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USDA names 3 to acting roles to fill holes left by reassignments

Secretary Sonny Perdue names Gary Washington to be acting CIO and two others to take on acting management roles.

Jason Miller@jmillerWFED

September 5, 2017 6:03 pm

1 min read

In the aftermath of the reassignments at the Agriculture Department, Secretary Sonny Perdue started to fill some of the jobs left open.

In a Sept. 1 email to staff, which Federal News Radio obtained, Perdue named Gary Washington, the current chief information officer of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, to be the acting headquarters CIO.

Washington steps into the new role after USDA reassigned Jonathan Alboum, who had been CIO since 2015, to the deputy senior procurement executive in early August.

Washington has been with USDA APHIS since February 2013 and with the agency since 2010.

Along with Washington, Perdue named three others to serve in acting capacities to take over for executives who were moved to new positions last month.

Don Bice will be acting deputy assistant secretary for administration, replacing Malcom Shorter, who the agency reassigned to be the associate deputy chief of business operations at the Forest Service.

Bice takes over the deputy assistant secretary role after spending the last six years as the associate director and Performance Improvement Officer for USDA’s Office of Budget and Program Analysis (OBPA).

Additionally, Perdue named Diem-Linh Jones as the acting director of the OBPA.

Jones, who had been the deputy director for budget, legislative and regulatory systems within OBPA, replaces Michael Young, who served as both the acting USDA secretary and deputy secretary during the transition.

It’s unclear who will take on the deputy CIO role at USDA. The agency reassigned Doug Nash, who had been deputy CIO, to be CIO of the Agricultural Marketing Service. Nash replaces Douglas Bailey, who retired from government in January after spending 35 years in government, including the last 16 as the AMS CIO.

Perdue also announced Lynn Moaney would continue to be the acting deputy chief financial officer.