Source:  Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 6/30/10

The Senate Agriculture Committee this morning approved on a voice vote the nomination of Elisabeth Hagen as USDA's under secretary for food safety. Her appointment must now be approved by the full Senate.

Committee Chairman Sen. Blanch Lincoln (D-Ark) called the vote at the start of a hearing on the 2012 farm bill just before Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack began his testimony.

President Obama nominated Hagen to the post on Jan. 26. Four months later the committee held a hearing on her nomination, but did not vote. 

Hagen, a medical doctor, has worked within USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service since 2006, most recently as USDA's chief medical officer. "If confirmed, I look forward to using this experience to build strong, science-based, public health policy," she told the committee in May.

USDA has not had an under secretary for food safety since Richard Raymond retired from the post in September, 2008, under the Bush administration. Elizabeth Johnson was acting under secretary for three months after Raymond, but left USDA in December, 2008.

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