A diplomat familiar with administration thinking summarized the American policy as "talk to the Germans, buy off the Russians and isolate the French".
"In sidelining science and prioritizing agribusiness interests over the public good, Trump's USDA is following a pattern that has become familiar to administration observers," wrote the report authors.
People familiar with the administration's thinking say officials prefer maintaining a federal guarantee.
Still, "it was more a political decision than a litigation decision," said one lawyer familiar with the administration's stance.
But a person familiar with the administration's deliberations said Mr. Pascual was President Obama's choice for the post.
Some of it is familiar and terrible: administration officials' famously wrong predictions about the Iraq war are here as well.
[UPDATED] A special unit within the Federal Bureau of Investigation that handles war crimes may be shut down imminently, according to officials familiar with the administration's decision-making process.
When Princeton professor Alan Krueger became the chairman of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers in 2011, he already was familiar with the administration from an earlier stint in the Treasury Department.
President Obama, first briefed on the program even before taking office, sped it up, according to officials familiar with the administration's Iran strategy.
