The newly sworn in secretary of agriculture pledged Friday to return the agency to its “core mission” in an address to employees and supporters at the USDA’s headquarters. She also told USDA employees to cooperate with the Department of Government Efficiency initiative led by Elon Musk.

“It is the honor of a lifetime to serve as the nation's 33rd secretary of agriculture, and a privilege beyond description to have the trust of President Donald J. Trump and the opportunity to advance his agenda here with all of you,” Brooke Rollins said in a brief speech attended by many ag luminaries, including House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa.

“That agenda is, of course, the agenda of the. whole American people, among whom the men and women of American agriculture stand in the very first rank,” Rollins said.

"We will focus USDA on our core mission of supporting American farming and ranching and forestry. We will work with both the White House and Congress to get it done," she said.

Later Friday, USDA issued a press release outlining “bold actions” she was taking to reform the department.

The release said USDA had terminated 78 contracts worth $132 million and that more than 1,000 contracts were under review. Already terminated contracts included $2.8 million in Politico subscriptions, $254,000 for diversity dialogue workshops and $91,000 “ for training, education, and access to professional and economic opportunities for women and increasing their participation in climate change adaptation activities” in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The USDA release said she was also killing all “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) programs to reprioritize unity, equality, and meritocracy.

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 “To this end, USDA has identified and canceled 948 employee trainings, 758 of which focused on DEI alone. Other canceled trainings include Environmental Justice and gender ideology.”

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Rollins said in her address that she was "proud to invite the Department of Government Efficiency here into USDA,"

“They've been here for a few weeks,” Rollins said. “We are welcoming the efforts because we know that that work will make us better here at USDA. It will make us stronger, it will make us faster, and it will make us more efficient.”

She said she expected USDA personnel to offer DOGE workers “full access.”

Rollins also said she would “end identity politics, identity celebrations and [diversity, equity and inclusion] here at USDA. … We will instead celebrate the things that make America the best in the world — our merit, our faith and our liberty.”

“All of our people deserve equal dignity, and at this department, we will be the model for that,” she said.

She said she had received a briefing on the avian flu outbreak that has affected poultry and dairy cows across the country but did not offer specifics on what the department plans to do about it.

“We had a really important briefing last night on the avian bird flu right over here in my new office, and I was just so impressed,” Rollins said. “And I think it is such a great, great sign of things to come.”

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