(WASHINGTON D.C.) — There is no shortage of activity happening right now on Capitol Hill and that includes at the agriculture department. Last Friday on Agriculture of America (AOA), USDA Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins joined us for a wide ranging conversation covering tariffs, the Farm Bill outlook, potential restructuring at USDA and more.
When it comes to tariffs, there are many in agriculture who are concerned while others are taking a “wait and see” approach to President Trump’s trade agenda. Rollins said it has been “really remarkable from my perspective is just watching the consummate dealmaker make the deals.” She pointed back to many of America’s founders as to the vision of President Trump’s tariff agenda.
“We have lived under a tariff regime of other countries for decades and decades. I mean, this really goes back to the founding of our country, Alexander Hamilton in 1791, which is what the president now, President Trump is now really adopting and has leaned into,” said Rollins. “But it was a concept of an American economy that was based on American commodities and fervent support and protection of our own products made in America. And instead, you know, not being a neutral arbiter on the world stage. This was Alexander Hamilton wrote about this in 1791. And for the first hundred years of our country, that’s really the economic system that we operated under. And that during that time, we went from a frontier republic to the world’s most powerful economic engine. And interestingly, it was really the dawn of the progressive era with the income taxes, et cetera, that we begin to move away from that. So this is really just a circling back to the beginning.”
Secretary Rollins added that President Trump, for decades, has talked about how poorly America has been treated and she agrees with his agenda after studying things on behalf of the ag community. Rollins also added that payments to farmers for support have been discussed. She said “if necessary, this president has been resolute in his conviction that he will be there for the farmers no matter what. And he was in 2018, 2019 under Secretary Perdue with the use of the CCC fund to mitigate a lot of those consequences. And I expect, fully expect that we will be, if necessary, hopefully not necessary, but if necessary, we’ll be there again.”
Another key piece that farm country is waiting on is a new five year Farm Bill. That is something that Secretary Rollins says she is starting to push for as well with Congress. “You know, the Farm Bill, especially the reference prices in the Farm Bill, are so important to our farmers,” said Rollins. She added “And the fact that the Hill has tried twice and has failed twice, the last Farm Bill that was approved was under President Trump. The Biden team and certainly the (former) Democrat chair, Debbie Stabenow, was not really pushing it, especially for our farmers. But I think times have changed.”
Secretary Rollins added that she has had extremely productive conversations with key leaders in the Senate and House such as Senate Ag Chairman John Boozman (R-AR), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), Senator John Hoeven (R-ND), House Ag Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson (R-PA) and Senate Ag Committee Ranking Member Any Klobuchar (D-MN). She added that she thinks “we’ve got the right team on the ground.”
Rollins did add that figuring out the SNAP program would be the biggest piece. She said “Obviously, Farm Bill, the biggest part of it is the food stamp program. It’s not the farmers. That’s only 15% of it. 85%, unfortunately, is about food stamps. So it makes it a bit of a complicated debate, extremely nuanced, but we’re already building out the building blocks to hopefully see great success this year in getting a Farm Bill.”
In terms of job cuts at USDA, various reporting has been indicating that those plans are well underway. Secretary Rollins, however, refuted some of the reporting on the potential restructuring. “It’s a lot of speculation and hypotheticals that have not been confirmed. We are still working through the plan, but it won’t surprise anyone that President Trump’s vision of, first of all, realigning the entire government and returning power to the people and realizing that the government has just gotten too big.”
You can hear the full conversation, discussing tariffs, Farm Bill, USDA restructuring and the Make America Healthy Again movement with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy on last Friday’s Agriculture of America (AOA) program linked below. The conversation starts at the 21:30 mark.
