Testimony From Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollins

The uh committee will come to order. Well welcome and thank you for joining today's hearing where we'll hear from Secretary Rollins from the US Department of Agriculture. After brief opening remarks members will receive testimony from our witness today and then the hearing will be open to questions. So, good morning everyone. I'd like to welcome you all to today's hearing, special thanks to the honorable Brooke Rawlins for joining us for her second appearance before the house committing on agriculture I'm very proud to call secretary Rawlins a friend and we're grateful for both her leadership and for taking the time out of her busy schedule to be with us today before we begin I wanna be uh take a moment to acknowledge the empty seat in this hearing room former chairman David Scott was a friend a brother in the Lord and a fierce advocate for the farmers that he represented His presence here today is dearly missed and I'm was proud to honor his legacy by renaming the eighteen ninety scholarship program after him in the two thousand twenty-six farm bill I also wanna wish Congressman Baird a very happy birthday today.

Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Oh.

On the Ag Committee our work resol- revolves around a core question, what can we do to help rural America? We go about answering that question through hearings, briefings, round tables, farm visits, and listening sessions. However, the legislation that we ultimately passed is not where this discussion ends. That is where USDA steps in and begins their important work of implementing the programs that we have authorized. There's no better example of this than the work that we've seen with the implementation of the working families tax cuts bill. This was the largest investment in American agriculture in a generation and USDA has put in the work to get dollars out the door. Just last week, USDA announced a sign-up process for producers to take advantage of the thirty million base acres added to the ARC and PLC commodity programs. I'm very proud to see these investments roll out in a timely manner. Secretary Rawlins, I want to thank you for being a partner with us in this process. Your work makes it possible for us to ensure help reaches the producers who need it most. Great things are coming with the working families' tax cuts, and I'm eager to see USDA implement all the critical programs we included in that legislation. Also wanna acknowledge the important work your team has done to crack down on waste fraud and abuse within the supplemental nutrition assistance program. Your support and leadership have made it possible to restore integrity to this program in the ways that Congress intended. I look forward to hearing more specifics today about your department's efforts to uh improved state administration of of this program. Hopefully we'll be sending even more work your way soon. I know President Trump wants a farm bill on his desk and we we look forward to getting him uh one to sign in the near future. The Farm Food and National Security Act of two thousand twenty six is a significant step forward for producers and I know you will continue your diligent work once that bill gets across the finish line also wanna thank you for the work your team has been doing to boost the domestic production of fertilizer. For critical crop inputs, we must focus on solutions for both today and the future, and I believe the administration's approach does that e- exactly that. USDA's efforts in the last year to combat the spread of the New World Screw Room have also been commendable. The administration's action to prevent exposure in the US stopped the spread of this pest for as long as possible. While the detection yesterday wasn't what we were hoping for, I know USDA will continue to make the necessary efforts to eradicate screw worm once again. Throughout the eradication process, it is imperative that USDA, state animal health officials, industry groups, and members of Congress work together to effectively deploy the whole of government response that has been planned for months. Also know that I'm not alone when I say thank you for your commitment to farm assistance. The farmer bridge assistance program was a necessary step to hold producers over until updated policies kick in. Additionally, decision to dedicate leftover resources from FBA to the Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers program was much appreciated. While I believe there's still more to be done on that front, I thank you for recognizing the need and making the most of the limited dollars that you have available. Please continue to communicate with the committee on how we may be helpful to you, as we work to get our farm economy back on stable ground. We know that communication is the bedrock of the important relationship between USDA and the Health Committee on agriculture. Just a few weeks ago we hosted Deputy Steven Vaden uh Deputy Secretary Steven Vaden to s- speak to committee members about the USA reorganization process. This was a productive discussion in which good questions were asked and thoughtful answers were given. I look forward to continuing that discussion among others today with Secretary Rollins. I know that supporting our nation's farmers, ranchers and rural communities remains

Thank you, Mister Chairman. I wanna start by saying that uh former Chairman Scott, empty seat next to me, was a true fighter. For hungry veterans in his district, for students of historically black, eighteen nineties land grant institutions. hoping to become the next generation of agriculture leaders and for family farmers. That is exactly why the issues facing farm country today require a serious approach. We owe Congressman Scott that much. Madam Secretary, welcome. Almost a year ago to the day you appeared before this committee for the first time. During that hearing, Republicans and Democrats voiced their concerns about the pressing issues of the day facing farm country. and rural communities. Even then we discussed input costs, commodities prices, tariffs, food assistance programs, and USDA's important role in addressing all of these issues and more. I left that hearing hoping that you would heed the advice of this committee and try to course for your agency that met the needs of working families and family farmers. Instead, what we have witnessed is blind loyalty to a reckless president and administration. Over this past year, you and this administration have failed farmers and working Americans, time after time after time. Let's recap your record since you were last here. President Trump doubled-downed on his reckless tariff agenda, destroying critical export markets and driving up costs for all Americans. It cost farmers an estimated fifteen billion dollars in lost sales to China last year alone. While American farmers were reeling from the fallout of these tariffs, and calling on the administration for relief, President Trump instead gave Argentina twenty billion dollars and handed their ranchers a sweetheart deal, allowing more beef to be imported, at the expense of American cattlemen. It's truly stunning. When you finally did listen to the pleas from farm country for relief, it was woefully inadequate, picking winners and losers by providing some farmers with only a fraction of the relief they needed, particularly specialty crop growers, sugar beet farmers, and foresters. Only six percent of farmers reported that their financial situation improved from last year, six percent. Madam Secretary, I'm embarrassed for you. Farm bankruptcy surged forty-six percent nationwide in Trump's first year back in office, an astounding seventy percent in the Midwest. And just this past April, farm bankruptcy surged to their highest monthly total since early twenty twenty in President Trump's first term. Farmers began twenty twenty-six hoping for a course correction. And what has this administration done? Start a war with Iran with no strategy, forethought, or care for what the consequences would be for American agriculture or working people? As a result, critical supplies have been choked off from leaving the Strait of Hormuz. driving fertilizer and diesel costs to staggering new levels, and making it nearly impossible for farmers to turn a profit. And while all of this is happening, what have you, as secretary, been doing? Proclaiming that the golden age of agriculture is just around the corner for over a year now. I can promise you, that corner is so long, no farmer in America can see around it. And mind you, this is just talking about farm country. You've also made the largest cut to food assistance in the history of our country, at a time when more and more people are struggling to afford their food. Then you went on TV and bragged about kicking over four million Americans off food assistance. People like Joseph Myers from my home state of Minnesota. He's a former farm hand who is going to lose SNAP benefits, because of the new so-called one big beautiful bill. In his words, quote, when the food stamps come to an end, then it's gonna be really suffering. He's fifty-eight, can't perform physical labor anymore, and works at the local food bank about ten hours a week. But Republicans decided that's not enough for him to deserve SNAP benefits. And over the last year I've watched you brag about taking food for millions of Americans like Mister Myers? You've put on some big show about this golden age in agriculture? Honestly, it's disgusting. The only person this has been a golden age for is the president himself. A personal one point eight billion dollar slush fund, paid for by the American taxpayer. A ballroom custom built for his fancy dinners, paid for by corporate donors. Putting his face on a two hundred and fifty dollar bill, building arches, carving his name into buildings, and that doesn't even include his crypto or shoddy cell phone business interests. A farmer in Iowa put it better than I could, so I will close with his words, quote, people are hurting out here. The rhetoric about the golden age of agriculture right around the corner, that doesn't match the reality of what's going on on the ground at all. I wish I thought you would listen, but unfortunately, I do believe

Chairman, I request that all the members submit their opening statements for the record, so our witness may begin her testimony and to ensure that there is ample time for questions. I'm pleased to welcome to the committee our witness for today, USDA Secretary Brooke Rawlins. Madam Secretary, you thank you for joining us. You we will now proceed to your testimony. You have five minutes, the timer in front of you will count down to zero. At which point your time has expired. Secretary Rawlins, please begin when you're ready.

Great, thank you so much, Chairman Thompson. Uh, your partnership and friendship and uh many on this committee over the last year and four months has just been such a unexpected blessing. So I just wanna start there. Thank you. Uh, thank you, Ranking Member Craig. Uh, we have a lot to talk about, but but hopefully during uh your five minutes I can respond to some of those accusations. But also thank you to all the distinguished members of this committee. I appreciate the opportunity to provide an update on the Department of Agriculture since we last met uh just over a year ago. At the outset, I'd like to acknowledge that there are two people uh we've already talked about Congressman Scott David Scott, but two people that aren't with us that that were here last year in this room. Of course, one Chairman Scott and the other Doug LaMalfa. Both were incredible champions for American agriculture. Doug uh became a friend and uh whispered in my ear a lot about forestry and about his home uh his home area, and uh and I've missed him every day since he left. And of course Chairman David Scott for helping create amongst many other things, helping create, steward and shepherd the eighteen ninety scholarship program. I know we all feel their absence and take comfort that their incredible legacy will live on for years to come. One month from today we will celebrate a truly magnificent milestone. the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. As the Declaration's principal author, Thomas Jefferson, once noted, agriculture is indeed our wisest pursuit. More than just an economically vital industry, it helps make our very freedom possible. If we are to secure the blessings of liberty for future generations, we must fight for the future prosperity of American agriculture with every fiber of our being, and for the last fourteen months it has been my greatest honor to do so. Today is the five hundredth day since President Trump returned to office, and under his leadership, putting hardworking farmers, ranchers, and rural America back at the center of policy making, and it's never been more important than today that we deliver for the men and women who work the land who tend the livestock and who call the heartland home. The challenges facing our farmers are real, In rural America, the Trump administration inherited a farm economy that saw the cost of doing business skyrocket. Under the previous administration, commodity prices plummeted from a thirty year high. Farm income experienced historic declines in those four years. Our farmers saw not one new trade deal in those four years under the last administration. And when we came back, When we left in twenty twenty one, we had an eight billion dollar agricultural surplus, trade surplus. When we came back, it was a fifty billion dollar agricultural trade deficit. These numbers are staggering. Over the past sixteen months we've worked nonstop to reverse this trajectory for American ag. But such a seismic reroute cannot happen overnight. I hope we will continue to work together, and I'm so grateful for many members of this committee on the other side of the aisle who have been wonderful to work with in the last year and very grateful for their partnership as they fight for their farmers in their home districts. President Trump and congressional Republicans delivered historic wins for farmers in rural America in the working families tax cut. Winds including increasing reference prices for the first time in over a decade, after the last administration couldn't get a farm bill done. Adding up to thirty million new base acres for farm safety net programs. These are game-changers. Saving two million family farms from the death tax, and permanently doubling small business expensing under section one seventy nine. And that's just a very short list of when after when after when for rural America, the largest investment in rural America in history was in the working family's tax cutout of about two hundred and fifty million dollars. Input costs of course remain top of mind for our farmers, including fertilizer availability and affordability. Uh President Trump has activated our entire cabinet to address this long-standing problem that demands both short-term and long-term solutions. From waiving the Jones Act for the short term to uh speed permitting instead of a couple of years forty-five days what will be the largest ammonia plant in the world in Louisiana. We will now break ground on that in just a couple of weeks with about ninety other fertilizer projects infrastructure projects going on around our country now, on fast speed. I'm confident we will meet this fertilizer challenge as well as other input challenges in the future, and uh and look forward to doing so. One of uh my very first actions, and we talked about this a year ago, just a couple of weeks after I was sworn in by Justice Clarence Thomas, we launched a comprehensive one billion dollar plan to combat avian flu and the cost of eggs. That plan has worked and is working. The wholesale price of eggs has dropped over ninety percent since last year. HPAI cases in commercial poultry and turkey flocks are down sixty-one percent since last year. We of course invested a significant amount of money in biosecurity and in partnering with our great egg farmers around the country. And the number of birds dropped almost fifty percent since that plan launched. And along with eggs, the cost of other staples has continued to decline, including butter, potatoes, berries, many more vegetables, proteins, yoghurts, et cetera. We are taking all threats to our producers extremely seriously, so I'll take a moment, Mister Chairman, to talk about the screw worm uh detection. And of course we can dive in uh with any of you in your Q and A. Yesterday we received confirmation for the presence For the first time in forty five years, the presence of a New World screw worm case within the United States, uh with the exception of a couple in Florida and others in the last number of years. We found that and was confirmed in a three week old calf in La Prior, Texas. While this development is a serious threat to our livestock and wildlife, it isn't ca- hasn't caught us off guard, we were ready and prepared. Under the last administration and after having the dairy and gap, which is the uh the biological barrier between South America and Central America, which held the screw worm at bay since the nineteen sixties. That ba- that barrier barrier and gap crumbled under the last administration. With open borders and the proliferation of the Mexican cartels and their illicit cattle trafficking, the New World Screw Worm began to make its way north, hitting Mexico in twenty twenty-three and twenty-twenty-four. All models showed that this pest would be here by last summer with the extremely aggressive action with the support of this committee and an entire across government effort we began to push back very significantly starting February of last year the aggressive a action we took across the Trump administration and with our state and local partners bought us almost a year of critical time to prepare for what happened yesterday. We have now activated our new world screw worm response playbook, which includes detailed protocols and procedures for just this scenario. We've established a twenty kilometer zone around the detection and implementing quarantines, movement controls, and surveillance in the region. In fact, I'll be there next week. We have expedited a targeted release of sterile flies in the affected area to prevent the pests from reproducing and are increasing for New World Screwworm flies along the border. We are ramping up surveillance and also management in our wildlife. In short, we are using every tool at our disposal to eliminate this threat to our livestock producers and to our national security, and we will actively keep you updated. Thankfully, this pest does not represent any sort of challenge to our food safety, and that's a really important message. This is a flesh-eating pest that lands on mammals, on livestock, on deer, et cetera, it is not a threat to our food supply. We have beaten screw worm before and we will do so again and again. I don't have time to get into all the details, but if anyone has questions, I'll look forward to uh ensuring I can answer all of them. We're also ensuring our farmers can compete and win on the international stage and in global markets. Already in the first year, we have secured nineteen new trade deals in one year and leveling the playing field, delay the foundation for that long-term prosperity, I know all of us are working to achieve on both sides of the aisle. We now predict that that fifty billion dollar agricultural trade deficit that we inherited in one year will be cut by forty-two percent. This is billions of dollars back in our farmers' pockets that were lost in the last administration. We are expecting that even this year, two of our second term that American producers will set export records in key global markets. It's an incredible time. As we expand opportunity for the long term, we are also putting our farmers first by providing the short-term support that is needed to survive. Whether the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, the Specialty Crop Assistance Program, and so many others that we've been deploying over the last year, we have delivered at USDA tens and tens of billions of dollars into targeted direct relief to help our farmers weather these rising input costs, devastating storms and market disruptions. Another uh group of producers just very quickly I talked about on the West Coast last week are our cotton growers. The last administration turning a blind eye as our cotton growers suffered for the first time in American history. America became number two in cotton exports when Brazil took over yet another market from our country during the four years of the last administration. Reasserting American cotton dominance is essential, which is why we are going big as well as many other commodities, et cetera, uh in the days ahead. In partnership with Secretary Kennedy, our uh most significant reset of federal nutrition policy, we believe in perhaps American history through the Make America Healthy Again movement. Our new dietary guidelines are science-based and entirely devoted to ensuring that American farmers and ranchers are at the center of these new dietary guidelines and therefore become the direct model and and driver for our nutrition policy in America which is a huge win for our producers in this country. It's important to remember that USDA's largest line item by far is what we spend on nutrition programs not on the farmers. Taken together, USDA spends nearly four hundred million dollars every day on sixteen nutrition programs four hundred million dollars every day on the sixteen nutrition programs last year. Programs like the National School Lunch program, which took effect eighty years ago today, plays a crucial lifeline to fellow Americans in need. Restoring the integrity of these programs, including in SNAP, uh is very, very important to this administration and to our USDA. Already in one year we have made over nine hundred arrests, nine hundred arrests, in the SNAP program over one hundred and twenty convictions very quickly, and with a hundred and thirty-two million dollars already in restitution. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Only the Republican states have shared their data with us, so most of this fraud we have found is actually in the red states. We are obviously in litigation with all the blue states to get that data and to hopefully at some point be able to partner with them to root out more fraud. Also on the topic of law and order from day one this administration has been clear that farm security is national security. Last summer we launched our national farm security action plan that boldly integrates agriculture into the national security strategy for our country, for the first time ever, which is sort of stunning but really glad we're finally getting there. Our plan treats the ownership of farmland and who's purchasing farmland, animal disease defense, and our food supply chains as the major national security issue that they are. And we continue to work with our congressional and state partners on this issue. Our farmers, ranchers, and rural communities serve the vital role of feeding and fueling and clothing our entire nation and the world. And as we celebrate that two hundred and fifty years of freedom, including at the great American State Fair on the National Mall this summer in front of the People's Department, USDA, I hope we will continue to fight together for these men and women who helped make our country great and our freedom possible. I look forward to taking your questions. Thank you so much.

Well, thank you for your important testimony today. At this time, members will be recognized for questions in order of seniority, alternating between majority and minority members, and order of rival for those who joined us after the hearing convened. Uh, you'll be recognized for five minutes each in order to allow us to get to as many questions as possible. And I'll recognize myself uh for five minutes. Madam Secretary, I appreciate your work to support the American cattle ranchers and ensure that misguided plans to import additional foreign beef were not finalized. Also wanna thank you for the time and effort you all have dedicated to addressing the New World Screw Worm. From your coordination with Mexico to the additional sterile fly facilities, enhanced research into emergency technologies, and the response playbook, and numerous other activities, Mm. USDA's work has been tireless, and I commend you and your team for that. I know the detection in South Texas yesterday is not what we wanted, but we are prepared to fight this, containing the spread through quarantine measures and serifly dispersals and pl deploying treatment options to any animals that may be infected and continued education to producers and consumers alike, and that we're prepared to fight this, and that we're prepared to fight this, and that we are prepared to fight this, and that we're prepared to fight it. will be crucial. As we look forward, it is also important that we have frank conversations about returning to a sense of normalcy and that we're prepared to fight this, at the border. The closure has resulted in a full stop of the cattle we traditionally import into the country and has encouraged Mexico to build out their own feeding and processing infrastructures meaning that they're benefiting from US genetics while taking inventory away from domestic producers. Because transmission can happen through a number of vectors, including through wildlife, companion animals and humans, we need to keep talking about next best steps for the southern border including a reopening that includes rigorous checkpoints, treatment and quarantine measures. Uh Madam Secretary, again I wanna thank you and your team for your efforts to combat the New World Screwworm and I appreciate the comments that you made in your opening statements. If you have any anything uh further to add, I'm gonna give you a few minutes to do so, uh otherwise I'll I'll move on to my first question.

