Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Monday it is too soon to know whether farmers will need compensation for the impact of President Donald Trump’s trade policy.
“Hopefully our farmers and our ag community won't be hurt … at least in the short term by these decisions, but if they are, the president's commitment is the same today as it was five or six years ago,” Rollins told reporters during a tour of Iowa agriculture on Monday.
She was referring to the $23 billion in Market Facilitation Program payments USDA distributed during Trump’s first term.
She said any new compensation package will be “determined based on what happens in the next weeks and months.”
At another stop she said the trade package would be determined “as soon as we fully understand the consequences, positive and otherwise, of these new negotiations, renegotiations.”
Rollins said she had been on the phone between stops in her tour discussing trade issues.
The administration is expected to announce broad new duties on trade partners that set higher tariff rates than the U.S., as well as make a decision on whether to expand existing tariffs on Mexico and Canada. It also could impose new duties on specific sectors.
Lobbyists for ag interests have been urging the administration to provide tariff exemptions, delays and assurances that tariffs will be used to lower ag trade barriers.
Lawmakers have been told that USDA is considering using the department’s Section 32 authority to provide payments to farmers out of tariff revenue. However, Rollins indicated Monday that no decisions have been made.
Rollins provided no new information about her department’s plans for additional layoffs. The Department of Health and Human Services announced plans last week to fire an additional 10,000 employees.
“The vision isn't that we're putting a lot of people out of work,” Rollins said. “The vision is that we're realigning our entire economy, where the private sector and free enterprise is driving those jobs, rather than bigger and bigger government.”
She also defended the department’s effort to remove all vestiges of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“America is based on meritocracy and equality. America is about unification. It's about the American dream. It's about anything being possible if you work hard enough, if you have big dreams, if you have the opportunities,” she said.
“This idea that we're dividing ourselves by what color your skin is and what bathroom you use and whether you're gay and what – none of that matters. This is America.”
Later, during a speech at the Iowa Ag Leaders Dinner in Ankeny, Rollins said USDA is "working on ways to address the challenges associated with" imported used cooking oil and tallow, which she said are "displacing homegrown biofuels and the current ag economy."
Earlier in the day, Rollins had announced the USDA is releasing $537 million in funding for biofuel infrastructure projects through the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program. When that action was mentioned at the dinner, the audience gave a standing ovation.
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