04/08/2025 at 10:00AM
Full committee hearing.
Nominees:
- Stephen Alexander Vaden, of Tennessee, to be Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, vice Xochitl Torres Small, resigned
- Tyler S. Clarkson, of Virginia, to be General Counsel of the Department of Agriculture, vice Janie Simms Hipp
Stephen Alexander Vaden was the General Counsel of the Department of Agriculture, and a Member of the Board of the Commodity Credit Corporation, during Trump’s first term. Vaden worked at Jones Day and Patton Boggs. Vaden serves as a judge on the United States Court of International Trade following his confirmation by the United States Senate on November 18, 2020, and appointment by President Donald J. Trump on December 21, 2020. Vaden helped the National Pork Producers Council in its unsuccessful attempt suit with the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn California’s Proposition 12 , the Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act.
Tyler S. Clarkson is a Federalist Society member who works as an Associate General Counsel at a synthetic biology company handling all regulatory and compliance matters. Clarkson previously served as the Deputy General Counsel, Principal Deputy General Counsel, and Acting General Counsel at USDA during Trump’s first term. He also worked as a Counselor to the Administrator at OIRA. Previously, he worked as an associate at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer focusing largely on global investigations. Clarkson attended college and law school at UVA; while in law school, Clarkson served as the president of the UVA Law Federalist Society chapter.