WASHINGTON -- Bart Chilton, a Commodity Futures Trading Commission commissioner who previously was an aide to Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and a National Farmers Union lobbyist, and Carole Jett, a retired USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service civil servant, will head President-elect Barack Obama's transition team at the Agriculture Department, the president-elect's office confirmed on Nov. 14.
The transition team at each federal department meets with officials in the outgoing administration and also plays a role in picking the political appointees who will head various divisions of the Agriculture Department.
Transition lawyers still must determine if Chilton can head the Agriculture Department transition effort while he remains a CFTC commissioner, one lobbyist said. Chilton, who was sworn as a CFTC commissioner in 2007 to fill an expired term, has been nominated, for a second term, but the nomination still is pending in the Senate.
In recent months, Chilton has split with other commissioners to call for stricter regulation of the commodities markets, particularly over the counter transactions. Chilton served in several capacities at Agriculture during the Clinton administration, rising to deputy chief of staff to Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. He was an aide to Daschle from 2001 until Daschle was defeated in 2004. He was an executive assistant at the Farm Credit Administration in 2005 and then a National Farmers Union lobbyist until his appointment to the CFTC in 2007.
Jett began her career with the Soil Conservation Service in 1975 as a student trainee. She has served as state conservationist in Michigan, state soil scientist in California and soil survey party leader in Nevada. A native of Reno, Nev., she received a bachelor's degree in soil science from the University of Nevada and completed post-graduate work with a major emphasis in hydrology and range science.
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Jett is now a self-employed policy adviser and was an active member of the private sector Obama ag advisory group that was coordinated by attorney Marshall Matz and headed by FCA board member Dallas Tonsager, a lobbyist said.