No, I appreciate that. I would like to take just a moment on the New World Screwworm, so It it's a it's a it is a vexing challenge that we thought we had beaten in the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies. Uh as I mentioned uh unfortunately that was wrong as the screw room began to make its way back towards us in twenty twenty one. The way we defeated it before, you need about four hundred million sterile flies per week to actually mate with the bad flies, sterilize them, and then of course the way that the fleshes and wounds uh becomes uh open to these these screw rooms which are actually flies. The flies land in the wound, they lay their eggs, the larva then is what actually eats the eats the uh the flesh. If you catch it right away, you can save the animal uh and and and put them back into the supply system after a number of days if you don't catch it right away then that's where the problem ensues. Back when we did beat it, again as I mentioned, it's about four hundred million sterile flies a week, and that was in the nineteen sixties, nineteen seventies, because over years we had taken We as a country, we as a hemisphere had taken our eye off the ball, thinking it was it was eradicated. Um, we got down to only a hundred million sterile flies in production a week in a facility in Panama so that is what we you know the the country not we me or USDA but the country really had relied on to keep it out of Central America and and Mexico et cetera. So here we are. When we got in last year uh I was presented with the information, it's starting to move its way up. I went to the president and I said, " This is gonna be a massive problem because we need four hundred million to five hundred million flies per week to beat this back. We only have one facility in our entire hemisphere and it's only producing a hundred million flies per week." So got immediate approval to begin permitting and construction on what will be the largest facility in the world on this, and that is being built right now in Mission, Texas. So instead of a couple years of permitting, our Army Corps of Engineer, our secretary of the war, uh put it at the top of the list, got it fast tracked and we we broke ground about three or four months ago. That facility will come online when it do next year. When it does, it'll produce about three hundred million flies per week, in addition to the hundred million from Panama. And then we outfitted an additional Mexican facility in Matapa for another hundred million dollars. So we will get back to the point where we're able to push it back and eradicate it. But until that point, which is likely sometime next year, uh our effort in trapping, surveillance, Uh we had FDA fast track a lot of treatment. We've got a national veterinary supply stockpile that was loaded onto a plane this morning is headed to South Texas right now. Uh I've already done a lot of press on this, so making sure that we're over-communicating, especially to our producers, uh is paramount. Of course for Arizona, New Mexico and California, it's also a challenge, but the screw room continues to be between five hundred and eight hundred miles away from those borders. It's really South Texas where we're really combating this every day. The point of that, Mister Chairman, is that we're on it, we've invested almost a billion dollars since we came in the door last year to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

Well, thank you Madam Secretary, and I'll yield back what few seconds I have. And now recognize uh the ranking member for five minutes.

Thank you Mister Chairman. Madam Secretary, do you know how many farms we lost in the United States last year?

Uh, I know you were talking about the bankruptcies. I know that about three hundred and fifteen farms of one point eight eight million are moving through bankruptcy right now.

We we we we lost we excuse me, we lost fifteen thousand farms last year.

Well,

Some third,

that's a conversation I would really like to have.

fourth, some third, fourth, and fifth generation farms.

Okay, so not bankruptcy, just the purchase.

Fifteen thousand far fifteen we lost fifteen thousand farms, because a bad policy on the part of this administration.

So you think we walked in the door and the most farms closed immediately?

Do you do you know I'm sorry, I'm I'm gonna ask the questions here today.

Okay, I would love a question.

Do you know how much money farmers lost last year? What their losses were last year. It was twenty-eight billion dollars,

I

you're the Secretary of Agriculture, twenty-eight billion dollars.

Well, it depends how you calculate that, because I don't think you're taking into account all the crop protection, all the insurance, all of the the uh different programs that went through to support our farmers.

W right,

We

and if this administration didn't have terrible policies, we would not need all

Madam Rankin Rankin member, that is absolutely one hundred percent not correct. When we lost all of our trade access around the world, we went to a forty two billion dollar agricultural trade deficit.

Madam Secretary, I'm gonna reclaim my time on behalf of family farmers.

That was not the Trump administration.

Reclaiming my time means you stop talking.

That was the Biden administration.

That's that's what it means in this building. You stop talking when I reclaim my time. What's the national average of farm diesel right now?

The national average of farmed diesel.

Yeah, a diesel. Yeah, what's d what's a diesel?

Well, diesel has increased because of the Iranian conflict.

How much? How much how much was it? How much is it right now?

Well, before the Iranian conflict, it had gone way up under the all inputs under the last administration increased about forty percent. That's what we inherited. It all was coming down.

Reclaiming my time, Madam Secretary, Joe Biden is no longer the President of the United States. Mister Trump is. Your party controls Congress. You own these numbers at this point in time. I'm sick of hearing you blame an administration from a year and a half ago, you own every single bit of this. Since you don't know the answer, in May the average price of diesel was five forty-one a gallon. That's up ninety-five percent from a year ago, the entire year in which this administration was in power, in the White House, the House, and the Senate. Uh, let me ask you another question to see if you know anything about farm Since the start of the Iran war, how much have fertilizer prices increased for American farmers?

Well, there are four different pockets of fertilizer. Nitrogen, I'm sure is what you're talking about, uh which is ammonia, that's increased about forty percent, uh based on the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The others are are a little more stable, but but uh we are now it it did go up almost ninety percent under the Biden years. So uh even though we're we're hitting record numbers,

Uh, reclaiming my time, you are in.

we take that very seriously. Ma'am, this is, uh can we have a conversation without being so rude?

Madam Secretary, do you know what per cent I'm reclaiming my time.

Okay, I just ask you not to be so rude. I mean, I'd really like to have a a legitimate conversation.

Do Do you know what percentage of farmers now say they can't afford fertilizer for this year as a result of the President's war in Iran?

Well, it depends on the geographic location.

Oh my God.

The southeast is

Seventy percent is the answer across the country.

Those are not the numbers. That's that's not correct.

Madam Secretary. Do you know what the snap fraud rate actually is according to the most recent estimates from USDA? The fraud rate.

Well, that is based on data we're receiving from the states that we can't verify. That's the whole point of this, is we have no ability to verify California, Minnesota, where the fraud has been seen,

Re reclaiming my time,

with New York,

it was one point six percent according to USDA.

well we can't well, that's because Minnesota's your state is saying we only have one point six percent fraud rate which we all know is an

What I'll say it again. The USDA's own data found one point six percent. I don't know,

No, no, we were relying on your data from Minnesota and you won't share it with us.

I don't think I don't think you understand the difference between error rates and fraud rates. I honestly don't. It is one of uh the lowest progra the lowest fraud rate in any program in America is the SNAP program.

The lowest fraud rate of any program in America is the SNAP program?

One, your own, your own

Uh, you can't be serious when you say that.

Your own data says one point six percent,

Again,

Madam Secretary.

that's because the state's, the uh your state has told us that number and you won't allow us to confirm it.

Reclaiming my time once more. Um You you've you've bragged on TV that it's a great thing that you kicked four million people off SNAP.

The ability to work, the righteousness of work is is is not

Reclaiming my time. Seven hundred thousand kids.

We should be proud. That's the goal of these welfare programs.

Look, look, Madam Secretary, I'm asking you these questions because these issues, this committee, it's all personal to me.

You're not asking questions for an

My mom was uh se ma reclaiming my time again. My mom was m Madam Secretary, m Mr. Chair, I she talked over half of my time here. So look, when you describe the farm economy as the golden age,

General Laney's time has expired.

this administration needs to wake up and start

Now, recognize the gentleman from Oklahoma,

understanding that family farmers are in need.

Mister Lucas.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and Secretary Rollins, thank you for being here today. I wanna start my first question by thanking you for your leadership on the great American cotton plan that USDA announced last week. As Congress considers additional ways to help the domestic cotton industry, one proposal continuing to gain traction is the bipartisan Buying American Cotton Act,

Mm-hmm.

which would encourage greater use of US grown fiber, support more textile manufacturing in the United States, and help shift sourcing away from regions associated with forced labor. Secretary, How do these priorities align with the goals of the great American cotton plan, and what are the what role can can the stronger demand play in US uh cotton advancing this agenda?

Well, I this is uh though again the work is i in this wor this is this is a a job that I just everyday wake up and it isn't easy, I don't take it lightly, it's a seven day a week work, it's twenty hours a day, but the opportunity to identify where there has just been such bad policy making over many years, uh and and seeing what has happened to some of our farmers. Cotton is one of those, and to see how the world uh has taken our market over a number of years, and and that's for a lot of reasons. I mean the the the what we wear is often shipped in now from other countries, it's cheaper synthetic fiber, so I think the Buy an America Cotton Act, the the BACA, as well as aligning with our great American cotton plan, They are one hundred percent aligned. And what's really exciting about this is, is again in a bipartisan way, uh everyone is really I think woken up to the Making America Healthy Again movement. And what I've been talking about, it isn't just what we're eating and the food and putting our farmers back in charge, but it's also what we wear, the sheets that we sleep in, et cetera. And there's nothing better than great American cotton. And uh so getting back to that, plants not plastics, Uh I like to say America not Brazil because Brazil's the one that's taken uh most of our market on that, is an incredible opportunity for our cotton farmers.

Secretary, I'd like to discuss also the New World Screwworm for a moment, and first I wanna thank you, Secretary Rollins, for your being extremely transparent and quick in response to the situation in Texas yesterday. And I I know your testimony outlined highlighted the work the administration's done to combat the fly-both-in, Mexico and here at home. S so let's visit for a moment about that. Uh tell me about the contingency plans as you mentioned earlier. Tell me about the the focus with which the department is putting on this. You obviously and the department are taking this very, very seriously, correct?

Well, that's correct, and I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about it. I didn't wanna take too much time in my opening statement, but but this is an issue that there should have been a facility that broke ground three years ago, frankly, whenever it began to move our way. This should have been something that we were investing in Mexico in from twenty twenty-one to twenty twenty-four as it began to move our way very significantly. Um, just a big shout-out to President Trump, you know, the I I know we're gonna get a lot of hate in here and and I hate it, but the idea of returning the power to the people and and and shrinking the size and right-sizing the footprint of government is all very righteous work, and that's what the American people voted for. But at the same time, to envision that while we were doing all of that work last spring, I walk into the Oval Office, I make the case to the President of the United States that yes, we are cutting government, we're working really hard not to be so so so big, especially in Washington. The Tenth Amendment, the states and the local government should be the ones uh doing most of the policy making. But sir, We're gonna need a billion dollars to launch a new facility, to break ground, to really invest on the other side of the border, to slow down. And if we do nothing, or if we do business as usual, the screw room will be here in the summer of last year and we will not be prepared.

Sure.

And uh almost without hesitation he said go. So so we've been we've been working really hard.

So you're working very hard, creating more facilities, increasing the production at existing facilities. I understand trying to improve the viability of the

That's correct.

Uh working on ways to try and create higher percentages of male flies, since that's the fly that matters in this contest.

That's right.

Uh all of those things, which is why we invest in agricultural research, correct? Why we invest in having the infrastructure for these kind of struggles 'cause this will never go completely away we just have to be vigilant and prepared from now on, correct secretary?

Ever vigilant and ever watchful and Talking to I was on the phone with about fifty of our cattle ranchers uh in Texas last night late last night. And I said this single we're getting the treatments down to you, we've got the veterinarians, we're surging veterinarians, we're surging uh inspectors et cetera. But it is now up to you to keep eyes on your animal.

Uh Jim.

That's the most important thing.

Thank you, sir. It's great. Thank you, Chairman.

Jim,

You're welcome.

Mr. Thomas,

Thank you so much.

fire, now recognized, gentleman from California, Mr. Costa, for five minutes.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and Secretary Rollins, and for for being here. Um You've been on the job for a little over a year. Um, I'm glad uh you're ready to talk about uh the challenges my farmers in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the richest agricultural regions in the country, are hurting. Uh, not only them, but farmers are hurting, farm workers are impacted. And as um we know, uh and your testimony indicated previously, farm uh agriculture is a national security issue. I say that every time we have a hearing. Mm-hmm. I'm a third generation farmer. And I know very much at first hand the impacts that farmers are are faced with. Um, it's not a slogan. In the San Joaquin Valley, we live live that every day. Let me give you some numbers, Madam Secretary. California brings sixty-one point two billion dollars at the farm gate last year, grows nearly half the nation's vegetables, more than three quarters of the fruits and nuts, and ships twenty-six point three billion dollars in farm exports last year, the largest exporter in the country. So, when the USDA acts, my farmers fill it first. And uh bankruptcies are up. That's a fact. You may not like it. My farmers don't like it either. Uh and so what are we doing about it? Your testimony says the reorganization plan, that I have a lot of questions about, brings USDA closer to serve the communities we serve. Uh but you're moving it to five hubs, not one in California. The number one agricultural state in the nation. My growers need help just as much as other growers around the country on farm programs,

Mm-hmm.

conservation, research, disaster aid, school purchase programs, which is critical. Those offices are scattered around the country, not closer to my farmers, that's a run around. And I must tell you uh that um you know the USDA uh is closer to California farmers. Uh on the map can you show me where in fact uh it's skips the biggest ag state in the nation how it becomes closer.

Well, a lot to unpack there. But so to answer that last point, what I will say is we are moving hubs to Kansas City, to Indiana, which is closer to California than Washington DC. Uh, we've also got a hub in Salt Lake, Salt Lake City and in Colorado.

Let me give a, you a different take. Uh, I've been here for twenty-two years.

Okay.

Farmers and their associations, they're smart folks. When they come to Washington, they not only visit the USGA, they visit the Trade Office, they visit the Department of Interior, they meet with their members of Congress. Now you wanna put this into five different hubs, uh that's not effective, that's a run around. Let me stick to second question,

We'll still have the headquarters here.

we're gonna need to talk about that. Do you have any desire or willingness to evaluate

Okay.

whether or not California might be possible for a hub? Yes or no?

Uh I wou I would be very welcome to that, and in fact we've we've adjusted some things along the way based on feedback.

Well let's talk about that later. Trade, critical for California,

Uh I'm ver just call me anytime.

forty four percent of California's agricultural exp is exported. and this disastrous trade war brought on between the tariffs, uh, you've tried to do damage control. It happened in the first Trump administration, twenty-eight billion dollars taken out of the commodity credit conservation to deal with the damage that occurred bef- bef- before the Tr- first trade war. Um, so you've eleven billion dollars for road crops. I I think that's probably appropriate. But what about specialty crops? Specialty crops associations say they They need at least five billion dollars to deal with the impact of these trade wars. Um and it's got skyrocketed and it's cut off key trade partners that these markets are hard to access and develop. Uh you've lumped them together with sugar, and sugar needs help as well, for one billion dollars. Uh that's not the five billion dollars that these bunch of the crops believe they deserve. I know on Friday in California you announced an increase, but it's still paltry compared to the demat damage that's occurred. Um, crop relief, and and it's about fairness, Madam Secretary, and I don't think there's fairness being dis- dimmo demonstrated. California exports uh to China collapsed sixty-four percent in the last year and a half. Almonds are down seventy-seven percent. Fresno County alone, which I represent, lost two hundred and forty-six million dollars last year. You cannot find a single bottle of California wine, which is pretty good, I may tell you, in Canada. in a restaurant or in a store. They are uh responding with their pocketbook. Uh and if this Trump's trade war is making matters worse, you can look at the impacts uh of Iran. The the fact that the Straits of Hermosa are closed has impacted shipping lanes, Pistachio, Walnuts, Almond Shippers and Producers can't move their products to the the region. So two direct questions. First beyond the payments announced so far, will you commit to additional assistance For specialty crop growers taking losses from the president's war with Iran, yes or no?

We'll be happy to look on that. It's a matter of funding and the CCC is, uh, as you know, the one big beautiful bill, the working family's tax cut is uh

It was big, I didn't think it was beautiful. I'll have to save my questions for later.

J

Thank you, Madam Secretary.

I'm happy to follow up on on California and otherwise we had a remarkable visit there last week.

The gentleman's time has expired.

Thank you.

Now recognize the gentleman from Arkansas, Mister Crawford, for five minutes.

