As one of its last acts of the 2009 legislative session, the Senate confirmed on December 24 Dr. Rajiv Shah as USAID administrator. Since May, Shah served as the Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics. He previously spent eight years working on public health and agriculture programs at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He will now run the 8,000-person agency that is responsible for U.S. humanitarian and development priorities.