FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, December 15, 2011
CONTACT: Ian Koski at 202-224-4216

In opening statement, Senator Coons supports Delawarean Michael Scuse’s nomination for USDA undersecretary

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) delivers an opening statement at a Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry hearing on Thursday in support of Michael Scuse’s nomination to be the Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and his nomination to serve on the Board of Directors of the Commodity Credit Corporation.

- As Delivery on December 15, 2011 –

 Poultry is really the beating heart of the Delaware agricultural sector, but there are lots of other components to it. I just want to start by saying that I am grateful, madam chairman, for the opportunity to introduce my friend and fellow Delawarean, Michael Scuse.  

It is a rare and good day when I see good people advance here, in Washington, and Michael is one of the best I have ever known. He and his wife, Patrice, have been good friends to my wife, Annie, and I for a long time. I first got to know him well in a public capacity when he was serving as the secretary of agriculture for the state of Delaware and we had an opportunity to get to know each other both personally and professionally. He is passionate about agriculture, he is hard working, he is smart, he is genuine, and he is a decent man. He and his brother continue to run a family farm in Smyrna. Like me, he commutes to and from Delaware.  His wife, Patrice, is with him today and I know that he remains a connected part of the tightknit farm families that are the backbone of rural Delaware.

I worked most closely with Michael when I was the New Castle county executive. The day I announced my candidacy for that position, promoting farm preservation and strengthening our partnership between the county and state was one of the things I was determined to do-- and it was not easy. It required a state secretary of agriculture who was innovative, who was willing to find ways to adapt to program and who was willing to partner with me. And largely because of Michael’s leadership and the governor under whom he served, Delaware, today, has the highest percentage of preserved productive agriculture farmland of any state in the country.

We also worked together to promote agro-tourism and to promote on-farm income sources that where non-traditional, which in my county --which is rapidly becoming suburban-- was one of the few ways we could save for the long term, productive agricultural properties.

I just wanted to share with you, if I could, by way of introduction, that I think Michael’s critical work in the state of Delaware and now here, in Washington, in the United States Department of Agriculture gives him the skills and the experience to build on his personal character and values to be a great undersecretary of agriculture. I also think he will contribute significant skills and experience to the Commodity Credit Corporation.

I think you could do no better than to take this great Delawarean and give him an opportunity to show everybody in the United States that Delaware doesn’t just have a great agriculture sector, it also grows great agricultural community leaders and Michael Scuse is one of the best.

Thank you.

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