Madam Secretary, thank you for being here, and I wanna say at the at the outset here it's uh very refreshing to have an actual Aggie that's ock occupying the the uh the the secretary position. Uh very refreshing for a change. Your credentials in that space are unassailable. Thank you. Um real quick, fertilizer's been a topic of conversation. I wanna go back to fertilizer because I think it's in our national interests um to secure our own sources of fertilizer production. Um our supply chain is very fragile and our our production base is extremely limited. I think we've regulated ourselves into that position, but let me just say this, that I I don't wanna see the mistake made that we've done with other endeavors, where we see big pharma, we see big oil, and the small players are priced out. And the reason I say that is because from a geographic perspective, I think it's more important that we atomize the industry, because they are positioned to address the needs in a given geography, which actually enhances the viability of

Mm-hmm. I I think that, yeah, I think we're talking about the Eldorado, Arkansas, uh, urea and ammonium nitrate fertilizer plant, which is really exciting. I know I mentioned in the in the top of the of the comments

Mm.

the importance of national security, that what I have learned uh moving into this job, I knew it was a major challenge, but the fact that we've offshored our fertilizer, our seeds, our supply chains, our processing over a number of years really is a national security issue. We used to produce our own fertilizer almost exclusively in this country. In the last couple of decades we now only produce about half of the fertilizer that we need which means we're reliant on China to and Russia and other foreign countries and some foreign adversarial countries. This is a solvable problem in the long run, and so the light that has been shown on the fertilizer industry to rebuild in America cannot be overstated. Uh, as I mentioned, we've got big plants going in everywhere, the world's biggest plant, we're gonna be breaking ground, I'll be in some states in the next few weeks talking about it, but I think your point is a really, really important one. We've got, you know, a couple dozen, three dozen really great fertilizer plant projects going on. One is a four million dollar project, actually in Minnesota, uh Miss Craig, where that's gonna be and come online, it's an organic fertilizer company. We have an eighty million dollar one coming online in the state of Washington. So making this a national security issue and understanding it as such is allowing Chris Wright at the Department of Energy to invest in our fertilizer plants under the energy bucket of funding it's allowing Howard Luttnick,

I appreciate your understanding and awareness, and obviously you get it, and that's important to our our small fertilizer producers so they can make a big impact on the ag industry. Let me shift gears real quick and leave you with this. Um I'm concerned about our our policy um governing PLC and ARC payments that take that basically are made in arrears. I would say that if if the conditions are bad enough in a given year, that they trigger a payment, that the payment is necessary in that year, not putting it off for twelve to fourteen months. And so what I've sought to do is to actually create an opportunity for advanced partial payments for producers to help offset some of the interest expense associated with continuing to produce without those payments being made. I I would wanna get your feelings on whether or not you can appropriately implement that w if and when that policy is is uh uh signed into law because I think it's important to provide the resources in real time and not make farmers wait for twelve to fourteen months, when the damage is already done.

Uh I couldn't agree more with that and we've got the best team on the field. If if if it moves forward we will get it implemented and it's especially important with the additional thirty million acres that we're now adding into those programs that that we're able to do this quickly.

Thank you, I appreciate that, and I yield back.

Thank you, sir.

Everyone yields back, and I'll recognize gentleman from Massachusetts, Mister McGovern, for five minutes.

Well thank you very much, and Madam Secretary, let me begin on a positive note, um being from Massachusetts I see that you're drinking a cup of Duncan coffee, uh which I think is the best coffee in the world,

Yes,

uh but but I I I need but I but I need I I need to tell you that your Secretary of Health

they're in the basement of the USDA building, we love them.

and Human Services is go is going after Duncan big time so we won't tell him, we'll just keep it our little secret here.

That's right, that's right. We say we're all for Maha, but we still like donuts.

Yeah, right. Right, but um but while I'm glad that you're here uh taking quest uh taking questions, I have to be honest with you, I wish that you would take the time to talk with farmers in my district who have been totally screwed over by this administration. They are livid, they are mad, they are pissed off. My farmers can't afford fertilizer, uh it's at record highs because of your administration. They can't afford diesel because of this president's reckless illegal war. They can't afford farm equipment, it's more expensive than ever because of the stupid tariffs. Their markets have vanished because you illegally halted the local food procurement programs and some states they can't even call their local USDA offices because some of them have been closed and because of y of this administration's cruel cuts to food assistance many people in my community can no longer afford to buy fresh and local produce. People are are are tired of the the gaudy ballrooms and the slush funds and the you know uh and uh and and the corruption. that is uh on display before their very eyes. Uh they're sick and tired of the Mar-a-Lago class being enriched and getting richer while everybody else gets ignored. Um earlier this year you even bragged about kicking four and a half million people off nutrition assistance saying that was quote good news. Well a r a new report from the Nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that the number includes at least seven hundred thousand children. Now I say at least because that's data from less than half the country. That number's gonna be into the in the millions. Let me say that again. Seven hundred thousand kids plus have lost their food assistance. That's not good news. Hunger is getting worse in this country. And by the way, the average SNAP benefit is only about two dollars per person per meal. You can't even afford to buy your Dunkin' Coffee uh with the average SNAP benefit right now. So do y do you stand by your comment that kicking people off of food assistance is somehow good news?

So, sir, most of those uh based on the numbers were fraudulent. The seven hundred thousand number of children is not correct. Uh, that is not a non-partisan group that that gave you that number.

Well

And uh and and again, we should we're back to where we were uh pre-COVID,

W m

and this idea that we should put more and more people on food stamps is just not correct.

with Well, w with with all due respect uh Madam uh Madam Secretary, I mean I've talked to many of the people who have lost their benefits. They they they haven't been moved off of SNAP, they've been kicked off of SNAP. These are people who actually need and rely on this food assistance to provide basic nutrition for their families. Hunger is getting worse in the United States of America. We all should be ashamed of that. Uh, and that's by the way before the two hundred billion dollars in snap cuts go into effect that were part of the big ugly bill. Let me ask you another question.

May I respond?

S because speak about yeah.

I'll I'll be super fast. What I will say is that wages are at the highest rate they've been in American history.

Well,

Our unemployment is at the lowest rate.

uh I reclaim my time, Madam Chair, because it be because m cost have never cost have never been higher.

We have more people working. The result of that is less people on government.

Costs have never Go to a grocery store. People are putting groceries back on on the

Mm.

shelf because they can't afford to pay their bill.

So all of this is down.

Uh let me ask you, I b uh speak about healthy food and specifically about toxic cancer cancer causing chemicals like g glyphosate, uh that get sprayed on our crops. This a b administration promised to make uh America healthy again. This a yes or no question. Is a glyphosate is do you believe that it's safe?

Glyphosate has been proven safe when used correctly, both in the European Union, EU uses it, and in America when used correctly. I I'm actually surprised on the agriculture committee, um if we were to move away from glyphosate overnight, we would completely destroy our food supply system in this country. So the the Secretary Kennedy and I,

Well well uh you

you know obviously we have to take a good look at it.

So the so the answer is you think y y the answer is yeah,

Regenerative farming is is a big part of this.

y you're saying it is safe. Well uh you know I wanna submit for the record the World Health Organization's uh analysis of this. Chairman Thompson has been pushing the Senate to include a liability

Without objection.

shield for chemical companies that make glyphosate after we stripped it out of the house it was a Republican amendment from Representative Looner that got stripped uh the Chairman of the committee called it a danger to the nation. Do you agree that Representative Looner's amendment is a danger to the nation?

We have to be so careful and intentional. We y'all I mean we're talking about preserving and protecting

But but do you do you believe that y y y do you do you believe that

American farmers the greatest most Americans among us

pesticide companies and chemical companies deserve

The very far listen, we cannot destroy our farmers and ranchers' ability to plant and and make a living every day.

So is that a yes? So so you believe that the p

I mean this is the whole point of this committee.

So you believe, e even though you're saying that glyphosate is safe, that they they should have some sort of a live live liability protection?

It's safe when used correctly. It's safe when used correctly.

S so do you believe that they should have a liability protection?

If we are enacting policy that allows China to be our sole source of crop protection

So so do you do you

We will lose freedom in our country. I mean it is it is that now we can

The gentleman's time has expired.

It causes cancer, Madam uh Secretary.

We should also

Gentleman's time has expired.

It causes cancer.

Now recognize uh gentleman from Georgia, Mister Scott, for five minutes.

By the way,

Thank you.

I would love to come to Massachusetts and visit your farmers. Sorry.

That Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam Secretary, I'm glad to see you, you're you're here on a day that uh happens to coincide with the National Defense Authorization Act, and there are almost ten members of this committee that are also on the Armed Services Committee, and so that is uh you'll see people coming and going. And I know my friend, Mister Crawford, whose gang of eight was called down to a skiff. So um

Good to see you. Thank you.

Good to see you too. But I uh I just a couple of things on the last statements that were made. If you're under eighteen, you are exempt from any of the changes that we made on SNAP benefits. If you're over sixty four, sixty five and over, you are exempt from any of the changes that we made on the SNAP benefits. and the language on glyphosate was specific to the label on the jug, and had nothing to do with the chemical in the jug, just a few facts that I think the American citizen should know. But um a lot's been talked about with trade here, Secretary Rollins, and um the European Union has adopted a lot of non-tariff trade barriers against the United States and its producers uh including Union deforestation regulation which they turned around and exempted um their own countries from in many cases. And so I wanna just say I'm thankful that we have a president of the United States that is not allowing other countries to adopt not just tariffs against US products but the non-tariff trade barriers that have been detrimental um to our country we simply couldn't look the other way and say yes, Thank you, sir. May we have another, sir, the way uh the previous administration was doing it in destroying the markets that our agricultural producers sold into. Um I wanna move now though to um as I mentioned forest, the emergency forest restoration program. My understanding is that Georgia, my home state, is out of funds and letters are now beginning to go out with approved but lack of funds. What is the level of remaining

Uh, let me get back to you on that. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me,

Okay.

but I understand it is a it is an important issue for your state. So so yeah, we'll uh we'll continue that conversation.

Okay. Th thank you for that. I also wanna ask you about the supplemental disaster relief program. I mean your your uh organization has been very quick to make uh course corrections, and I appreciate that, while uh Others pretend we can do a a lot of great things without um and and get it right a hundred percent of the time true leaders are willing to course correct, i is and and I consider you a true leader. Um

Yeah.

Is is there anything we can do from the congressional perspective on the front end to help ensure issues uh like we had with the SDRP funds um don't happen again, and making sure that those dollars go out? the door as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The I I think the challenge with SDRP was that it required negotiations with every state uh in terms of the granting process and Tyler Harper in your state was was incredible uh but the back and forth and the back and forth probably on both sides, we learned a lot from and uh this is true of a lot of the different grants, some moved out very very quickly, others took a little bit longer, but I think at this point we are almost completely um closed that program. I think there may be Vermont and maybe one or two others up in the Northeast, but but I think that's the learning experience for us, but it's a good flag. I'll go back to the team and make sure we've made a list of what those are and and what we can do better the next time. Having said that, Congressman, I think you know we have moved out these programs and this funding in about half as much time as previous USDA's have. The one farmer one file allowed us in four days to move out fifty seven thousand different farmer payment as we move to more technology. Uh so we're making huge progress on that front, and uh hopefully we'll be able to hand off these programs to the next administration.

Secretary Rawlins, the first conversation I had with you was about highly pathogenic AVN uh AVN influenza and um a potential vac vaccine. And um I appreciate exactly what you said in that meeting. We we we need a vaccine, but we don't need a vaccine that doesn't work. Um, my question is what what plans are you looking at to move a high-path vaccine strategy forward?

We are evaluating that every day, Congressman, and uh and we understand the great, great anxiety of the industry itself. There's obviously some trade implications as well. But the good news here is based on biosecurity implementation that we did last year, our HPAI uh incident rates are down almost sixty percent. since a year ago today. So the the the farmers the egg farmers have made the changes as we're looking at a vaccine and and we're making tremendous progress.

Secretary Rollins, I appreciate you and I appreciate having a president that is um taking

Gentlemen.

our challenges seriously.

Gentlemen, it's time, it's expired.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Good to see you.

Now rep uh recognize Doctor Adams from North Carolina for five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and thank you Madam Secretary uh for being here today. I I do have some serious concerns and Uh first of all the real truth is that farm country is in crisis and the people that I represent deserve an and need answers. American farmers uh wake up before dawn, they don't ask for handouts, they ask for fair markets, a reliable policy and a government that doesn't make life harder for them. Government has made life harder for our farmers. And so this administration has failed them on all three counts. But let me just be clear about something, what's happening happened on your watch and under the laws of this administration, we're seeing an increase in in everyday costs, cuts to nutrition programs, pushing many, including children and veterans, off nutrition assistance. We're seeing a a useless tariff battle and the abandonment of small farmers. So let me begin with uh with this administration's war on nutrition. We're already seeing millions lose access to nutrition benefits from the implementation of HR one, another beautiful thing. Uh seventeen thousand individuals in in in Mecklenburg County, which I represent, uh have already lost their food assistant assistance benefits and we're talking about people being pushed out pushed off of these benefits not uh who who are not able-bodied adults they avoiding work. They're workers. Uh they're elderly individuals, they they can't navigate a new bureaucratic work verification system. They're veterans who who fell through the cracks of a needless administrative agenda. They're children whose families are caught up in the in the turbulence of economic downturns, and this administration helped cause that. Uh SNAP participation nationwide fell by four million people between July twenty twenty five uh enactment and February twenty twenty six, and that's not efficiency, that is hunger. Uh SNAP is not just a nutrition program, it's an economic an agricultural uh market uh driver. So Madam Secretary of this administration you cut, snapped, terminated local food programs, gutted FSA, other regional office staffing, and then you called that reform. But reform implies measuring outcomes, uh and it implies accountability, it implies that somebody somewhere in that building is tracking what what happens next. So please tell me, does uh USDA have a long-term data and tracking system in place uh to measure the widening of the poverty gap increase that hunger in that that increased hunger throughout the country and the collapse of of grocery access in in rural communities and and other areas with limited access. And that's a yes or no no uh uh question.

Yes.

Okay, thank you. Well, l listen, it's still causing a lot of harm, but Secretary Ron you served at the pleasure of this administration and you've used a farm country uh a as a bargaining chip, not a priority. This department and the administration really needs to be accountable, uh for soaring production costs, reduced global export demand, uh markets uh our farmers spent building decades building have been handed to countries like Brazil and Argentina and Australia, while this administration picked trade fights that it had no plan to win. So can I get a

Actually, we've increased exports in the billions about twenty-two billion dollars in the last year since taking over. So I think your your information's wrong.

Well, over fourteen point almost fifteen billion, Madam Secretary. fifteen billion, uh that's from China alone, not to mention uh other trading partners. Well let me move on. Uh as the USDA um Secretary, uh have you conducted a comprehensive economic impact assessment of the retaliatory tariffs on American agricultural producers? D have you have you done that?

Y yes ma'am, and corn exports are up twenty percent, dairy's up eleven percent, tree nuts up twenty one percent, ethanol's up Twenty percent and fresh fruits and veggies are up four percent just in the last year.

Oh. Oh okay well

We've we've struck nineteen new trade deals.

Okay let me let me clear my time,

Uh so we're we're getting it back.

I have an I have another question or part of that, so can we get this committee get an analysis within the next thirty days?

Yes ma'am.

Okay great. So let me ask you, I've talked to you I think before about the eighteen nineties, I'm an eighteen ninety graduate uh and I worked with um Mr. Scott a lot on on the on the issues,

Yes ma'am.

and the Department of Agriculture in my opinion has a legal and moral obligation to support the eighteen ninety historically black colleges and universities but right now we're failing that obligation uh you've

I agree.

proposed separating the eighteen ninety research program from the extension programs that's creating a major problem I really wish you would take another look at that but

Well I sure will, I had all the age the eighteen ninety presidents in about a month ago, Generally, his time is expired. Mm-hmm. and uh we had an incredible conversation and are partnering together, so I would love to get more information on that.

Alright so I'll follow up with you.

Yes, ma'am, and we'll get the thirty day trade, uh, to you as well.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Within thirty days. Thank you, Doctor Adams.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

Now I recognize the gentleman from North Carolina, Mister Rausser, for five minutes.

Thank you, uh, Mister Chairman, and and first, Mister Chairman, I wanna thank you and, uh, the ranking member for honoring and recognizing, uh, David Scott in his service as well as Doug LaMalfa, uh, in his service. Both were incredible, uh, incredible members of this committee, uh, and great Americans and patriots too. So, uh Miss uh Madam Secretary, great to see you.

You too. Thank you.

And uh first I wan I want to thank you for visiting my home state of North Carolina, and our producers down there, I know they really enjoyed seeing you a few days ago. And uh I'll just say that um I appreciate uh your attention uh to the export markets for all of our commodities and uh some of which uh you and you and I have talked about personally from time to time uh when we uh run across each other. And uh so greatly uh greatly appreciate that. Uh uh we've got a lot of uh folks that are feeling a lot of pressures. And uh those export markets are obviously really key. Uh which brings me to a broader point. Uh 'cause I was listening to the uh conversation uh the debate earlier at the outset of the uh the hearing. And uh you know I I think if you look at the broader picture, uh for forty years plus, uh American agriculture, Republican administrations, Democrat administrations, the whole philosophy was production should go where it where it's uh cheapest.

Mm.

And that not all that's uh often not been uh to the advantage of this country. And uh so I I think uh I think people who understand the broad picture really appreciate what President Trump is doing. He's trying to level the playing field Uh and then you know you don't do this overnight. I mean you had forty, fifty years of China, China, China, China. I can't tell you how many people, when I worked for US Senator Jesse Helms and then later Elizabeth Dole, uh line after line after line of people would come in the office and say if we can just get our our market in China.

Yeah.

Uh you know it's it's gonna make everybody better and and we're gonna be able to change their communist regime and they're gonna become more democratic. And my old boss uh would look at 'em and and more or less say you can take the uh tiny dragon and turn it into a big dragon uh because they're gonna keep their communist uh philosophy you know China has a hundred year plan to annihilate this country

Mm-hmm. Mm.

and every other uh democrat nation democratic nation around the world. And uh and of course I think it's important for us to recognize too uh how much Brazil plays into that uh they are That's right. uh a centerpiece of Chinese uh dictatorial communist policy in South America. And uh if you look at our commodities grown in North Carolina, uh the one place where we're being outpaced in a big way, and unfairly so, is is Brazil. Mm-hmm. And uh so there are lot of reasons for that, but one of the big reasons for that is this forty, fifty year philosophy that uh that has been in place. That the president uh you know in his first year and a half Has done a tremendous and you you as well, the entire administration has done a tremendous job uh to rebalance the uh playing field. Thank you. And I love the uh great American cotton plant. Uh you know cotton is a is a big part of our agriculture economy in North Carolina and textiles uh obviously is a mainstay uh in in the state, That's right. uh although endured a lot of hardship over the years because of the policies I was just talking about. Mm-hmm. Uh so can you talk uh from the administration's standpoint about your plans uh for Great American Cotton and uh in its role for American textiles and what we're doing to rebalance the trade uh uh aspect on that front?

