Rep. Marcia Fudge vies to become Biden's agriculture secretary, says Black women put him in office...A former chair of the CBC and current chair of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight & Department Operations, her largely Black 11th congressional district includes Cleveland....President Trump had no Black women in his cabinet....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Ohio 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11) (pictured), chair of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations, has publicly announced that she is open and ready to assume the position of Secretary of Agriculture in the cabinet of President-elect Joe Biden, if she is chosen and cleared for the post, Biden's upcoming predecessor, Republican President Donald Trump, of whom had no Black women in his cabinet during his entire tumultuous four-year term.

Rep Fudge said that Black women put Biden in office in November and he owes the Black community, and women, a diversified cabinet of qualified public servants.

She said it's time that the White House looks more like America.

“As this country becomes more and more diverse, we’re going to have to stop looking at only certain agencies as those that people like me fit in,” she told Politico. “You know, it’s always ‘We want to put the Black person in labor or HUD.'”

A Warrensville Heights Democrat and former city mayor, Fudge, in Congress since 2008, is a former national president of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, a prominent Black sorority for progressive. women, and was chair of the Congressional Black Caucus during the 113th Congress after being unanimously elected by her colleagues 

Her largely Black congressional district includes parts of Cleveland, mainly its majority Black east side, and several of its  eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga  County, and a Black pocket of neighboring Akron and staggering parts of Summit County.

The lawmaker and women's rights advocate endorsed Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in her failed bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination that Biden ultimately won.

But when she was a city mayor she endorsed Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama in Clinton's failed bid for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008, Obama, the nation's first Black president, going on to win the presidency with Biden as his vice presidential running mate.

Fudge, 68, is a seasoned member of the House Agriculture Committee and has been persistent in her role as chair of the Nutrition Subcommittee, which provides oversight over USDA regulations. 

She led the House’s filing of an amicus brief, among others, in support of a lawsuit filed by 18 states and the District of Columbia, including the  city of New York, that seeks to reverse the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rule to strip Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (food stamps) benefits away from able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs).  

The Trump administration, though on its way out when Biden officially becomes president next year, wants to tighten work requirements for some food stamp recipients, a move that comes as more than 40 million Americans are unemployed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and a measure that impacts benefits for some 688,000 adults.

The new rule makes it more difficult for states to waive a requirement that able-bodied adults without children work at least 20 hours a week or else lose their benefits.

President Trump says able-bodied adults without dependents should be stripped of SNAP benefits even if they cannot find work during a pandemic that, by all accounts, has crippled the nation.

“Despite countless reports showing hunger and unemployment rising together, pointing to a long and tough economic recovery from the pandemic, the Trump administration has decided now is a good time to make it harder for people to buy food if they can’t find a job," said Fudge.

House Democrats, and even some Republicans, oppose the measure. 

The congresswoman said that even though the rule has been stayed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia while the lawsuit makes its way through the courts, the Trump administration is hellbent on going forward with stripping these affected SNAP recipients of benefits during a public health crisis. 

"As tens of millions of Americans are without work, the administration, with equal parts arrogance and ignorance, continues its ideological crackdown on SNAP recipients,” said Rep. Fudge. “And while House Democrats passed legislation to freeze these callous rules for the duration of the public health emergency—and a U.S. District Court wisely stayed the rule nationwide—the White House is intent on pursuing implementation of this bogus rule. "

Fudge said that President Trump's actions on the issue are ludicrous at best.

"It is frankly despicable and something my colleagues and I simply will not tolerate," said Fudge.

How the Biden administration will play into the equation after Biden is inaugurated in January of 2021 remains to be seen.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.