Senate Agriculture Committee advances Brooke L. Rollins to be agriculture secretary

Olivia M. Bridges, CQ-Roll Call on Feb 3, 2025

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WASHINGTON — The Senate Agriculture Committee on Monday voted to favorably report the nomination of Brooke L. Rollins, a senior aide for President Donald Trump during his first administration, to be the agriculture secretary.

Rollins had the support of members of both parties in the 23-0 vote despite ranking member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., expressing some concerns about her nomination. Rollins has also been the president and CEO of the conservative think tank America First Policy Institute.

“We obviously have concerns about workforce, tariffs, some of the conservation issues, and we are going to be holding her to getting things done for rural America,” Klobuchar said.

Klobuchar and Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., asked Rollins at her Jan. 23 hearing how she would handle tariff retaliation. The Agriculture Department estimated that retaliation by Canada, China, the European Union, India, Mexico and Turkey in response to Trump’s first trade war caused more than a $27 billion loss in U.S. agricultural exports, or $13.2 billion annualized, from mid-2018 to the end of 2019.

“If our trading partners unfairly target U.S. agricultural producers, how will the administration minimize the impact to our producers?” Boozman asked at the time.

Rollins said that tariffs are an important tool in Trump’s toolkit “but just as he did and we did in the first administration, he also understands the potential devastating impact to our farmers and ranchers.”

Rollins signaled she would be willing to use the Section 5 authority over the Commodity Credit Corporation to compensate farmers for lost exports in the event that trading partners raise tariffs. Former Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue used the CCC to provide farmers with $12 billion in aid in 2018 and $16 billion in 2019, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Both Democrats and Republicans proposed suspending the CCC’s Section 5 authority to boost funding for other farm programs but Trump’s trade policy could cause lawmakers to change course.

Rollins didn’t mention the CCC but said she’s spoken to Perdue.

“We are prepared to execute something similar,” Rollins said. She also committed to working “around the clock” to ensure that agriculture producers have a voice at the table and the impact on farmers is considered during tariff discussions.

The concerns about the impact of tariffs came after Trump on Saturday signed orders to impose 25% tariffs on goods imported from Mexico and Canada, with a 10% tariff carved out on Canadian energy products like oil. He also imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese goods.

But after talking to Mexico and Canada’s leaders Monday, Trump agreed to postpone those tariffs, due to take effect Tuesday.

Democrats also raised concerns at Rollins’ hearing about possible farm labor shortages because of Trump’s immigration policies. She said that she supports Trump’s vision for securing the border but the deportation plans would initially focus on migrants who have committed crimes.

“We will follow and listen to farmers and ranchers as this is moving,” she said. About half of hired crop farm workers lack legal immigration status, according to the Agriculture Department. From 2020 to 2022, only 32% of crop farm workers were born in the U.S. while 42% had no work authorization, the largest share of them being in California, it said.

Rollins said that she intends to work with the labor secretary nominee, former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, on H-2A visas. The H-2A program allows migrant workers to enter the U.S. for seasonal work. The USDA said the average H-2A visa period in 2023 was almost six months, and just over 378,000 positions were certified that year.