Agriculture Secretary-nominee Brooke Rollins assured senators Thursday the Trump administration would provide another round of financial aid if farmers are hurt by a trade war sparked by increased tariffs.
During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee, she also fielded questions on a range of other issues, including President Donald Trump's plans for mass deportations, biofuel policy, possible cuts to nutrition assistance, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again agenda.
Rollins told committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark.she has already spoken with former Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue several times about USDA’’s response to the trade war with China that resulted from the first Trump administration’s increased tariffs.
Rollins said the department would be “prepared to execute something similar” and pledged that she would be “working with the White House to ensure that we can close those holes for our farmers and ranchers moving forward under any sort of tariff execution in the next coming days, in the next few years.”
At another point in the hearing, she said, “We can’t reinvent the wheel. We’ve got to be able to move quickly.”
In 2018 and 2019, the first Trump administration provided farmers $23 billion through the Market Facilitation Program that was created using USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation, according to the Government Accountability Office.
“Regarding the president's tariff agenda, I think it probably comes as no surprise to anyone sitting in this room that he believes it is a very important tool in his tool kit to … bring America back to the forefront of the world and to ensure that we have a thriving economy. But just as he did and we did in the first administration, he also understands the potential devastating impact to our farmers and our ranchers,” Rollins said.
After the hearing, she told reporters that Perdue suggested modifications to the way MFP originally operated, but she declined to discuss his recommendations.
During the hearing, she also promised to prioritize trying to expand new markets for agricultural markets to close the existing ag trade deficit, now estimated at $45 billion, although Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., noted that the deficit was largely due to the strong dollar, competition from Brazil and tight U.S. beef supplies.
She said she would “begin immediately to work to bring that deficit down and hopefully soon get it to zero.”
Rollins promises to raise ag concerns about deportations
She offered less assurance to farmers concerned about losing workers due to the administration's planned mass deportations. She said she supported the plan and that the "first round' of deportations would be targeted at migrants with criminal records.
"We will follow and listen to our farmers and ranchers as this is moving," she said.
She did not provide a direct answer when Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., asked whether the administration would give a warning to farmers and ranchers that utilize immigrant labor on their operations,
But she said she would work with ag groups to “reform and perhaps modernize that H-2A program." The program, which is limited to seasonal labor, is overseen by the Labor Department.
On other issues, she said her immediate priorities at USDA would be a “fast and furious” effort to distribute $10 billion in economic assistance authorized by Congress in December and to combat the avian flu outbreak.
She said the administration was “hyper-focused on finding the team right now” to address animal disease outbreaks. “I know that the current team and the future team [at USDA] will be working hand in hand to do everything we can on animal disease,” Rollins said.
The committee’s top Democrat, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, pressed Rollins on her background at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a free-market think tank she once led, and how she would continue to promote biofuels. The foundation promoted fossil fuels and criticized federal ethanol policy.
Rollins pointed out that the reports from TPPF against ethanol were not authored by her and came out decades ago. She said coming from Texas, she has been a long-time defender of fossil fuels, but it’s important to support all sources of fuel and noted that Trump listed biofuels as part of his energy dominance plan.
“I will be a secretary for all agriculture,” Rollins said. “It is really important to me that we continue to defend and elevate and honor all sources of fuel.”
Klobuchar also asked about the financial disclosure reports from Rollins and her family, which show investments in fossil fuels. Rollins assured the senator that her decisions would not be guided by financial interest.
At another point in the hearing, she told Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., in response to a question about biofuel policy that as secretary she would “defend all of America agriculture.”
Rollins: MAHA now a priority for Trump administration
Little in Rollins’ background would suggest she would align with the Make America Healthy Again movement led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
But Rollins assured Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., that Kennedy’s concerns about child nutrition would be a factor in the administration.
Before Kennedy joined the Trump campaign “this particular issue, was not necessarily at the top of the America First agenda,” Rollins said. “We had some people working on it, but didn’t expect it to be a priority in the administration. I am encouraged that it is now a priority.”
But Rollins declined to oppose cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which House Republicans have under consideration to pay for border security and an extension of the 2017 tax cuts.
“I can’t commit to that,” she responded when Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., asked her to promise to oppose cuts that would “prevent Americans from putting food on their table.”
She told Klobuchar she was committed to ensuring nutrition assistance programs are "effective and efficient."
California's Proposition 12, which sets requirements for animal housing for pork and eggs sold in the state, also came up in the hearing.
In an exchange with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Rollins said she supported efforts to limit the impact of the ballot initiative.
“Listen, I’m a federalism believer,” Rollins said. “But this particular issue, I believe from a bipartisan perspective, there’s no doubt that it’s not just affecting California. It’s affecting multitudes of other states, multitudes of other parts of the ag community, including our family farms.”
In her exchange with Ernst – who serves as Senate lead of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency initiative – Rollins also expressed her desire to have USDA employees “in an office almost every single time” as the most effective way to ensure those paid by taxpayer dollars are “most effective.”
She told Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., she was "extremely excited" about requiring USDA employees to return to full-time in-office work.
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