Yeah, that was really well said. And I'll just add a little bit to that. In twenty twenty three, America lost our our uh our crown as the the world's cotton export um leader to Brazil. Uh Brazil in the last few years has also taken corn, soybeans, processing, et cetera, these are major national security issues that we are taking very, very seriously. Uh cotton, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, is at the very top of that list to see the decimation of the policies that have happened to our cotton farmers and other farmers along the way due due to bad trade, is really sort of eye-opening. Uh USDA will be investing uh significant resources, time, et cetera, treasure, et cetera, to ensure that we can rebuild that great American industry and alongside that, you know, North Carolina will be the textile industry. We used to have a couple thousand textile mills in this country and now I think we're down to maybe a hundred maybe and a lot of those in North Carolina. So this is the onshoring, putting America first, getting back to putting our citizens, our businesses first, and ensuring we're securing our country for the next two hundred and fifty years. And and while I've been talking about cotton a lot in the last few days, we've talked about a lot of the different commodities over the last year and four months. And uh and we're working really hard to get that market back, but also to make sure people understand, I don't know Congressman if you were in here, but the Make America Healthy Again movement isn't just about food, although that's the driver, it's about what we wear as well, and so plant not plastics, America not Brazil or China.

Uh, gentleman's time has expired.

Thank you Congressman.

Thank you.

Uh, now recognize General Lee from Connecticut and Mrs. Hayes for five minutes.

Thank you, and thank you Secretary Rollins for being here.

Thank you.

Recently the USDA announced plans to reorganize, reallocate and rename the Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Mission area, which includes the Food and Nutrition Services, or FNS, the agency responsible for administering SNAP and other critical nutrition programs. On May eleventh I sent a letter to the Department of Agriculture, along with forty-seven of my democratic colleagues, requesting information regarding this reorganization. I listed a series of questions that we were looking for answers to. I received a response this morning, which I haven't really had time to review thoroughly, from Deputy Secretary Vaden, in which he says quote, notably absent were these questions raised in this public letter, and he would welcome an opportunity to provide information. Perhaps Decre Deputy Secretary Vaden forgot that he had a hard stop, and members were not allowed to speak, and that this was a

Mm-hmm.

a private off the record round table on a topic that is so critically important, and the American public needs to hear answers to this. So, I'd like to take the opportunity to talk to you about some of these things. The letter that I sent highlighted concerns about FNS losing nearly thirty percent of its workforce since the start of this administration and this reorganization leaving critical nutrition programs dangerously short-staffed at precisely the moment where they are are needed most. In the response that I received, uh Secretary Deputy Secretary Vaden made egregious statements blaming both the Obama and Biden administration for um some of the gaps in in the disbursement of food he blamed union bosses government shutdowns and the Chevron relocation but does not address any of the concerns that I listed so uh the department, I feel the department should be able to talk about this in full public view and let people understand the answers to these very critical questions. I am open to hearing your thoughts on this reorganization, and it should not be behind closed doors. So, while I can't go through all of the questions, uh, just a few that I had were, um, how many employees will be impacted by this organization, and how will the USDA fill vacancies resulting from the reorganization while there's a hiring freeze? And then, I guess one of my primary concerns is How do you intend to maintain regional program expertise and relationships with state agencies under this new hub's uh structure?

Uh I'll take the last one first and then if I forget any let me know, Congresswoman. Uh first on the expertise in the new hubs, our our goal is that this actually becomes even more effective because we'll be out in the country with the very people that we're serving versus here in Washington uh we're moving several of the hubs to the middle of the country we have some on the west coast and some on the east coast. And and no one has been cut, no employees have been cut in that reorganization, no food um aid has been compromised. Uh this is really an effort to get closer to the people that we serve and out of the Washington DC area. So I uh I apologize if there was a hard stop and not everyone got their questions answered. We'll reschedule uh if we can do that.

Well can I, I guess just in the interest of time, because I do only have five minutes,

Yes ma'am.

he said he would welcome a second opportunity to provide information. Uh can we just Can you commit here today, at least to a first opportunity to at least answer the questions that were asked in the letter?

Yes.

Okay, thank you. My next question, I just wanna follow up on on Rep. Adam's question predictably, uh, about SNAP. In the state of Connecticut, more than fifty thousand people, Connecticut residents, lost access to benefits. Yesterday, my Connecticut Governor, Ned Lamont, committed eight point five million dollars in emergency federal a uh and from a a response a a fund that was created in response to federal cuts. It'll be a one-time three hundred dollar grocery assistance card for residents. But this is the state government cleaning up a federal mess. Miss Adams asked you, it just as a yes or no question, I'd ask you to just give us some details on what your department is doing to take steps that in to ensure that families who lose SNAP benefits do not fall deeper into food insecurity over the next over over the coming months and years.

Again, the the economy, we have more people working than ever before, our unemployment numbers are the lowest they've ever been, wages are high in the blue collar, uh and the highest I think they've been, and so as a result of that, that is the goal, it's a supplemental nutrition assistance program for when the times are the toughest. Now if there are stories of families who because of that

I'm sorry, my question was what is your department plan to do to take steps to ensure that families

Well, that's exactly what we're doing by ensuring that the families that really need this are the ones that are getting it. Snap had a forty percent increase in the last administration, forty percent in terms of the outlay that was going out.

My time is gonna expire,

It's it's

but again you have not answered the question about what the USDA

unsustainable.

plans to do to ensure that families don't fall deeper into hunger.

Family's time has expired.

I yield back.

Now, recognized gentleman from Mississippi, Mr.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and I, like Mister Rauser, also wanna thank the Chairman and the ranking member for recognizing uh former Chairman David Scott what a tremendous, amazing, and Mister LaMalfa earlier. We lost two of the uh the mentors on this committee who showed us all how it should be run and I and we'll miss them, but we take forward the way that they work on this committee. Secretary Rollins, thank you for being here today. Um I also wanna thank you for your visits to Mississippi. They mean so much. Mm-hmm. I wanna begin by thanking you and President Trump for putting American farmers back at the center of our agricultural policy. Farmers across Mississippi appreciate uh President Trump's commitment to strengthen the farm economy and ensuring agriculture remains a priority. I also appreciate your leadership at USDA and your work to implement the President's agenda on the behalf of the American producers. I also wanna pat the chairman in this committee and getting ten and a half billion in assistance to our farmers a year and a half ago, and the president following up with another ten plus billion. That was so important to do because our farmers are really struggling with input costs, uh with bad markets and all those things, so I thank y'all for all the improvement.

Mm, thank you.

Mister Rauser stole my thunder on the great American cotton plan, uh and you articulated that, but that is also so important to states like Mississippi, so I just wanna thank you for your hard work in that. Uh turning to another challenge facing producers in Mississippi, our state has experienced a series of drought conditions over the last several years. Cattle producers in particular have seen tremendous losses in forage and hay production as a result. Congress passed some very positive enhancement to the livestock forage program in the working families tax cutout. Can you update the committee on the status of implementation of these changes to the LFP program?

Yes, we are uh we are getting very close to being uh taking that to conclusion of course. The new reference price is going to affect this fall. Uh a lot of those working family tax cut programs have really uh have moved out and have made a tremendous difference to the country I think that's why you see a lot more people going back to work, but specific to that program we're really close on that. Uh if you wanna follow up with me directly we'll give you exact exact time line.

Absolutely secretary, and as USDA works to deliver these improvements, I also wanna touch on the role of the farm service agency. The vital role of FSA cannot be overstated. As the most farmer-facing agency, with offices in nearly every county across the country, FSA is key to helping producers make operational decisions. With the mon- monumental changes made to the farm safety net last summer, the agency's support is even more important. Has FSA been adequately staffed and equipped to meet the needs of our producers and swiftly implement these provisions?

I can't, again, to to your point, overstate the importance of these FSA offices. There's no doubt there is room for efficiency. Uh it is congressionally, it is statute that there has to be an office in every county, so no offices have closed, even though I I think uh the Congressman from Massachusetts mentioned there were office closures. But we are really digging in this year. I visited multiple FSA offices, sitting down with the teams that are in there. I've thanked them because some of them are operating at fifty, sixty percent of the staff that they had. before we came into office and and so I will recognize there is room for improvement. We are working really hard to get that improved and uh what I will say, and this is true for anyone, Republican or Democrat, if you have specific FSA offices that are saying, we're weeks behind, we cannot get this funding out without more help, what we'll do is we've been moving around in Nebraska with the fires, we relocated some FSA offices from non-fire parts of the state of Nebraska, to where the fire hit the most for our producers and uh while we're re-staffing.

Secretary Rollins, uh I I'm a veteran and I love it when people who haven't served wanna talk about what we do and don't for our veterans uh I don't like it when veterans who don't deserve benefits get benefits that they don't deserve because it takes away from those who actually deserve it I feel the same way about our SNAP program the fraud and abuse that was rampant in some areas,

Mm-hmm.

uh that took away from the well deserving so they got less of what they needed because someone who didn't deserve anything was getting fraud, uh, snap benefits. So I just really wanna thank the administration for tightening up the shot group on this stuff, for making sure that anyone who deserves benefits gets as much snap benefits as they can to have the nutrition benefits for their children and their families and that we're taking away from those who are illegally getting these benefits, who are getting double benefits or improperly using them, Thank the administration and you Secretary Rollins for tightening up that shot group and making sure the people that need it most get more. With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

May I respond in my twelve seconds? The red states that shared their data with us, that's where we found the two hundred thousand dead people. The five hundred thousand people receiving more than one benefit. These are in the red states that have the tighter controls than the blue states. Can you imagine the fraud in these blue states once we can access the data and figure out how to make this program better? It's it's gonna be stunning.

Thank you. Uh, now recognize the General Manager from Ohio, Miss Brown, for five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman Thompson and Ranking Member Craig, Secretary Rollins, over the last year this administration has repeatedly said that we are entering a golden age a golden age of American agriculture well frankly that will come as news to the farmers and ranchers I talk to in Ohio and around the country because the only thing that is truly golden right now is the price while farm country and rural America struggle. Farmers are facing trade wars and real wars, rising input costs and shrinking export markets, cuts at USDA and tightening margins, all because of policy choices made by this administration. For many producers, the question isn't how much they're making, it's whether they'll make it through another season. So you all can call this the golden age if you want, but the numbers tell a different story, and so do the farmers living it every day. So Madam Secretary, yes or no, are you aware that the farm bankruptcies increased by forty-six percent last year according to the American Farm Bureau?

Out of one point seven seven million farms.

Reclaiming my time and say yes or no. And are you aware that USDA's own estimates show that

We had a point zero one seven percent, but that's still chimney. That was based on the years before when we lost our export markets.

Yes or no?

What is an yes or no question?

Reclaiming my time. Are you aware that according to a recent Farm Bureau survey,

Corn exports are up.

six out of ten farmers report that their financial situation is getting worse? These are simple yes or no's.

We have opened the market.

Oh.

Reclaiming my time. These are facts, Secretary Rollins. So this This is what a golden age of agriculture looks like, because if rising bankruptcies, falling farm income and worsening financial conditions are a sign of a golden age, I'd hate to see what a downturn looks like. There's no doubt there are challenges, And on the trade front, this is my time, but commodity prices are up, secretary Riley, this is my time, export markets are expanding. secr- um, mister chairman, point of order. And on the trade front, the President Secretary Rollins,

Again, I would really appre- there's no reason to be rude.

this is my time,

I know, but could we ask in a in a gentle

this is my time. Mister Chairman, point of order.

in a dignified manner?

Be, you be dignified and I'll be dignified.

All I'm

Cuz this is my time. And when I ask a question, if it's a yes or no, I expect a yes or no answer,

This is why the American people don't like Congress.

Secretary Rollins, respectfully.

I'm so happy to have a gentle conversation about this.

And on the trade front, the President recently defended his Beijing bailout.

China is a massive threat to America. The president has recognized this over and over again.

Mm.

We have to protect American farmland.

Thank you. I'd like to turn to another example where I think there is a significant gap between the story this administration is telling and the reality Americans are experiencing. Recently, you described it as good news that roughly four point five million people have been quoted moved off SNAP. Now if those families were leaving SNAP because of wages r- were rising and people no longer needed assistance I think we'd all celebrate that. But that's not what's happening. There's more people working than ever before. The reality is, the reality is that four point five million people were kicked off the program to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy through H R one. A lot of them are illegals. That's not true. Families and children are not leaving the SNAP program because they're doing better. They are. They're being forced off because of eligibility changes, new administrative barriers, and states preparing for the enormous cough shifts that they know is coming. And you know this. So I'm really struggling to understand why you think pulling the rug out from under children, seniors, veterans and families that have fallen on hard times, good news.

That we're not pulling the rug out of anyone.

Can you explain why Americans should view losing access to food assistance as good

Yes. Can I explain?

news when grocery prices remain high and food insecurity continues to affect

That would be amazing. Yes.

families across this country?

Yes, ma'am. I would love to explain. Thank you. So, Snap increased forty percent under the last administration. The amount of fraud, as I mentioned, in the red states,

Reclaiming my time. Half a million. I mean, this is really part of a disturbing pattern here. Oh no, you said I could explain. Oh no. Farm bankrants, farm bankruptcies are at a record high, OK. There's no explaining. OK. but the president is saying that it's a golden age. Madam Secretary, millions of Americans are going hungry, and you're saying it's a success story. The administration keeps pointing to numbers. It wants America's, Americans to see, but families, farmers, and rural communities are living with consequences of the numbers you don't want to talk about.

It's not true.

I really really hope you can get your facts straight before January of next year.

We have more exports, we have

You know, ladies, time has expired.

everything is in in better shape. I I just don't think you want more people to work.

Generally these times

I think that you want more people on government programs and not working. It's it's remarkable.

Generally these times expire. Now I recognize gentlemen from Illinois and Mr. Voss for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Robbins, thank you for being here, and I'm gonna try to be civil and actually ask questions and you can actually answer them. How about that? decade, you know, we've seen uh and uh time and time again the solar panel companies coming into rural areas to purchase our least prime farmland, offering farmers money they can't refuse and taking land out of production. And look, I don't blame the farmers for taking the money, and I'll be the last person to tell anyone that what they can do with their land. But just a few months ago, we had a proposed project pop up, and we have had many of these, but this is one, uh in my southern counties that would cover five thousand two hundred acres of prime farmland and take it out of production.

Mm-hmm.

And that's why uh that I pr proudly put into the uh the the Farm Bill, the Solar Act in twenty twenty six. It establishes guidelines for USDA funding for solar panel projects and ensures that local communities have a say in that process because I believe federal government should not be using taxpayer dollars to incentivize and or subsidize taking our best land out of production. Secretary Rallins, do you agree with that policy?

I agree one hundred percent.

Thank you.

And we're implementing it at USDA every day.

Thank you. As of December twenty twenty four, foreign investors held an in uh interest in over forty five million acres of US ag land, Much of that is China.

Mm-hmm.

Uh in my district alone there was more than seventy three thousand acres owned uh by foreign entities and this wa and some in particular uh concerned with foreign investment near our military-based installations like Scott Air Force Base in my district that's the headquarters for the US uh Transportation Command. USDA has taken several steps to modernize the reporting system through the national um farm security action plan. Secretary Lawrence, can you outline how the USDA action plan will secure the r those projects and for American farmland?

It the the existential issue that we're facing, and it it is China but it's also just foreign owned farmland. China went from two thousand acres in nineteen eighty-three to almost three hundred thousand acres, uh last year. That is a part of a forty five million foreign owned farmland acre number which is astounding. Uh back to the beginning of the conversation, what we are doing to insure that we're reshoring, that we're shining a light. Agriculture has never been on CFIUS before, the investment, the foreign investment committee made up of the Secretary of the Treasury and others. Never before. I kinda elbowed my way in this year. We need to get it codified so the ag is part of that. But we've been asleep at the wheel. So yes, we are implementing that, working with our state partners. Listen, the states are the guardians at the gate, Arkansas, Sarah Sanders, North Dakota,

So as you know, the high cost of of um the the high cost of inputs have have just crushed our uh agriculture industry. While many products uh or producers have completely uh completely planted this season already uh for buying inputs and and and and they have have to get it done right away, How's the department working to address the input costs?

When we took over, obviously it was a it was a perfect storm a year and and four months ago. Uh the agricultural trade surplus that we left in early twenty twenty one, we came back four years, had become a fifty billion dollar agricultural trade deficit, not one new trade deal. You combine that to your question with the average cost of inputs for our farmers increased forty percent under the last administration. Interest rate, seventy three percent, labor, forty eight percent, fertilizer, thirty six percent. These are average numbers. Fuel, twenty six percent. All of that is coming down. Now obviously this Iranian conflict has caused a blip in that effort. We've seen nitrogen fertilizer increase forty percent.

Yep.

We are reshoring and onshoring fertilizer in this country. I'll be breaking ground on what will be the largest ammonia plant in the world, in Louisiana, in about three weeks.

Yep.

We moved that from permit immediately. We have ninety other fertilizer plants going in around the country for the short term, waiving the Jones Act, waiving some death requirements, would love to get all of death waived, but that's over at Lee's Elden. Uh, opening up lines from Venezuela and other places, ensuring that our farmers have the fertilizer that they need right now. But for the long term, we will solve this and we will reshore our fertilizer in America, so we don't depend on China.

