Ag Under Secretaries Announced

President Barack Obama this week announced his intention to nominate James W. (Jim) Miller to be under secretary of agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services and Dallas P. Tonsager to be under secretary of agriculture for Rural Development.

Miller is chief of staff for the National Farmers Union. He previously served four years as senior analyst for agriculture and trade on the majority staff of the Senate Budget Committee.

Tonsager currently serves as a board member of the Farm Credit Administration (FCA). He also is a member of the board of directors of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation. Prior to his appointment to the FCA, he was Executive Director of the South Dakota Value-Added Agriculture Development Center, where he coordinated initiatives to better serve producers who developed value-added agricultural projects.