The Trump administration is getting off to a much faster start putting its team into place at USDA than it did eight years ago, and that means the department is better positioned to deal with such issues as fallout from a trade war, according to veterans of President Donald Trump’s first term.
The Senate this week is moving toward confirmation of Agriculture Secretary-nominee Brooke Rollins, which means she will take office more than two months earlier than former Secretary Sonny Perdue, who was confirmed in late April 2017.
Trump also has nominated four undersecretaries, two of whom held senior positions at USDA in his first term, including Richard Fordyce, who served as administrator of the Farm Service Agency and is now Trump’s pick to be undersecretary for farm production and conservation.
Dudley Hoskins, who was nominated to be undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, was chief of staff for marketing and regulatory programs from 2017 to 2019 and then a senior adviser in the department from 2019 to 2021.
Richard FordyceThe White House also has installed a number of senior appointees who don’t need Senate confirmation. Brooke Appleton, former vice president of public policy for the National Corn Growers Association, started this week as deputy undersecretary for farm production and conservation. Another is Ralph Linden, the department’s principal deputy general counsel.
“They've had four years to sit and plan and build lists and vet people,” said Rebeckah Adcock, who served as a top adviser on regulatory policy at USDA during the first Trump administration.
Adcock, who spoke on a panel of Trump 1.0 veterans at this week’s annual crop insurance industry meeting in Bonita Springs, Florida, is now vice president for U.S. government relations at the International Fresh Produce Association.
“There's a lot that goes into that when you're choosing political appointees,” said Joby Young, who had several jobs at USDA in Trump 1.0, including chief of staff. “There's thousands of these positions across the government that have to be selected … and go through various vetting processes.” Young is now executive vice president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Ken Barbic, who served as assistant secretary of marketing and regulatory programs, noted that Linden is experienced in the legal provisions surrounding the Commodity Credit Corp., which the first Trump administration used to compensate farmers for the impact of the trade war with China. Linden served in the general counsel’s office from 1982 to 2021. Barbic is now principal with the food and agriculture practice group at Invariant, a lobbying firm.
During her confirmation hearing, Rollins said she was already in discussions about a new trade compensation package in case it’s needed.
But Barbic cautioned the crop insurance industry representatives that it’s still too early what kind of impact retaliatory tariffs may have on farmers this time around. Trump has delayed imposing tariffs on Mexico and Canada. He raised tariffs on China but the Chinese didn’t impose retaliatory tariffs on ag commodities.
“At this point, we've not yet seen what that … response might be to any prospective action the president might take in the weeks and months ahead,” Barbic said.
Another challenge for the new administration is that USDA currently only has about $4 billion of CCC spending authority remaining, far less than what would likely be needed. It's not clear when Congress will replenish the account.
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The crop insurance industry will be watching to see who is picked to be administrator of the Risk Management Agency. During the first Trump administration, Martin Barbre wasn’t installed at RMA until the end of April 2018, a year after Perdue was confirmed. Marcia Bunger got the job in November 2021, near the end of the Biden administration’s first year.
Tom Zacharias In opening remarks to the industry meeting, Tom Zacharias, president of National Crop Insurance Services, said the combination of a new administration, new Congress and prospects for a new farm bill offers “a unique opportunity to shape policy and reinforce the value of crop insurance.”
Zacharias said there were several “positive takeaways” from the first Trump administration.
“From implementing the current farm bill, to maintaining business operations during COVID and responding quickly after Iowa’s derecho and the prevented planting losses of 2019, there is a track record of working well with the Trump administration. A pro-business agenda and desire to achieve regulatory reform and economic recovery positions crop insurance well for the future," he said.
There are other positions outside USDA that are critical to agriculture as well as those in USDA.
“Everybody should be watching right now, who’s going to be the food and ag adviser to the president,” said Barbic. Ray Starling had that role until June 2018 in the first Trump administration before moving to USDA as chief of staff for a year. Starling “did a tremendous amount of work within the White House in the first few months,” Barbic said.
Adcock stressed the importance of the Office of Management and Budget, which has to sign off on spending and policy changes and is especially crucial to USDA. Russell Vought was recently confirmed as OMB director, a job he held in the latter part of Trump’s first term.
She called OMB “the linchpin to the operation” of the executive branch. Senior officials must have good working relationships with OMB and other key White House officials. When those relationships “don’t function, it really shows up,” she said.
OMB will come into play, for example, when USDA decides how to distribute the $31 billion in disaster aid and economic assistance passed by Congress in December, she said.
“It has to go through their lens, through their process and have that sign-off. And that is definitely a point of negotiation. … There are just a lot of boxes that have to be checked on process,” she said.
One big unanswered question for agriculture is what impact Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will have on farm and food policy if the Senate confirms him as secretary of Health and Human Services.
Barbic said industry needs to convey its concerns to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
He also suggested that there could be benefits to agriculture from Kennedy and the "Make America Healthy Again" movement.
“Don't view these issues just in a binary sense. There are going to be sliding scale issues where there could be opportunities to reform certain things that maybe are even win wins for … public health and for farmers in agriculture.”
Adcock said of Kennedy “We shouldn't assume that is all bad. And we should also know that a lot of Americans, approximately half, apparently, sort of asked for that. Doing something differently than you’ve always done it can be risky, can be scary, but it can also blow the doors open on opportunities that you've never thought you would have again.”
Adcock also suggested it’s possible to give Kennedy the benefit of the doubt while insisting that regulations are “based on risk, not precaution.”
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