Texas lawyer to head agriculture department
Brooke Rollins will become the 33rd U.S. secretary of agriculture. The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Agriculture (USDA) on February 13 by a vote of 72 to 28.
Rollins is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank launched in 2021. She previously served as director of the White House’s Office of American Innovation and then as acting director of its Domestic Policy Council during Trump’s first term.
Rollins, originally from Glen Rose, Texas, earned her bachelor’s degree in agricultural development from Texas A&M University and her law degree from the University of Texas. She served as Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s policy director before running the Texas Public Policy Foundation for 15 years.
At her January 23 nomination hearing, she touched on her immediate priorities for the USDA.
The first would be to ensure that the $10 billion in disaster and economic assistance authorized by Congress in December is deployed as quickly and as efficiently as possible, Rollins said.
She also hopes to tackle the spread of animal diseases, including highly pathogenic avian influenza type A H5N1. The recent discovery of New World screwworm in Mexico is also top of mind, and Rollins said she would “immediately and comprehensively get a handle on the state of animal disease outbreaks.”
Another priority will be to “immediately begin to modernize, realign, rethink the United States Department of Agriculture,” she said, including the end of remote work for federal workers.
And finally, longer term, Rollins aims to ensure rural communities are “equipped and supported to prosper,” by exploring improvements to the department’s rural development programs and expanded trade markets, she said.
Rollins added that she anticipates providing “timely and technical assistance” to pass the Farm Bill, which was extended for one year through September 30.
She also fielded questions from senators in a three-hour hearing on how she would tackle a variety of issues ranging from the U.S. agricultural trade deficit to Trump’s planned crackdown on immigration.
During the hearing, Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, co-chair of the Senate Veterinary Medicine Caucus, talked about the importance of USDA veterinarians. She described them as “essential” in protecting animal and public health, and ensuring food security, particularly during the H5N1 outbreaks in poultry and dairy cattle.
“The vets are currently managing the H5N1 outbreak by testing meat and milk, and helping producers with biosecurity practices,” Hyde-Smith said. “But unfortunately, USDA has struggled for years with inadequate veterinarian staffing with the (Food Safety and Inspection Service) and with the (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service), a problem that was made worse by a compensation system that the previous secretary described as uncompetitive at a hearing in last Congress.”
Rollins committed to working with the senator and the USDA Office of Personnel Management toward meaningful solutions on recruitment and retention of USDA veterinarians.
Thus far, FSIS employees have been exempted from the federal hiring freeze recently enacted.
Rollins succeeds Tom Vilsack of Iowa, the secretary of agriculture in the past two Democratic administrations.