Thank you for your answering the questions. Let me tell you that quite

Gentleman's time has expired. Now recognize General Lee from Kansas, Miss Davids, for five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman, uh to you and to our Thank you, Chairman, uh to you and to our Ranking member for holding this hearing. Uh, I continue to hear from Kansas farmers and ranchers who feel like they are getting hit from every single direction. Fertilizer prices are up thirty percent following, uh, the President's initiation with conflict with Iran. Reckless tariff policies have added even more uncertainty, contributing to twenty-eight billion dollars in losses over the last crop year. Last year, farm bankruptcies in the Midwest rose by seventy percent. And while fire farmers are struggling to stay afloat, families are feeling it at the grocery store. Americans paid an average of three hundred and ten dollars more for groceries in twenty twenty five than they did the year before. When farmers are hurting, it doesn't stay on the farm. It affects food prices, local businesses, and the entire country and our rural communities. And that's exactly why farmers need a Department of Agriculture that they can count on. Instead, we have seen That's right. Mm. The Economic Research Service has estimated that an isolated outbreak would cost producers seven hundred and thirty-two million dollars per year and cause one point eight billion dollars in losses. Yesterday when confirming the New World Screw Worm case in Texas, uh I have to say I was struck by your use of the phrase " as expected", uh in the USDA post on X. I know there were projections on timing which were referenced in your opening statements, Mm-hmm. but from talking to Kansans Uh, I can say that like, ranchers don't care that it's expected, they wanna know what's being done to prevent.

Mm-hmm.

And so, um, my first question, if you could briefly answer, cuz I do wanna get to my next point. Why should Kansas ranchers and consumers facing high beef prices have confidence that the USDA has this under control?

Yeah, I appreciate that. By the way, I I appreciate you flagging that as expected. I was actually referring to the post right below it, where a couple hours before I had said it looks like This could be, but we need to confirm. So I was actually not saying we expected it.

Thank you. I I appreciate that clarification.

Yeah, yeah, well I probably need to be a little more careful with my language, so that that's a good flag. Um what I will say is this, this is a problem that our country faced in the fifties and sixties and we beat it. We beat it all the way back to South America. There was a biological uh wall with Panama. It had not breached uh for well for decades and decades. Uh under the illicit cartel movement of cattle in those countries to the north along with the open border policies, Uh we saw a massive breach over beginning twenty twenty one, where it began to move up and into Mexico. It got to Mexico in twenty twenty three. Uh when we got here in twenty twenty four, to your point, the models predicted that it would be on our side of the border, nothing could stop it. By last summer uh we had deployed a significant amount of resources and personnel into Mexico as well as to South Texas where the real threat is, almost immediately while breaking ground in building the facilities that will produce the sterile flies, that that's how we beat it in the fifties and sixties, that's how we'll beat it again. The challenge is we need about four hundred to five hundred million flies a week to push it back and we had gotten to the point because no one thought it was gonna be a threat again that we're only producing a hundred million a week and that's down in Panama. So that's what we're working to solve for right now. Uh I was on the phone most of last night and through the night with the ranchers in South Texas, we do not believe this will be an infestation. We'll be able to isolate each case. We've had a year to prepare because we pushed it off a bit, and uh and we've got the teams on the ground ready to go.

Thank you. And that actually is a great segue uh in terms of the work that USDA is already doing um to to ramp up the sterile fly production and dispersal. I I have concerns about the staffing cuts at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service uh for folks watching on C-SPAN that's also APHIS. And at a time when producers are counting on the USDA to detect and contain outbreaks as quickly as possible. I'm concerned that staffing reductions can make that job harder. Can you uh speak to how many fewer scientists you have working at APHIS now as compared to twenty twenty four?

We have had no compromise in our ability to react and to research and to make sure we have the best scientists and data on the field uh as far as the specific numbers, I will get back to you on that because I don't wanna misquote it. But we have made that a priority. And in fact last year I think the initial round of budget suggestions from the White House in the budget included those cuts. And eventually we changed that, so there was no cut to the actual research side of the animal, of the national security issue, which is animal, pest, and and health.

Okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate. We'll we'll follow up.

Thank you.

Gentlemen, this is uh this is Spire.

Mister Chairman, I yield back.

And I recognize the gentleman from Tennessee, Dr. De Dej- Desirele, for five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman. Madam Secretary, I too would like to thank you for coming with answers, not excuses, or I'll get back to yous. Uh, your agency recently published a preliminary report analyzing snap participant data from twenty-nine state agencies. Across these twenty-nine states, the department found nearly four hundred and fifty thousand cases of dummy social security numbers twenty-six thousand three hundred three thirty-three cases of no social security number and a hundred and eighty-five thousand nine hundred and eighty-six cases of deceased individuals receiving snap. State agencies are already required to collect and verify SNAP applicants' social security numbers and run checks with social security Death Master files. What is your department doing to improve oversight and ensure these states are complying with the law?

It's such an important question, and I appreciate the opportunity to actually talk about it. The first hour of the first day after I was sworn in on February thirteenth, we sent a letter to every governor in America, and it wasn't a political letter, it le legitimately was. The increase in spending and snap is forty percent in just the last few years between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty three. There has to be a better way. Please partner with us. All of the red states, the red governors and two blue governors said yes, we want to do this better. We do believe there's massive fraud. The way the system works is that the federal government dumps the money to the states, and then there's no accountability, there's no partnership. So we really wanted to change that because there had been zero accountability. The numbers you just cited are just from the red states. That's what I mentioned earlier. It's astounding to think two hundred thousand people using dead uh people's social security numbers more than half a million or almost half a million, getting more than one benefit. And these are in the red states. I grew up in Texas policy. We have so many guardrails on to try to stop from this. So the blue states, most of them sued us, didn't wanna share the data even though these are federal tax dollars. And uh we'll continue to root it out. The Vice President is leading the way but the American taxpayer expects us to spend their dollar to make sure that we're focusing on those that really need it and people aren't buying Ferraris and living in fancy houses and and and and milking off the taxpayer.

Thank you. And for years, for the last four or five years, um I've asked questions about non-citizens receiving SNAPs. I basically get mocked by my colleagues that this is not possible, that it's very rare despite there being eleven exceptions. One of them being if you're eighteen or under, you automatically qualify. If you seek asylum and get it, you automatically qualify, and I can go on, you know the list of all the things that are there.

Oh yeah.

And yet uh, you know, uh these uh these concerns of mine were dismissed as unfounded, yet USDA data now show that in fiscal year twenty twenty-two, approximately one point five million non-citizens receive SNAP benefits, totaling four point two billion in payouts. And uh I'll remind you all that twenty twenty two, uh the border was still wide open for an additional two years, and so I'm sure that number is gonna be revised. So the question is, given the program's eligibility restrictions, how did so many non-citizens qualify for benefits, and how how many may have received them improperly, and what steps is USDA taking to ensure taxpayer funded assistance is reserved for those who are legally eligible?

Of the four point three million that we have moved off of SNAP, whether it's through better jobs, better pay, through stricter eligibility, um our best numbers show that a significant, probably more than thirty percent of that four point three million were illegal aliens. And so again that was one of the first steps we took to try to clamp down. But again, the challenge is the blue states will not partner with us to try to get back to where we need to be and that's taxpayer funding American citizens. But we're on it, we're in litigation on that right now, I believe we'll be successful. And we'll get to the point where we can ensure that those that are receiving the dollars needed are worthy and are American citizens.

And again, I praise you, cuz you've done more since you've taken office than I've seen done in a li well, I've been on this committee for sixteen years.

Thank you.

And uh and I just uh want to put in a a public service message that Republicans are not against SNAP. We are for SNAP,

That's right.

we are for feeding the needy, but when you write a farm bill for five years, you need to know what it costs, you need to know where it's going, and you need to I think most everyone can agree that Americans, American citizens should be taken care of first, and then we figure out ways uh you know h how we deal with the others. But um I'm just very grateful that you've acknowledged us,

Amen.

you've come to us with answers, you're coming to us with statistics, and uh I just can't thank you enough to for all the work that you're doing. So keep up the good work, and I yield back.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Would the gentleman would the gentleman yield?

The gentleman would yield.

Um I just wanted to share with my friends, 'cause I've heard a lot of blame on the Trump administration for causing the economic challenges that we all acknowledge that our farmers are facing. I wanna remember all my remind all my colleagues it was in December two thousand twenty four that was the last administration where this committee was very influential in getting that first ten billion dollars in economic harm assistance. Economic harm was well documented, it had occurred, uh you know, I and I'm not pointing fingers at administrations, uh but there are some on this committee that will wanna do that for for whatever purpose. Uh the the economic harm started under the last administration cuz it was in December of two thousand twenty four that we achieved that first, uh ten billion dollars,

Mm.

which was a historical first actually.

Yeah.

Uh with that, uh pleased to recognize the General Lady from Oregon, Miss Salinas for five minutes.

Uh thank you. Thank you, Mister Chair,

Good good morning.

and thank you, thank you,

Good morning.

great team member, and uh good morning um Madam Secretary, thank you for being here. I really want to just get across the the harm and the despair that my growers are feeling in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. And you uh you know this, um they're getting squeezed, low crop prices, high input costs, and a trade war that has decimated our export markets. And I wish I didn't have to blame this administration, but I I do, and this this Congress. On top of all that, prices of urea, major, you know, nitrogen fertilizer have gone up thirty percent since the war in Iran began. That's over two hundred and fifty dollars more per ton. And thank you for um your comments about the Louisiana plant. I think that's great. Um are you aware that roughly thirty just a yes or no answer, are you aware that roughly thirty percent of the world's fertilizers move through the Strait of Hormuz?

Oh, the yes and no's are so hard. Yes, but but little of that comes to America. However, the reason the price is increased is because so many other countries use it through the Strait and that's caused the prices to go up.

Okay. And I'm sure um again yes or no, are you aware that fertilizer prices have risen sharply since the war on I Iran began?

For nitrogen, yes. For some of the others, no. But for nitrogen, yes.

Okay, so what advice did you give the President on the agricultural implications before strikes on Iran began?

The the thank you for not yes and no. Um very quickly though, 'cause I know you have more questions. The the the President is acutely aware of of the farm economy. It is why he is fighting so hard for these n nineteen new trade deals. um a forty percent decrease in the ag deficit, we're gonna have record breaking exports this year, had some record breaking last year. The inputs we inherited, and and even though the fertilizer's high after the Iranian conflict, it will go back down, but that actually doesn't even reach nearly the peak of the increase of the cost of fertilizer in the last administration, for other reasons as well. So this is a long running problem with fertilizer, why the onshoring is so important.

But did you give the President any advice before he struck Iran on the impact to American agriculture?

I am constantly talking to this President. Um, I have to believe we we laugh that there's been more conversation about fertilizer screwworm and soybeans in this Oval Office than perhaps any Oval Office ever in the history uh he is aware and has talked about the short-term challenges to make sure that America is safe for the long for the long term.

Okay, my growers and I think American growers are really feeling the impact. If you haven't seen the Farmer and Rancher Policy Sentiment Survey, I just wanna read some of the most striking findings, and this is a thousand growers across forty-four states. Uh, input costs are crushing American farmers. Seventy-eight percent of farmers name machinery and input costs, fertilizer, fuel, seed, chemicals among the top three challenges facing their operation. This goes back to the war in Iran. It's hitting farmers in the wallet, another concern. Ninety-four percent of farmers say the war with Iran

There is no doubt that these inputs are causing more struggle in the farm country. I do wanna be fair though and say that in the last administration the cost of inputs in did increase forty percent.

I'm reclaiming my time. I am We are not talking about the last administration. But that's what we're building on. That's what we're trying to to fix. But I am c I am comparing twenty-six over twenty-five and twenty-five over twenty-four. Our baseline is twenty-four. We have not improved. I will just I will just reclaiming reclaiming my time, Well, actually we have. We we've come OK. because I wanna make sure we get this on the record as well. Sure. Um, the section two thirty-two tariffs have been in place for fourteen months. And I just read that President Trump has lowered those tariffs on tractors, combines and other farm equipment.

But ma'am, that's because of the policies from twenty four. This year we're making up for it. We've cut that deficit in half. We're gonna have record export use.

But it increased in twenty five, and China's and China's retaliatory tariffs reduced ag exports

Well, again, um, w exports are up. We've cut the trade deficit in half. What was forty-five billion is now down to about twenty-two billion. Corn's up, dairy's up, tree nuts are up, ethanol's up, sorghum is up, soybeans are up. Uh China has agreed to purchase

Just to reclai thank you.

twenty five million metric tons,

To reclaim my time,

seventeen billion dollars,

the pres the pres- president promised a lower cost for farmers,

plus we've opened up nineteen other markets.

fertilizer's up, farmers are losing money on their crops, and your department has no time line for fixing it. Thank you, I yield back.

Oh no, we have a massive time line. Actually I'll we'll follow up with the time line.

Jun- Junelay's time has expired.

We're we've got really good time line.

Uh now recognize uh Well, now I recognize the birthday boy, Doctor Baird, for five minutes.

Happy birthday.

Thank you, Mister Chairman and Ranking Member, and thank you, uh, uh, Madam Secretary, for being here and for all that you do with the programs through the USDA to help our farmers and ranchers as well as the agricultural industry. And you know, uh, our constituents really appreciated you coming to the great Hoosier state, so we thank you for that.

Mm-hmm.

And we also thank you for uh some of the programs that you've been able to uh uh enhance and improve on. So my first question deals with uh research, education and economics, 'cause I'm a great advocate for research and the importance of the land-grant universities. And so uh when you look at when you look at that uh REE emission area and the restructuring that took place in USDA's research programs to Purdue University in my district, That brought about three million dollars in funding and several federal research positions. So I wanna thank you for the work in that area as well, that we were very much appreciated. And so then I'd like to like to give you the opportunity to discuss or share your visions about uh partnerships like uh USDA and the institutions like Purdue and other land-ground universities and I'd like to include the Cooperative Extension Service in that as well uh and just give uh give you

Mm-hmm. I thank you so much um for that Congressman and and I know the reorganization uh has certainly any time you try to uh move parts of a big organization out into the country, you're gonna have a lot of questions about that, but the incredible to speak about Indiana for just a second. I I have started talking to some of of your team and some of your people back in Indiana as we were looking at where to to move the research hub. And, you know, we have some extraordinary researchers, but most of them don't wanna be in Washington DC. Most of them are PHDs, et cetera, that are studying crop science and studying the screw worm. They wanna be affiliated in next to a great research university, like a Purdue or like a Texas A and M or or whatever, whatever school it may be. And so the move of the REE out to Indianapolis, um the middle of the country, closer to our farmers and closer to our researchers, I believe will be a massive value add for all of the the challenges that, that these researchers are are uh researching and and providing solutions. They're the best in the world, the best in the world, and now we're hopefully gonna make it even better.

So thank you for that and I appreciate that. You know I think it gives uh when you go to the other

It took me an hour and a half, but I got it.

So You bet.

Two hours.

But anyway uh then my next question deals uh to give you the opportunity uh in the uh regarding hemp. You know, I've I've proposed legislation that would provide, you know, we had that back in the twenty eighteen farm bill we mentioned We mentioned hemp production and some of the producers actually uh m moved in that direction. In fact, I think there was like seven hundred thirty nine million dollars in twenty twenty five dollars that or in twenty twenty five that that contributed to our uh GDP. And so that was up sixty four percent from the single year and the prior year. Uh so you got any thoughts on on what we might be doing in regard to the hemp and where you stand and There's a there's a November twelfth deadline coming up. You got any thoughts about what we might need to do or where we're heading at? I'm talking about industrial hemp,

Yeah. The industrial.

the the fiber production, because that has to do with um turning it into, you know, um methane and that sort of thing. So

That's right. It's my understanding that the the twenty-six appropriations bill doesn't affect that but I hear you that the importance of understanding and doing economic assessments and really You know, we've got good understandings of a lot of our commodities. I don't know that we have enough understanding yet. So let me circle back to our team and then let's schedule some time to talk that through.

Thank you. And my last question, I just can't resist mentioning uh uh RUTF, the Ready Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods, you know that's a that's an ag production,

Yes.

but when you see that in in application in some of those African country, and what it does for the malnourished children, I think that's fantastic, and it's an American product.

Mm.

So I just have to get that into the I think everyone got twenty four seconds, so I just wanted to mention that, get it on your radar, and I know it is,

Yes, sir.

so yeah.

Thank you, it is remarkable. Uh, and I think there's a lot we can learn from it.

No.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Happy birthday.

Ye uh thanks. Uh, Yield back.

Gentlemen, Yield's back. I'm gonna recognize uh Mr. Sorenson mo- momentarily or yep, Mr. Sorenson momentarily here. Um, we uh the secretary did request and then

We can keep going.

Well

Yeah, we're go we'll go another hour and and maybe check back in.

Okay. Sounds good. Recognize Mister Sorenson from Illinois for five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, uh thank you, Madam Secretary, um it should come as no surprise that these are hard times in farm country. Um I was on a farm in my district just on Monday and I hear the same fears all across my district. The price of fertilizer, the price of seed, herbicide, diesel, food, health care. All of those topics came up on Monday on one farm. According to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal, Americans are now falling behind on one point two five trillion dollars worth of credit card bills. It's a new record. Add to that the administration's tariff and trade war, producers have a have access to fewer markets overseas. Without an end to the president's war in Iran, costs will continue at unacceptable levels. And with the cost of diesel, it's only a matter of time before our groceries become more unaffordable, which goes against President Trump's promise when he sought the office in twenty twenty four. I'm as cognizant as ever before to do what the American people need us to do. Farm bankruptcies are up a hundred thirty percent compared to last year and are predict uh predicted to rise. This pr proves that the in- administration is failing. My district went through hell during the farm crisis of the nineteen eighties. In some places, in the quad cities, we haven't even recovered, and yet there is a risk of another farm crisis that is rising on your watch. This has nothing to do with either side of the aisle. Um, it's about identifying a problem and doing what's right to find solutions. So, um, Madam Secretary, do you believe that farmers are better under your administration than they were two years ago?

Well, yes, I do. Because of the nineteen new markets that have been opened up,

I well I I disagree and I wanna move on. Do you do you believe it's

That the record-breaking exports that are coming and the

ti do you believe it's time is a yes or no question do you believe it's

the input prices that will come down.

time for the United States Department of Agriculture to course correct to prevent a future farm crisis yes or no?

Well of course, everything we do every day is is to do that, yes,

Great.

thank you.

