WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — Brooke Rollins was easily confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Thursday as the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Senators backed her nomination 72-28. Rollins, a lawyer and Texas native was picked by President Donald Trump to run a crucial agency that administers roughly $213 billion in mandatory and discretionary funding.
Rollins, who has been the president and CEO of the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute, also served in the first Trump administration. She was unanimously approved by the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee earlier this month, with the backing of major farm groups.
Rollins’ four-hour confirmation hearing before the committee showed she likely had the support to secure Senate approval, though members from both political parties raised concerns about the decline in family farms, the hollowing out of rural America, the speed with which USDA delivers disaster aid to farmers and the future of nutrition programs.
USDA manages food safety practices, conducts agriculture and conservation research, handles farm management and administers the government’s largest food benefits program for low-income families, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
The agency also provides federal grants for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC.
Conservation groups including the Center for Biological Diversity in a letter earlier this month opposed Rollins’ nomination, saying she would “bring a clear bias in favor of industry and is likely to undermine the implementation of our nation’s core environmental laws that the Department of Agriculture is sworn to uphold.”
But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, praised Rollins on the floor Thursday as a “policy wonk with a farmer’s heart” who will work on priorities such as getting farm disaster aid out the door, controlling bird flu, completing the farm bill and focusing USDA on its “core mission” of meeting farmers’ needs.
Rollins said during her confirmation hearing that she has “a lot to learn” about highly pathogenic avian influenza or bird flu, the virus that’s wreaking havoc on the country’s poultry industry and dairy farms.
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said he worked with Rollins during the first Trump administration on criminal justice legislation but now “she’s focusing on her agricultural roots” after growing up in Texas as a member of the Future Farmers of America and 4-H.
“Mrs. Rollins is taking on a large role, leading 100,000 employees and making policy decisions that will affect family farmers across the country and impact the efficiency and transparency of government,” Grassley said in a Thursday statement.
“In her confirmation hearing, Mrs. Rollins assured me that she would, to the best of her ability, respond to my letters and make the Department of Agriculture a place where whistleblowers can come forward confidently,” he said.
Grassley also said he will work with Rollins on enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act, which is intended to ensure fair competition and trade practices in the markets.
Rollins succeeds Tom Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa who served as secretary of agriculture under President Joe Biden and, earlier, President Barack Obama.
