Brooke Rollins confirmed as U.S. ag secretary

WASHINGTON — Conservative lawyer Brooke Rollins was confirmed Thursday as U.S. secretary of agriculture, placing a close ally of President Donald Trump into a key Cabinet position at a time when mass deportation plans could lead to farm labor shortages and tariffs could hit agricultural exports.

Rollins, who served as chief for domestic policy during Trump’s first administration, was confirmed overwhelmingly by the Senate in a 72-28 vote. Both of Iowa’s senators — Republicans Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst — supported her.

Rollins, who takes over from Democratic former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, will now lead a department tasked with overseeing nearly all aspects of the nation’s food system — including standards on farming practices and livestock rearing, federal subsidies to farmers or agribusinesses and setting nutrition standards for schools and public health officials nationwide.

“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 remarks Thursday in support of her.

“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.”

Key among Rollins’ priorities will be negotiations over a new farm bill. The comprehensive farm bill package supports several key farm and safety net programs, like crop insurance, as well as agriculture research, rural development, conservation projects and food assistance for low-income families called SNAP.

The bill is supposed to be updated every five years, but partisan gridlock got in the way over funding for SNAP benefits and incentives for capturing greenhouse gases, among other issues. Congress late last year passed a one-year extension.

Ernst said she had met with Rollins earlier to secure her support for issues important to Iowa farmers beyond the farm bill.

“It’s exciting to have a leader at the USDA who is once again committed to supporting all of agriculture,” Ernst said in a statement. “I look forward to working with her to reverse California’s harmful Proposition 12, deliver a five-year Farm Bill, advance homegrown Iowa biofuel, and elevate the voices of Iowa farmers.”

The California animal welfare law has drawn the ire of pork producers who face being locked out of that state’s market.

The law passed by California voters was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023. It bans the sale of pork in the state that comes from pigs born in a gestation pen with less than 24 square feet, space enough for sows to stand up and turn around. Many hog farmers in Iowa, the nation’s top pork producer, raise their pigs in facilities that don’t meet those standards.

Proposals to negate the effects of the California law — including one by Marion Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson — failed to pass in the previous Congress.

USDA at center of tariffs

The Department of Agriculture was at the center of Trump’s trade war in his last administration, when it increased subsidies to farmers growing the nation’s two biggest crops — corn and soybeans — after retaliatory tariffs were levied by China on the grains and international markets were disrupted. The United States is the world’s largest food exporter.

In her Senate confirmation hearing, Rollins acknowledged Trump’s plans for the mass deportation of people in the country illegally could led to farm labor shortages. Growers of some vegetables and crops such as apples as well as dairy operations are especially dependent on migrant labor.

But Rollins said Americans support Trump’s plans and she would work to help the president while also trying to protect farmers. “The president’s vision of a secure border and a mass deportation at a scale that matters is something I support,” Rollins said.

Rollins is a conservative legal activist and public policy analyst who most recently served as president and chief executive officer of the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned think tank that developed policy and cultivated a network of personnel for the second Trump administration.

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Rollins served as acting director of the White House Domestic Policy Council during Trump’s first term, where she oversaw a portfolio that included agriculture policy. She also served as president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Rollins plans to ‘modernize’ USDA

Rollins’ nomination unanimously was approved by the Senate’s agriculture committee. She promised to “modernize” USDA in line with Trump’s vision for the department that includes faster procession of disaster aid for farmers and tackling animal diseases.

She also vowed to “immediately begin to modernize, realign, rethink the United States Department of Agriculture” on policies like remote work, in line with the Trump administration’s broader stance.

Democrats expressed concern that federal funding freezes had disrupted aid to farmers and land grant universities and pressed Rollins on how her support for farming communities may clash with Trump’s immigration and trade agenda.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., the ranking member of the agriculture committee, pressed Rollins on how she would respond to retaliatory tariffs on U.S. crops, given Trump’s previous trade wars.

“Beyond just getting extra payments to make up for it, will you be a voice to make sure people understand the importance of exports for rural America? And it’s not just farming but manufacturing and the like,” Klobuchar asked.

Rollins promised that her team “would be at the table fighting for what we believe is necessary for these communities.”

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“Of all of the portfolio that, if confirmed, I am taking on, the one that excites me the most is the opportunity to put forward a vision and build a program around revivifying, restoring and bringing back rural America,” Rollins said. She cautioned that “clearly, the federal government itself can’t do that” but said that an “all approach” would be needed to help rural communities.