Um farmers are paying through the roof for essential inputs like nitrogen and phosphorus and you just wou talked about this with uh my colleague from Oregon on Monday I heard from farmers that anhydrous ammonia

I do believe, there's no doubt they're struggling, but I do believe that yes, they know that they're, we're fighting for them every day. Uh, the the bankruptcy numbers,

Mm.

every farm we lose is heartbreaking. We've gone from out of a one point eight million farmers, about three hundred and fifteen have uh have filed for debt,

But but you know what el

which is a lower ten year average than normal.

What else what else is heartbreaking is the fact that that the farmers didn't ask for the global trade destabilization that this

And we're working with each of the three fifteen.

administration has done um have I mean we are not doing enough to keep

We've

farmers afloat um nitrogen i nitrogen inputs for fertilizer up forty percent,

Actually we've cut the agricultural trade deficit in half in one year.

Phosphorus prices are up around twenty four percent. Do you believe that we should have more homegrown made in America fertilizer, yes or no?

One hundred percent yes.

I'm ag agreement, let's work on that. I have a homegrown fertilizer act,

Let's do it. We've got an amazing plan.

let's get it across the finish line.

You come on and help us, I'd love that.

Um, yes or no, is the administration working on developing a long-term strategy for national security and supply chain risk as it relates to agricultural inputs, and the general farm economy as you've created additional instability in the Middle East?

Well, yes, one hundred percent. The national security piece of this is so very important. The obviously the instability in the Middle East will soon stabilize and be more stable than ever before but I'm not the foreign policy team,

Should have been yesterday.

so I don't wanna get out of my way.

Hopefully it's today. Do you believe that the current funding levels for CSP and EQIP are sufficient to meet the current demand?

The current levels for CSP and EQIP are sufficient to meet the current demand. Yes,

Uh, it's great.

yes.

Is it is it your opinion that farmers are

So the the challenge there is that the previous administration had a very different value set than we did. It was a lot of investment in renewable energy, solar, and I know you and I could probably have a long debate about this, but that was the priority of the prior

But that was then and this is now.

Well, and now the values are different. We don't wanna cover good farmland and solar panels. We just it's not our priority. We wanna keep prime farmland farming and not put Chinese solar panels on them. So so yes.

You know, I wanted to let you know that I hear from so many neighbors in Illinois, uh that about the horrific cuts to Snap. Um, in the land of Lincoln, more than two hundred thousand have lost food assistance on your watch, and nationally that's four million. Um, you know, I think this is a moral issue, at least it is to me, that we do better. Um, and what's happening on your watches is troubling. Um, and I expect that going forward that you will do better and right by the people that we serve because they didn't ask for a lot of the hardships that they're having to endure.

Gentlemen, this time has expired, now recognize uh the um where we are. Gentleman from Iowa, Mr. Feenstra for five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman Thompson, for holding this hearing today. Secretary Rauland, I just wanna thank you for being here and more importantly for all the work you've done to put our rural communities back at the forefront of the USDA mission. Uh I applaud your efforts. Um you know, I I think about what has happened over the last several years. You've had a lot of challenges. I think of the egg industry, and and we took that head-on and said,

Mm-hmm.

alright we're gonna make changes and we did. Um I I think what what's happening, you know, with with trade right now, alright, we're we're cutting our trade deficit in half,

That's right.

in half, that's incredible.

Nineteen new markets, big markets have opened up, yeah.

Huge, massive, and and then opening nineteen new trade deals, right, nin I think you said nineteen,

Mm-hmm.

you uh now just a quick note, alright, we don't wanna talk about the past but I just gotta mention it a minute. You know how many trade deals were done under uh under Biden?

Zero.

Zero, zero, right, right.

Mm.

So it's a little disingenuous from from my colleagues, when when they go down that rabbit hole, um, cuz I'm so appreciative. Uh, I also wanna say I appreciate your your support that we finally delivered for all uh farmers across the country uh E fifteen i i in the US House. And I know you helped on this effort, uh we passed the bill, uh this is dramatically gonna help with the fuel pump. So can you just talk about this, uh can you discuss how permanent you're on E

When we walked in a year and four months ago, I knew the challenges internationally, to your point. Not one new trade deal, a forty five billion dollar agricultural trade deficit after we left with a surplus, the cost of inputs under the last administration on average forty percent. What I didn't fully appreciate or understand was the opportunity to open up the domestic market in this country. And you and others were very quick to come in and and li I'm a Texas girl, right? I mean I've I've been focusing on cattle and cotton my whole my whole career, but but what I learned um and have since become such a huge cheerleader, advocate, supporter for is the importance of E fifteen and what that will do to support our farmers and and um and to support that domestic market. And also this year we're gonna have You know, ethanol exports are gonna be up twenty percent. Corn exports are gonna be up twenty two percent. The world is opening up as well to uh these great products our American farmers are producing.

Yes.

Yes.

So it it's been an honor to be part of that.

Well well well thank you so much. And you know, I I hear this, I actually heard N NPR do a story and it was laughable. They said, well it's food for fuel, and it's it makes no such sense. It's not. It's it's actually,

That's right.

I mean we have distillers grain, we feed it back, uh we have value added in all the different oils that are coming out of ethanol, Phenomenal what's happening. And and what what's happening is the talking points in the eighties and nineties is what people are are using against it. And things have changed so much in the last twenty years. So I I I appreciate you being an advocate for it.

Yeah.

So I just want uh I got a couple of minutes left, but you we've talked about fertilizer. I know you're doing so much on this front. I s I just wanna say thank you, thank you, thank you. Can you just tell everybody, I know you just sorta talked about it again, but Can you just tell everybody what you guys are doing to make sure that we continue to look at fertilizer and how we're gonna slowly get this uh price going down?

Yes, absolutely. The the the idea that we import half of our fertilizer from countries like China and Russia is sort of stunning. Another statistic I didn't fully appreciate or understand. We have offshored that over a number of years, and so we are subject to other countries. For the short term of course we've waived the Jones Act, we've opened up lines from Venezuela, deregulated, taking some of the death rolls off for urea, et cetera. But for the long term, the opportunity here to re-shore, to invest, and and if I may, I'm really proud of our entire cabinet. Uh, I call Chris Wright and I say, we need funding to invest in these fertilizer plants. Fertilizer is energy. And he said, Brooke, I will be there, tell me what you need. And so out of the energy fund of Doug Burgum and Chris Wright's energy um, group Energy Dominance, they are now investing in fertilizer plants in America. I call Howard Luttnick, I said, Howard we need we need help on the fertilizer front, you've got that big investment fund uh through the president's negotiations. He said, Brooke tell me when and where and I'll and I'll be there. Lee Zeldin, we need help. And I think that is a real testament to to our cabinet and to this administration, that agriculture is not in a silo. We are working across the entire administration all the way from the top, the oval office, to do everything we can to solve a lot of these massive challenges.

Yeah, I just thank you. I I know you're all over it, the cabinet's all over it. And and I so grateful.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Uh I yield back.

Thank you so much. We're working so hard. Thank you.

Gentleman yields back. Uh now recognize uh the uh gentleman from New Mexico, Mister Vasquez, for five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and welcome back, Secretary Rollins. Uh first I have to add my name to the list of members on both sides,

Thank you.

uh who are concerned with the New World Screwworm case that was recently documented in Texas that could devastate our cattle industry and should be and must be contained, and dealt with immediately. Um, this Tuesday I convened my agricultural advisory group that consists of farmers, ranchers, food banks, researchers, dairy producers, young farmers, state and local leaders in New Mexico. I created this group about three years ago to insure that from farm to table, New Mexico has a voice on this committee and has a voice in Congress. And so this week I asked members of that committee, if you had a chance to ask Secretary Rollins a question, what would that question be?

Love it.

And so today I'll be asking you some of those questions. Um first, nearly every member of this advisory group raised concerns about USDA staffing shortages and the department's ongoing reorganization efforts. They told me that local FSA and NRS NRCS offices are already stretched thin. They're making it harder for producers to access contracts, disaster assistance, conservation programs, and technical support. Um Secretary, could you explain what steps USDA is taking to maintain service levels for rural states like New Mexico while the staffing and restructuring changes are underway?

Yes, in fact, um I'm sorry you and I haven't had a chance to discuss this, but I have been in constant communication with your senator uh from New Mexico, and in fact to the point where he'll call and say, " We're a little bit short in this office and we'll you know we'll adjust or make sure that we're solving for those issues." New Mexico of course right next to my my home state of Texas we have a a lot in common and have been paying very close attention to the screw room but also to your point to the FSA offices making sure we're supporting your farmers the NRCS offices, and then of course the Forest Service is a really, really important part of your state. So if you are getting a different story on that, if if you're hearing that there's not enough of whatever it is that is necessary, our wildland firefighters, which is a really important uh piece for New Mexico, we are actually ninety, I think ninety-eight percent full hiring for this wildfire season, which is ahead of last year and way ahead of the year before, before we got here.

Thank you, Secretary.

So I'm very focused on that.

Thank you so much.

But but please let me know if you're hearing differently.

I absolutely will make sure that uh you get those reports.

Yeah.

We've been hearing this for some time.

Thank you.

So thank you so much. Um secondly, I support specialty crop growers. I come from the land of green and red chili,

Yes.

and we're so proud uh to have the the chili capital of the world in our district. Uh but our our partners at the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau, the specialty crop growers, uh they're still waiting for uh the assistance for specialty crop farmers program funds to hit their bank accounts and some have been waiting for over six months uh they say they can't handle any more delays and it's putting their businesses at risk. Uh, when can they expect their payments?

Is this the bridge assistance?

Yes.

We j okay.

Mm-hmm.

So so a quick update on that, we announced that um specifically we increased it more than fifty percent, up to one point six billion.

Yes.

Applications are now open. We'll be moving those out. Uh if the applications come in, we're moving that money out very, very quickly. So again, if any of your farmers have trouble, have them contact their FSA State Director who will let me know, and we'll start moving that out. But as long as they're they're filling out the paperwork, online or in the office, we should be moving that out im- immediately.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Yeah.

And we'll update you on that process.

Yeah, please.

I I appreciate that. Uh, next I have a question from a a partner of ours, Roadrunner Food Bank, and this is the most prominent food bank in New Mexico. Um, I wanna be clear, concerns about uh cuts to food assistance were raised by members across the group because these dollars don't just affect the food bank, but as you know they aport they support working families, farmers, food banks, and grocery stores in rural communities. Um you have an op-ed that you wrote April first in which you stated uh that more than three point three million people have fallen off of SNAP since the passage of the Republican tax law however USDA has also terminated uh what you call the household food security report which is critical in tracking this data and the impact of these cuts could you explain how you plan to collect data uh to track the ong ongoing impact of those snap cuts?

Yes of course. Uh we have six other surveys that move across uh USDA and HH uh s yes HHS and working in concert. Uh what we found is that that particular survey as we were looking to make USDA more efficient actually was duplicative and that we weren't getting the right information that we needed and that it was easily um um adjusted in a way that maybe perhaps didn't tell the whole story so we we're working to make that better and and uh give us better data so we can better serve

Tha- thank you secretary.

the community.

Okay, last question here before finishing off. Uh, it's about Gusnip, and uh, as you know, Gusnip is is very important to rural communities, especially farmers' markets and and those as retail outlets for local farmers. Um, can you commit to maintaining and expanding support for Gusnip?

I do agree it's important. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but if we'll follow up and uh and I'd love to have a conversation with you about that. I do agree that that support is important.

Thank you so much. And last time we spoke here on this committee, I did invite you to New Mexico. Uh as you mentioned, we are neighbors and would love to uh to have you in the state,

Mm-hmm.

so looking forward to following up with your visit to our state.

No, I would love that.

Thank you so much.

You've got a couple lettuce farmers that I talk about all the time, um in Albuquerque, that it produced two hundred fifty thousand head of organic lettuce that go into your schools and hospital it's it's incredible. So I'd love to go back and visit them too.

Terrific. Thank you, Secretary.

And almost time has expired, now recognize the General Lady from Illinois, Mrs. Miller for five minutes.

Hi. Thank you, Mister Chairman, and thank you, Secretary Rollins. for your tireless work in protecting our producers.

Thank you.

Madam Secretary, you and President Trump have brought about historic wins for our farmers and ranchers. Under this administration, more than sixty billion dollars in US agriculture produ product agricultural purchases have been committed coupled with trade deals covering over forty percent of all US agricultural exports. These deals include trade agreements Yeah. And that has been painful and it I'm we're just so grateful for the reversing of that. Thank you. In January of twenty twenty five, the United States had a fifty billion dollar deficit, but Madam Secretary, you and President Trump have decreased that trade deficit by forty-two percent in less than two years.

Mm-hmm.

Again, thank you.

Thank you.

This administration has also championed real tax savings for our farmers. The working families tax cut, which every Democrat voted against, increases expensing limits to allow farmers to immediately write off new equipment. Under the same legislation, the twenty percent small business tax deduction is now permanent.

Mm-hmm.

This will allow farmers, ranchers, and other producers to keep more of their hard-earned income and reinvest in their family farms. But, perhaps most importantly, the near elimination of the death tax will benefit more than two

Mm-hmm.

million farms allowing family farms to remain in the family. Madam Secretary, under your leadership, Mm-hmm. the USDA has recognized that food security is national security. Last summer your department, along with others, released the National Farm Security Action Plan, in which the plan lays out important steps to curtail China's purchasing of prime farmland enhance our agricultural supply chain which very excited about bringing our fertilizer production back and end waste Mm-hmm. This action plan shows the administration takes food security seriously. USDA is once again working for the farmers and not expanding its bloated bureaucracy. It's great to see the USDA get out of the marble offices of Washington DC and focus on Real America on our rural communities and farm families especially in Illinois. And I really appreciate what Deputy Secretary uh Vanden said, Mm-hmm. I will not apologize for getting a better bang for the American taxpayers' buck. Mm-hmm. Uh we love that. Yeah. Um Madam Secretary, uh your continued work in rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in our federal nutrition programs is greatly appreciated. I know that in my home state of Illinois uh w they are uncooperative, refusing federal audits of SNAP. It's clear that Democrats consistently oppose transparency. This effort to stop SNAP reform is just proof of that. Can you please provide an update on SNAP oversight, specifically your audit work with blue states like Illinois?

Thank you, and it's so good to see you.

Right.

Um, just very quickly if I can. I I think it we have to recognize the work that this committee did in the Working Families Tax Cut Act to get so much of Mm-hmm, yeah. agriculture, what would have been and was left out of many years of not getting a farm bill in the last administration, you all fought for it, you got it in, you got it to the President's desk, of course the President and and I were very supportive of that. Yeah. But that is an incredible achievement of this committee and the leaders on this Yeah. committee the largest investment in rural America in American history. Mm-hmm. Yes. And so I I just I I think that's a really important point to point out and and and all of you worked so hard on that, so thank you. On the food stamp, the snap piece of that, uh uh again it it has been a a big mover in the news. Uh the first hour of my first day sworn in at U at USDA, we sent a letter to every governor in America asking them to partner with us, Mm-hmm, yeah. that the American people but also the people that took um that deserved those programs and participated in those programs, deserved better. That the program had grown forty percent in the last administration, there was no accountability, The federal tax dollars flowed into every state, but we didn't know, I was stunned to find out that we had no idea how they were being spent, if they were being spent appropriately, if illegal um aliens were taking them, if people driving Ferraris were on them, and sure enough in just the red states that responded, two hundred thousand dead people, five hundred thousand people getting more than one benefit. And and these are the red states, imagine when we get through litigation and we finally get the data from California and New York and your state what we're gonna find.

Yeah. Well, we're looking forward to it. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

And I yield back.

Thank you, Congressman.

I think I now recognize the gentlewoman from Illinois, Miss Buzinski, for five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and thank you, Ranking Member Craig, and thank you, Secretary Rollins, Thank you. for being here today. Do appreciate that. I represent um the thirteenth district in Illinois and Central and Southern Illinois. And what I hear a lot from farmers is around issues of uncertainty, specifically around FSA. uh reap grants, some of the agricultural research initiatives that some of that funding appears to be frozen, so I wanted to kinda take those kinda line by line.

Sure.

Um FSA, I really appreciate what you said, no offices are closing, that's really important, 'cause you know the importance of FSA as that like real direct line um to our growers. We have heard though that about twenty five percent of the staff have been lost in, under FSA, so obviously you have the offices, And so I just would be curious, I wanted to mention that I also understand USDA has pointed to the one farmer, one file initiative as a way to streamline information and improve service, and I appreciate the goal behind that effort, but at the end of the day a streamlined file doesn't help much if there isn't enough staff in the office as I mentioned. So what specific steps is USDA taking through this reorganization plan to rebuild staffing capacity, in particular at the FSA offices.

So the FSA offices continue to be a priority uh for USDA, making sure that our farmers have what they need. But the one farmer one file, to be clear, uh before we had it, we had about five thousand applications come through and we responded um in person through FSA anywhere between a month and two months sometimes hopefully quicker but that but that was it when we released one farmer one file with one of the programs last year we had fifty seven thousand farmers within five days receive their funding. Mm-hmm. So uh the the including myself, I'm in my fifties, uh my age, farmer and older probably isn't that excited about getting on their phone and responding, Mm-hmm. but uh but the younger farmers are really taking advantage of it. Having said that, we really, I think w you and I would agree, fully realize it will never take the place of the FSA offices, and making sure those are staffed appropriately, and they have the resources to respond to the farmers quickly, is one of my top priorities, and we continue to work state by state to ensure that. If you're hearing differently, would you just let me know personally?

Okay. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you. Um, I wanted to shift gears to REAP in particular, um, Illinois farmers and rural small businesses who applied for REAP grants in good faith, some of whom have already completed their projects. They're reporting to me they're now in limbo with no clarity around when and whether they're gonna be reimbursed. Um, and um, so I just am curious from the USDA perspective, you know, it seems like some of these grants have been withheld um from farmers and small businesses in particular in Illinois and across the country who really did apply in good faith for these for these um dollars right so um specifically do you know

Mm-hmm.

how many Illinois applicants are currently in the backlog what is the department's target date for completing the regulatory update and will farmers who already submitted applications be required to reapply or were there or will their prior authorizations, I'm sorry, submissions be honored?

