in the referendum, due to its Confederate origins, and he needed support for a tobacco tax he wanted to pass to raise revenue. He would not be the first governor to move into academia: Former Gov. In July, as the general election heated up, the department tapped a Depression-era funding mechanism called the Commodity Credit Corporation to come up with $14 billionwithout having to consult Congressto hand to producers of commodities like corn, soybeans and wheat, ostensibly for losses due to the coronavirus. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue told the crowd at last week's event in North Carolina that he got a call from the White House. This is diversity and inclusion. The USDA's press office rejected CNN's request to interview Ziska, but not Politico's, where he went on to describe the department as internally fearful of Perdue's open skepticism towards climate change, which, according to Ziska, has led officials to "go to extremes to obscure their work to avoid political blowback". Secretary Perdue complied with his ethics agreement and followed the advice of ethics officers at USDA when he restructured the Perdue Family Revocable Management Trust into a new family management trust, in which the secretary and his wife had no ownership interest and were not trustees, the spokesperson said in a statement. At least he is out of the gate. Therefore the new trust Perdue listed on his 2019 financial disclosure, identifying himself as a co-trustee, poses no conflict of interest or violation of his ethics commitments, the spokesperson said. In 2011, he founded Perdue Partners, which facilitated the export of U.S. goods and services. Perdue served in the U.S. Air Force, rising to the rank of captain before his discharge. [44], Upon the end of Perdue's term as governor, many in the Georgia General Assembly condemned the project and Perdue after an advisory council (appointed by Perdue) began to funnel additional bond money to the project located in his home county. Copyright 2023 Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress. You know, it's kind of a fascinating situation that, you know, your cousin is running for governor and at the same time his political opponent could be putting you in charge of one of the most important positions in state government. Mr. Kemp had received Mr. Trumps endorsement in 2018, but their relationship deteriorated following the Kemp administrations refusal to undermine Georgias presidential election results in 2020. Steve Fennessy: You mentioned that there's a long political history between Sonny Perdue and Brian Kemp. Through it all, Perdue maintained his extraordinary podcast, The Sonnyside of the Farm, a monthly testament to the genius of his boss and the glory of big agribusiness. Please consider making a gift today to support this vital public service. (Washington, D.C., April 22, 2020) - Today, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced emergency benefit increases have reached $2.0 billion per month for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) households across all 50 states and 3 territories to increase food security during the coronavirus national emergency. [25] Perdue then used the new law on his 2004 tax return to defer $100,000 in taxable gains from the sale of land. There is no conflict of interest in becoming a trustee of a trust that contains no conflicting interests.. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources figures showed 21,101 people visited the Perry facility in fiscal 2015, which ended June 30. Undeterred by the pandemic-led spike in hunger, Perdue also doubled- and tripled-down on a long-held goal: boosting work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that would eliminate food aid forat least 1.2 million peopleabout a third of them households containing senior citizens, nearly a quarter with children, and 11 percent with a disabled person, according tononpartisan think tank Mathematica. His anti-immigrant machinations worked all too well, creating a crippling labor shortage for Georgias immigrant-dependent farms and poultry slaughterhouses. His name is Sonny Perdue. Dr. Sonny Perdue bio. So tell us, what does the job of chancellor of Georgia universities and colleges entail? The Perdue USDAs largesse to large-scale farmers and agribusinesses went beyond cutting wages and protective measures for their workers. Steve Fennessy: What form has that opposition taken on college campuses or in academic circles? Ethics authorities have already issued warnings to a dozen Trump administration officials for violating the Hatch Act, but Perdues straightforward appeal to reelect Trump was seen as especially flagrant. [50], In September 2017, Politico reported that, according to 42 reviewed resumes, the department hired 22 former Trump campaign workers, many of which had no significant agricultural knowledge or experience with federal policies. It is simply unacceptable for people to sneak into this country illegally on Thursday, obtain a government-issued ID on Friday, head for the welfare office on Monday, and cast a vote on Tuesday, he declared, backing up his rancid lies with a crackdown on undocumented people.