So if there were contract sign, that's a that's a different category than yes. Um a lot of them there were no contract sign and they

Mm-hmm.

came very quickly at the end of the last administration. And and I know I mentioned this before, but so much of the Biden USDA REAP was really focused on solar panels on farmland,

Mm-hmm.

and uh and our administration just has a different value set. We want everyone to reapply. the l the l i if in fact so about eighty-three percent of the applications uh that are in limbo were focused on solar panels, Chinese solar panels on the farmland. We haven't completely said no to solar, we can put it on your barn,

Mm-hmm.

uh you can put it on non-farmland and and make sure it's American made.

Mm-hmm.

So uh that's what the recalibration that's happening right now.

Mm-hmm.

And uh I don't have the Illinois numbers, but we'll follow up on that and and have that conversation.

That'd be great. Okay, that would be great. I do wanna just ask I've got limited time here. Um just really quickly, if I could ask you about um on March twenty seventh EPA issued the final set-two rule under the renewable fuel standard. This rule would have would ha which had strong bipartisan support will help set the standard for biofuel production moving forward and is already supporting rural economies. The set-two final rule regulate generates over ten billion for rural economies.

Mm-hmm.

Um I'm just curious when um USDA's fuel feedstock rule when coupled with the forty five Z clean fuel credit, will play a similarly significant role in farm country. What is the status of that rule and when do you expect it could be completed?

This summer. It's it's imminent.

Okay. Okay, great. If I could squeeze in one more question.

Yes, please.

Um, on AI farms, um,

Very quickly.

this w oh, you're giving me time.

Um, uh actually l just submit it for the uh summary for the record. We're out of time.

Okay, thanks, so you'll back, thank you.

For following, yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, I um now s um recognize myself for five minutes. Um Secretary Rawlins, thank you for being here today and thank you for your leadership in supporting farmers, ranchers and ag producers across America. It was an honor to have you visit the big first district of Kansas, uh days after you were confirmed last February. In one of my first ever meetings with President Trump in the Oval Office, I distinctly remember him telling me of his love for American farmers, and I know that you share that same passion.

Mm-hmm.

Over last year You and President Trump have led the way in supporting rural America and I look forward to continuing to work with you as we continue to make agriculture great again. I also appreciate your previous comments uh this morning and all the work that you've been doing to fight New World's grimoire we all know this is a hands-on-deck, all hands-on-deck moment and appreciate your great leadership. Um couple of quick questions. Last year I introduced legislation to move back to USDA, a program that is not only dear and dear to Kansas farmers but also is vital to ag producers across the United States. The Food for Peace program has long supported American agriculture, while also helping to feed millions of people around the world. It was originally housed within the USDA when it was created over seventy years ago, and my bill, which was um included in HR seven five six seven, the Farm Food and Ag Security Act, would return it back to its roots, ensuring its long-term sustainability. I appreciate your working with the State Department to temporarily administer the Food for Peace program while the long-term solution is being worked out in this Senate. How is USDA currently administering the Food for Peace program?

Well, I uh I I think we're very proud of the opportunity to administer the program. We believe that it is important, especially for our farmers, and you've been such a great advocate for that. Our Under Secretary uh Luke Lindbergh, who we will soon lose to Rome, he's taking Cindy McCain's place if everything uh works out, uh we're really gonna miss him.

Great, and I would agree with you, incredibly important program for American Agri- Good for our farmers, good for our shippers, and good for the mouths um you know that that need those calories um o on the other end, um you know of the world where this food goes.

Mm-hmm.

W um what thoughts do you have Madam Secretary on continuing to prioritize the procurement of US grown commodities and ready to use therapeutic food?

Well as I think uh we discussed uh just a little while ago, I mean I I we haven't it's funny last year at this time we spent a lot more time on making America healthy again. Uh we haven't spent as much time, I think uh maybe the temperature has come down and we realize that the Making America Healthy Again movement along with agriculture do go hand in hand, and while the the primary beneficiaries will be the American citizen, uh and our children, that the uh almost as important the beneficiaries will be our our great farmers and ranchers and and the importance that they play in that. Of course alongside so many of our farmers that produce great commodities that go to to feed livestock around the world or go to into the fuel tanks here in America. There's a there's an incredible balance there and and for me being able to advocate and and um and work the policy and to try to drive more markets, bigger markets, whether it's across the world or here in America must continue. But I do believe when you put the Make America Healthy Again movement, and including cotton we talked about, not just eating but what we wear, a layer on top of where we are in agriculture, I think that The opportunities abound ahead for us and and we've gotta keep taking advantage of all of that.

I c cannot agree more. Um last question, sir Terrells, I appreciate you hosting a group of us two weeks ago um to discuss importance of increasing domestic fertilizer storage and and competition, so farmers have more choices to better access affordable inputs. As you know, fertilizer prices are one of the biggest pressure points facing our farmers right now in the struggling farm economy. Um w can you share with um uh some of the projects USA is currently working on to deliver real solutions for farmers across America uh to decrease fertilizer process and uh fertilizer prices and overall farm inputs.

The the that's really national security so I'll start there. The the idea that we're relying on China and Russia and other countries to produce our fertilizer for this country more than half of our fertilizer should terrify all of us uh and I think that's come sort of in the spotlight recently with with the Middle East and uh and that will resolve itself soon we'll get back to normal but uh you were so great and you know standing up there, not just with me, you know waving my hands about fertilizer, the fact that we had four cabinet secretaries there alongside me, uh leaders from both sides of Congress standing beside us, the General Butch Graham, head of the Army Corps of Engineers, you know Pete Hegsess uh uh general in in charge of the Army Corps there to talk about let's permit fast and not get caught up in the permitting process to get these fertilizer uh projects online uh whether it's the largest ammonia plant in the world that's about to br break ground in Louisiana or you've got a couple in your home state that are smaller but that USDA is supporting to build the infrastructure out a couple of two and three million dollar projects we've got dozens that are going in around the country right now that is the solution and that's what we're driving toward and I I believe it will change a lot of things for the better for farm country.

And I appreciate the whole government approach um you know as we all work together to drive down costs which event eventually you know impacts the consumer. So th thank you for all your tireless effort.

That's right. Thank you so much.

Um next I'm gonna recognize the gentleman from Illinois, uh my friend Mister Jackson, for five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, Madam Secretary. I appreciate you being before us today and thank you for your great works. I would like to discuss with you a matter that is not simply about agriculture, but it's about trust. It's about capital and ultimately about whether America intends to harvest the full potential of all of its people. For generations, black farmers have faced documented discrimination within the very institution designed to support them. The story is not merely historical, it's also economic. As you very well know, the history of the discrimination that has been proven by the Department of Agriculture against African-American farmers has been a challenge. Uh the history of black farmers in the United States, Department of Agriculture, is not a matter of opinion, it's a matter of the record. It's documented in law. For decades black farmers were denied loans, delayed access, assistance, and denied opportunities that were routinely extended to others. The consequences have been devastating from land lost, wealth diminished, family legacies broken. The federal government has acknowledged these injustices. Settlements have been reached in the past. reforms were promised but not executed. And many believed that the nation had finally begun the difficult work of restoring the trust. The issue before us today is not simply about whether a contract can be canceled. The issue is whether the government may induce reliance, encourage participation, and make commitments only to withdraw them after farmers made decisions based upon those promises. When a farmer, as you know, signs a contract, hires workers, purchases equipment and plants, crops, and reliance upon a government commitment, that commitment becomes more than paperwork, it becomes an obligation of trust the Constitution requires from the government, justice requires consistency from government, and democracy requires confidence that rules will not change after the game has begun. Madam Secretary, blacks farmers have spent generations asking whether they will receive equal treatment from the Department of Agriculture. Question I would have was should they have to ask that question in twenty twenty six? I would like to have this submitted into the records. There's ongoing litigation lawsuits with the Department of USDA over canceled contracts. Many of this was fed into programs under Doge. I wish Mister Elon Musk were here today. This is not um this was not done under your watch. This was on un done under someone unscrupulous and uh, With without a reaction. Skrullis and Lascivious, uh, yes sir, chairman, and it has made major con uh challenges. I would like to know what is it that we can do together to restore these grants that were cut that had already been approved many of the administrators that signed these contracts that asked these farmers to put the language in them um still have their jobs and the farmers are suffering in addition to all the other things, the food, fuel, and fertilizing and cost, now they have to pay for litigation. What can we do to alleviate alleviate the suffering on these farmers?

Well, I I appreciate the question, and I'm very grateful for the co for the the collegial back and forth on this, 'cause clearly this is very important um con question, it's a very important issue, it's one that I fully realize. Uh, you and your family have been um leaders on for a really long time. I am not aware of any specifics, but what I would really appreciate is if I could get those specifics, and then we could have an actual conversation so I can look at the examples of of what you're talking about we have worked really hard to have a USDA that supports everyone, no matter skin color, background, et cetera, and and if if we're not doing that then I need to know.

Well, I certainly thank you for your candor and your honesty and your frankness and even acknowledging that you don't know the history of all these issues, but you're willing to work with me, and for that I'm appreciative. I will take you up on that.

Be great.

I've had some success uh under your administration in reversing some of these contracts and I would like to have the opportunity to present others, so.

One hundred percent.

Uh I thank you for the ones that we have done and I would like to see those farmers in the light of all these other complicating issues uh be able to plant, and get back to work. Thank you very much Madam Secretary.

I'll make a note of it. Thank you.

I yield back, Chairman.

Gentleman yields back. Thank the gentleman. Now I recognize the gentleman from Minnesota, Mister Fenstead, for five minutes.

Thank you Chairman Thompson, and thank you Madam Secretary for being here today. Uh appreciate your service and your leadership. Also want to uh thank uh your team for being so uh responsive uh as I've had different constituent uh outreach with with the agency. You know, I'm reflecting as I'm hearing uh some of the questions and and listening to your testimony, uh and uh I am a fourth generation farmer from southern Minnesota.

Mm-hmm.

My wife and I uh, we like to joke, we grow corn, soybeans and kids, and there was a time where we had uh we have seven kids and we had seven kids under the age of eleven in our house.

Incredible.

And I I think about the world that you're living in right now and I, you know, not to make light of it, but I remember many times my wife and I coming home and the house is an absolute mess. And no one is there to help us clean it. But my wife and I, you know, obviously have to take charge and and clean up that mess. And I think about the agency and the the ag economy that that you inherited in your leadership role. And and there was a mess.

Mm-hmm.

There was a mess. We were talk we're talking ag trade deficits that we haven't seen since the Jimmy Carter era.

That's right.

No new ag trade deals. Uh, nutrition programs, growth growing at rates that are completely unsustainable, as well as being littered with fraud. And I'm from Minnesota and I can speak to the fraud issue.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, record high inflation, record high input costs. The farmers that I represent, uh, I I hear this quite often, were land rich, cash poor.

Mm-hmm.

And the cash over the last five years has left the the the farm gate. And now we are sitting at this perfect storm where we have to figure out how the heck do we get out of it.

Yeah.

And so I really wanna talk about the market side, because the farmers that I represent, and I just had a a round table last week with farmers and and I heard it loud and clear. They do not want a government check. They want a market that produces a price that allows them the freedom

That's right.

to farm and run their small business the way they have for generations. And so you've talked a little bit about the nineteen new trade deals, uh, closing that ag trade deficit. Could you talk a little bit more about the the hope on the horizon in regards to that?

Well, I uh I think that's one hundred percent right, and and as we have begun to reopen the world to American agriculture, again the forty five billion Dollar Agriculture Trade Deficit we inherited after leaving with an eight billion Dollar uh Agriculture surplus in early twenty twenty one a more than fifty billion Dollar swing in just four years, and saw markets close around the world. and saw Brazil and other countries step in and take over what was once an American-owned market. Uh the new nineteen trade deals and frameworks that have been struck, that is a remarkable number in just one year, and to see that, I mean people thought it would take at least four years to cut even a little bit into that fifty billion dollar deficit. We've now cut it by forty-two percent in just one year according to the numbers and are expecting to drop down into the low twenty percents after this year's numbers come in and then hopefully get back to a surplus. What that means, the billions of dollars in market access that we lost between twenty-one and twenty-four are real. And so gaining those back, we're expecting record exports of corn this year, dairy this year, tree nuts this year, ethanol this year, fresh fruits and veggies are up. All of these are up and that's that's that is to your point, the farmers do not want to farm for a government check. But we've gotta get them the markets to be able to sell these goods and try to begin to bring the cost of inputs down that skyrocketed under the last administration.

So as I mentioned, I'm a fourth generation farmer, my grandfather sold his soybeans in nineteen seventy-two for twelve dollars and eighty cents a bushel.

Wow.

And here I am as the fourth generation, hoping and praying for nineteen seventy-two prices for our soybeans.

Well, today we're at ten dollars and forty cents, so we have a little ways to go, but You know that is the good news is we're up a little bit um versus where we were over the last number of years. So I I do believe the markets are going to open in in significant ways. Uh you know this, China has already agreed and is buying significant amount of soybeans, more than they even have said that they promised to do. And then in addition to that on just that one deal, another seventeen billion dollars in agricultural purchases from China for America. But I have to say, from a national security perspective, We have to diversify our markets and that's why the President is working so hard around the world, so we're not reliant just on China to buy these products.

I appreciate those comments. I mean I think it's uh worthy of noting that agriculture and feeding and fueling our neighbors and and the world is the most honorable noble profession that this country has ever seen. And when you think of our national security and our ability to again live a high quality life in this country it really comes down to nutrition. and our great American farmers. So thank you for supporting our American farmers.

I couldn't agree more.

I yield back.

Thank you so much.

Gentlemen, this time has expired. Uh I now recognize the gentlelady from Michigan, uh Miss McDonald-Ribbitt, for five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chair and Ranking Member, um and Secretary Rollins for being here. Yeah, over here.

Oh thank you, yes.

Okay. Um um

My fifty four year old eyes are not great, so thank you.

Yeah, I've got the fifty five year old eyes, so I completely understand.

Yeah, you understand, yes.

I've got two questions for you, so I'm gonna I'm gonna be quick, but I I really would love to uh be a bit forward thinking right now. Um, so I represent mid-Michigan and uh the farmers in the middle of Michigan are really really hurting. In my district we grow sugar beets, dry beans, corn, soybeans, pickles, uh and a lot more. Michigan's one of the most agriculturally diverse states in the country and my district is actually right in the middle and the heart of that.

Mm-hmm.

So our farmers many of them generational farmers are working really hard. They're doing everything right. Like my colleague just pointed out, um, they are really have been struggling for years. So, in the midst of the new tariff policies that have cut off some of the markets for these that the families have relied on for generations, the out of control input costs, and these diesel prices in particular are really in the right now, incredibly hard. for my farmers. So the bridge payments were a good start, but for a lot of our families, especially our sugar beet farmers and our specialty crop growers, it didn't it didn't come close, not even close.

Mm-hmm.

In fact, Michigan sugar beet farmers lost a hundred million dollars last season. When we look at over the last three years, an accumulative fifty billion dollar debt, uh loss in the ag economy, not debt, loss, excuse me, We actually need a plan for the right now. I understand what you're saying about growing markets and thinking about how to bring um many of these things onshore, many of the input costs onshore, but what about now?

Mm-hmm.

Because I have talked to farmers all the time that are waking up at two o'clock in the morning worried that they at the after the fourth generation are about to lose their farm because one more year like that and they are gonna close. So Can you give me some idea of what you think about what sustained relief looks like, and when farmers in my district can expect to actually be made whole?

Mm-hmm. Well, I appreciate the the question, and and and well framed, and I I know you're probably gonna like some of what I say, probably not some of what I say. But I think you were right, this is years in the making. Um, years in the making as we've offshored so much of our manufacturing, fertilizer, seeds, et cetera. Uh When we walked in the door a year ago, interest rates, I know we haven't talked about that in this committee yet, were up seventy three percent for our farmers, seventy three percent fuel up about thirty twenty eight to thirty percent labor, uh for those that use the H two A program was up about forty six percent, you've got a lot of H two A users in Michigan actually, uh uh seeds et cetera and and so this is this is again years in the making and the importance of bringing those inputs down or prioritized.

Yeah, with respect, Madam uh, Madam Secretary, I'm gonna

Sure.

I'm less interested right now because there's been a lot of discussion already in committee about how we got to where we are. Some of that we agree on, some of that we don't. But going forward, we're headed into a growing season where farmers in my district are really concerned that they are gonna have another season like last year and if they do without any substantial help, they are going to lose their farms. How are you thinking about that?

Well, fuel will be coming back down again. Labor is down forty six percent, the inputs we're talking about now. Uh, fertilizer was down about ten percent until the the Middle East uh issue in the last few months. It will be coming back down. I appreciate your point. We can talk long term but we need to talk short term. Uh, we expect a massive, massive, the highest exports on record now. So I'm not talking about in a year, I'm not talking about in five years. This year,

Yes, I'm gonna I'm gonna claim my time back, cuz I only have one minute left and I wanna get to my second question. Do we need more assistance? But the difficulty that I have, I think it's a fair question. I cannot go back to my district with a cross your fingers uh answer to this question when it comes to fertilizer costs when it comes to uh the cost of fuel in

Oh no, there is a massive plan. I've laid it out about six times today.

Not your plan, I'm talking about the war. Okay.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Um, on the ASCF greenhouse exclusion. The program provides relief to specialty crop producers that are hurt by tariffs and rising input cost. Michigan's greenhouse growers need that help, but they are explicitly excluded from the program for no clear reason. It is cold in Michigan. We need our greenhouse farmers. My state has a significant greenhouse industry growing vegetables, flowers, herbs and nursery crops facing the exact same pressure as everyone else. Why were they left out and will you commit to expanding the eligibility to intrual to include controlled environment growers?

Yes, let's follow up on that tomorrow. I I will uh we'll we'll we'll look into that.

Generally, his time has expired, now I recognize the gentleman from Tennessee, Mister Rhoes,

Thank you Chairman Thompson, I appreciate you holding this hearing, and thank you Secretary for uh Secretary Rawlins for being with us today. Um I know you've heard other members uh talk about their agricultural heritage. I am an eighth generation farmer, farming the same land since seventeen ninety. Got two little boys, Guy and Sam, who I hope will be the ninth generation.

Mm-hmm.

We're trying to trying to foster that in them. And like you um I think it's safe to say, I think you'd say this, or or nod when I say this, I wouldn't be here had it not been for my participation in the Future Farmers of America. Mm-hmm. And uh, it's what a great program, and I know you're deeply supportive as well. Agree.

Yeah.

Um, I I am struck by some of the comments from the other side of the aisle today, and I and I wanna just uh stand up and say this, you know, I am sixty one, I'm sad to admit that, but it's true, but for most of my life, we have had an agricultural trade surplus in this country. And we are now in a crisis in farm country, and I think there's no denying that in part that has happened because the prior administration set a fire. And that fire um did a lot of things. Number one, it set off a round of inflation unprecedented since my youth and a as a member of the FFA and the Jimmy Carter inflation of the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties.

Yeah.

But they also failed to negotiate a single, a single agricultural trade deal. You've talked about the nineteen new trade deals in just one year. Folks, when you set a fire and you let it rage for four years, the the the damage that we see in farm country today, the damage that we see with affordability today in America, these are the things that you get. And so how dare they? How dare they, having been the arsonist setting this fire? now have the temerity to criticize the firemen that are on the scene containing it. So congratulations to you and President Trump, and I commend you for the work you've done, the the tremendous work you've done in the short span that you've been in office of containing a fire, Thank you. and working hard to put it out, and get us back on track as a country. So I so I thank you for all of the things that you all have been working on. As we all know, Thank you. foreign markets are important. Uh but they can also be unpredictable, and I know you've already spoken this about this. This is why I'm an avid supporter of E fifteen and and the biofuels in our country, because we need to find ways to consume more of the commodities that we produce right here at home to supply this country. Can you talk about other ways in which we can become more self-sufficient, and ways in which we can add value to and use the commodities that we produce so efficiently and effectively here in our country?

Well, thank you Congressman. I I appreciate the the the kudos. It's it has been a an a Herculean effort over the last year to get all those new trade deals and frameworks done and to open the markets up and and uh, I I honestly I would like to take a little credit, but it's really the President and his trade team, uh Jameson Greer and Howard Letnick and and and Scott Besson that have uh have put agriculture at the top of their list as they're going out around the world with the President so so they deserve so much credit. Uh but secondly to your point in terms of uh the importance of America first and making sure we're producing our own and consuming excuse me, I was surprised, more than surprised to see when I walked in the door that what used to be uh American driven uh whether it's fertilizer, seed, uh um processing, you know, four packers basically process eighty five percent of our beef in this country, Uh there are so many areas that we have been asleep at the wheel, the country has, for decades and has allowed the offshoring of so much of of what we need to basically feed and fuel and clothe ourselves. And we're at the point, this is an existential issue, to preserving our country for the next two hundred and fifty years. If we need to rely on China for our food and our fertilizer and all of the things that come with that we will lose what we understand to be liberty That's how important this is. So whether it's E fifteen, whether it's onshoring fertilizer, whether it's breaking up and uh making sure we have smaller processors around the country so all of our cattle don't have to haul to the big four, eh there are any number of issues, getting cotton back into uh into and onto American clothes and sheets, et cetera. Uh it is a massive list of problems that we're working to solve, but but I think we're making tremendous progress. None of this will happen overnight. But just seeing the markets that have gone up, seeing the tens of billions of dollars we're now moving out in just one year of our agricultural products that's only gonna get better and uh and and becomes more important to our country.

Well thank you, Secretary Rollins, we we well remember it took a decade to get the quarter inflation under control fully extinguished,

Mm-hmm.

and it will sadly take a long time to get us completely back on track. Thank you for the work you and the President are doing.

Thank you, Congressman.

I yield back.

Gentlemen, Thank you, Mister Chairman, uh thank you Madam Secretary for being here, good to see you again. I um you know I don't typically get involved in the the back and forth, but I've been in Congress now i about eighteen months, and the one word that I hear more than perhaps anything else uh from my colleagues is is well two words, is Joe Biden, or Biden administration. And as it relates to our farmers, look I'll be the first to tell you I don't I don't care who wh what party the president is, I don't care where he's from, I don't care what his policies are, I don't care what his goals are, I don't care uh what his or her um you know positions are on many things. All I care about is the decisions that you are making, do they help district two in the state of Alabama? I don't care. Anything else. Is it good for my district, is it good for my state? And when I continue to hear people talk about the Biden administration, the Biden administration, the Biden administration, and what they did, you know, to the extent that there was a fire. This administration did not come in treating it with water. They came in spraying gasoline. And this administration did not ramp up the tariff war. This administration or this administration did ramp up the tariff war, did start the tariff war. The Biden administration didn't do that. The Biden administration didn't start a conflict in Iran that has fuel prices at record levels that we're seeing for some time. This administration did that. The Biden administration is not the one who has driven uh foreign exports uh away from farmers in the state of Alabama. This administration did that.

Mm.

Biden administration did not open up cattle import markets from Argentina. This administration did that. And so I don't care if it's a or a Republican who did that. If Joe Biden had done those things, I'd sit here and tell you the exact same thing. It is wrong, it's not right, we should not be doing it. And so I think we all have a collective responsibility when we talk about taking care of farmers when we talk about taking care of rural communities and taking care of uh the agriculture industry as a whole we all have a responsibility to be real with ourselves we all have a responsibility to be loyal to the communities and the states that we represent without finger pointing at a particular president or administration. We, this body, the Agricultural Committee, we have the power to stand back, to use our constitutional authority to push back against decisions of an administration whether a prior administration or current administration, to make sure we are positioning our farmers to thrive and succeed. And I get reports in my district, as I'm sure many people across here you know do, you know I got we got pe some of the the the the most peanut farmers in the country, in my district, um and in my state, uh soybean farmers. Right? And when I talk to them and they say things to me like, hey, the tariff rates have made it more expensive for us to produce these produ uh products, than we can sell them for, that is a problem. And that is a problem that collectively we should be working together to solve. And I know you're not responsible for tariffs. I know that, right? You we we all know that, right? So I'm not gonna, you know, throw that responsibility on you. But what I do expect is that the Department of Agriculture

May I respond?

Well, hold on, I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you a question.

Okay, okay, okay.

Um, but the at the end of the day, you know, the tariffs have they they have been harmful. The input costs have been harmful. Um, and sure we can I'm sure we can point to legitimately we can point to policies across multiple administrations um you know that that lead to our current, uh circumstances, but I don't think that it is fair to anybody. Uh, and I don't think it is fair to the farmers, first and foremost, to point that finger solely at one man or one previous administration and ignore the actions that the current administration is taking. And so, my my question is that, you know, we've we've heard reports of foreign markets drying up for exports. For peanut farmers in the state of Alabama, we've in fact we've even seen some reports that say peanuts unable to be exported to international markets uh from the state of Alabama last year. And that's a problem, that's a huge problem. And we've seen similar reports that say that China, who buys most of this, I know we criticize China a lot, but they're a enormous consumer of American agricultural goods, um that they are investing elsewhere, that they're helping stand up markets, soybean markets in Brazil, peanut markets in other places in the country, and I'm worried that those markets are not going to return. to the state of Alabama. So my question is what is the Department of Agriculture doing uh to ensure that those markets uh can be restored or not permanently lost um and that we're doing as much as we can to support our farmers in that and I know I I've I've spoken through most of my time but to the extent uh that you can, please respond.

Mister Chairman,

Thank you.

if I can, j- just thirty seconds, so I I appreciate the the the framing and and the passion and and I'm I'm grateful for that and we love our farmers in Alabama for sure but I will say it was the, what you're calling, That is what allowed us to strike nineteen new trade deals and cut the forty two billion dollar agricultural trade deficit the markets that were lost in the four years. And I I I get it, I go like please stop talking about Biden, but it was those four years that we lost forty two billion dollars in agricultural markets. We went to a deficit in one year under those nineteen new trade deals. We've cut that in half. So we're actually opening the markets. all around the world and exports are gonna be up. We're expecting a record export year this year. The inputs are another conversation. We don't have time. I've been talking about them a lot. But the a for the actual trade part, we're actually we all of us are winning on that.

You're welcome, Mr.

Thank you.

Thank you. Uh I now recognize the uh gentleman from Wesco Wisconsin, Mister Van Orden, for five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chairman. Um I I hate to say this to my dear colleague from Alabama, but uh the gas prices were only higher under the Biden administration.

Mm-hmm.

Sorry. Good now, but man. Uh, Madam Secretary, I wanna thank you for visiting, and I'm we're gonna welcome you back with the President. I think that's fantastic. I wanna cover a few things, r a dairy screw room snap, and then if we can get to it nukes real quick. So, this question actually comes from the American Agro Women, it's the largest group of female farmers in the world.

Mm-hmm.

Kim is our Rep in Wisconsin, she's fantastic, she was here yesterday, we had some uh cheese and beer together, as you do. Um and this is talking about the um farm program, so I'll just read it, this is directly from them. Our dairy farmers are really concerned about the amount of proprietary operational data that they're being required to provide to milk processors and third parties.

Yeah.

Uh through the check off process they've been forced to provide their proprietary data to be aggregated and given to milk processors, both cooperatives and in independent, some with uh that are foreign owned by Canada, and it's without the farmers realizing that they're giving up their proprietary data. So the problem here is that there's so much data

That's right.

that has been given by the farmers to these organizations. We don't know where the data's going, we don't know if they're selling the data, who has access to it, and we're very concerned about this. So w are you guys looking at this to see if you can modify this program to give our okay.

We are. We this is this is a really important most people don't even realize for any of you from dairy states, Your dairy farmers, especially your small guys, um the ones we're really trying to help, have to basically to be able to sell their milk, they have to provide this crazy amount of data, what they feed their cattle, where their cattle, where the manure is disposed of, and it's all in the name of climate and the climate challenge.

Correct.

And so you're basically requiring right now your dairy farmers to hand over this data and if they don't sort of check the box then they can't sell their milk, and this is a really big challenge.

Right.

way under the radar, but we are working on it, and working with some of your dairy farmers on it.

Thank you ma'am. Another dairy issue,

Yeah.

um, we talked about trade, so Whole Milk for Healthy Kids, uh, during the the Obama administration, sorry, did he take off, he's gone, um, they got rid of uh whole milk, one percent, two percent milk, flavored milks, and a bunch of dairy products within our schools. So with uh, you know, GT Thompson, we've been working on this forever, he's been working on it for a really long time. Uh, when President Trump signed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids, uh act into law that reopened all the domestic markets in our public schools for our children. So one from the nutritional aspect is fantastic,

Right.

but you talk about trying to get new trade deals going, uh that is that is wonderful so I wanna thank you for your help on that. Uh and I gotta admit I've been misquoting you guys, I did it twice, uh media today, I said you've only done fifteen trade deals in fifteen months, it's nineteen. Sorry about that, I'll correct that in the future,

We'll forgive you, yes.

that's that's over one a month.

It's incredible.

I don't think people understand that.

It's unprecedented and historical,

Sure.

and and there's more coming. That's what's exciting.

Okay, let's get on India. We gotta talk to you about those cats.

Yes.

Um, New World Screwworm. People don't understand that the New World Screwworm does not differentiate between a beefer or a dairy cow or a swine or poultry or your cat or even you. And I appreciate it. We've been working on this for over a year now, so I know some of my colleagues weren't as in tune to that with Tracy Mann, his leadership of the subcommittee. uh for uh uh poultry, dairy and uh livestock. They'd say livestock first but um so I understand you've got a twenty kilometer exclusion zone around this?

Correct. So the case that was confirmed yesterday and I leave here in in about an hour

Yep.

and go jump back on with about a thousand people from around the country. But the case that was confirmed yesterday, the protocol, it's all on screwworm dot gov.

Yep.

You can't forget that, screwworm dot gov. But the protocol is the moment we have a confirmation that we have a twenty kilometer basically uh quarantine,

Yep.

and there can be no movement of animals. What people don't realize the screw first of all the screw worm is a fly. The president was was confused about this, he's like why do we call it a screw worm if it's a fly, as I was trying to explain it to it. But the flies don't move long distances. The way the screw worm is basically spread is when you move the livestock uh in long distances.

The poor bird.

So that's what happened in Mexico with the cartels, that's why we're in this position we're in, but that's what's so important why we've got a quarantine and stop movement.

Excellent. Thank you, ma'am. Um, and for people that are not a fan of RFID tags, let's gotta understand the way that we're gonna track these animals is through that. Uh, and then let's just go to stamp real quick. Uh, s I was raised in abject rural poverty by a single mother, and we had food stamps,

Mm-hmm.

so and it was a stamp that went on a card, and had government cheese and subsidized lunches and all that stuff. And every single dollar that we allocate for a hungry child needs to go to a hungry child.

That's right.

I mean, the SNAP program is not an international food aid program. it's for needy Americans, and I'm I benefited from this. So I wanna commend you for making sure that we re remove the billions and billions and billions of dollars worth of fraud so that the hungry child gets fed. So thank you very much,

Amen.

ma'am, and with that, Mister Chairman, I yield back.

Thank you, sir.

Do you know when the time has expired,

We'll see you tomorrow.

now recognize Mister Riley from New York for five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman. Uh, thank you, Secretary, it's good to see you again. Last time we saw you were here with your kids,

Me too.

I take it they learned their lesson and This

You'll notice they only sat for about thirty minutes,

Yeah, we talked about that.

yeah so

I skipped out on this one. I have two things I wanna talk to you about.

Yes.

Uh one of them we just texted about uh you and I yesterday.

Yeah.

Um I grew up a a few blocks from a cider mill in Endicott, not a cider mill, B cider mill. And one of the things you do as a kid is you go there for your uh field trips and you watch them press the i the apples and make the cider. So it's not just great uh locally sourced cider, it's one of those uh shared experiences that we all had. Mm. uh go in there and that's the sort of thing that helps build community. Uh in fact the first time I brought uh my wife home to meet my parents, the literally the very first thing we did was took her uh to the cider mill, Go to the cider mill. like make or break moment for me, and we'll be celebrating our uh ten year anniversary, It worked. ten year anniversary coming up this this fall. Congratulations. Um thank you.

Yeah.

Uh so when our apple growers are facing tough times, we really, really wanna be there for them. And right now things are really tough, especially in the Hudson Valley uh because of the April frost. Yeah. Uh Saunderskill Farms in Ackard is an eleventh and twelfth generation family farm dating back to sixteen eighty the oldest farm in New York State.

Oh.

Uh it stood the test of time but today uh it could lose half of its apple crop uh because of the frost um you and I traded a couple text messages yesterday. I just wanna ask you can we work together uh to make sure that New York State's

Oh.

disaster designation uh gets finalized as quickly as possible so that uh farms uh, Sanders School can uh get the support they deserve.

One hundred percent, yes. And I would love to go to an eleventh generation apple farm. That is, I've I've been talking to a lot of the apple guys. I'll make sure and include your guys too.

Wonderful.

They are struggling. We need to eat more apples in this country.

Yeah.

Um, so I'm I'm on the apple thing, but yes, for sure.

Good. Let's do it. Let's get this disaster declaration approved so they can get the support they need,

Yeah.

and then maybe you and I can go up and and and give the good news uh together.

We would love that. Yeah.

Um, great, and let me know anything I can do to be helpful in getting disaster declaration uh done. Um I wanna tell you about uh Copac. Um this is a beautiful uh rural town in Columbia County, a really tight-knit community of a few thousand people. They actually have this great car show uh that I'd like to take the kids to, uh at Wabeca family campground every summer. Um but today uh Copac is being targeted by a billion dollar out of state corporate developer called Hecate Energy. that wants to cover our land with their solar panels.

Mm.

Uh, and it's not just any solar panels. Uh, these are solar panels made by a Chinese company with ties to slave labor.

Mm.

And, look, these developers, first of all, they should be using American supply chains, not Chinese supply chains. And if they're building anywhere, Mm-hmm. build on parking lots and brownfields or the rooftops of cities, not in beautiful farmland in upstate New York. But they're targeting places like Copaic because it's a small town and they think they can steamroll us to make a buck for themselves. So Copaic is small, but they fight, and the entire community, I'm telling you, residents, farmers, small business owners, Democrats, Republicans, independents, everyone got together to fight back against this thing, passed seventeen zoning laws to stop this. project from coming in. But there's this group, it's called ORRIS. It's a bunch of unelected bureaucrats in Albany, and they are overriding the residents of Copake and letting Hekate plow ahead. So they're they're literally overruling our neighbors and handing this beautiful upstate New York farmland to corporate developers using Chinese supply chains. And if they succeed This is gonna be such a tragedy. Mm-hmm. Not just for towns like Copaic that deserve better. I agree. T twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five alone, we lost five hundred farms and a hundred thousand acres of farmland in upstate New York. Yeah. And if we don't change course, we're gonna lose it all. So I, you know, one of the reasons I supported the farm bill is cuz it included my legislation to stop China from buying American farmland.

Yeah.

This is basically the same thing we're dealing with here. So I saw your tweet last week. uh raising the alarm about this, including in upstate New York. Uh as you know, I'm always looking for ways to find common ground and shared values, and I think this might be one of them. So my question to the extent with time remaining is, what can you and I do together at the federal level uh to protect our farmland and save uh towns like Copaic?

I'm not sure that there's a more righteous battle than to battle to save this farmland. And I'm sure you know, but Cornell partnered with the state of New York, to reclassify USDA prime farmland to not prime farmland. Took eighty percent of our classification, said oh actually it's only eleven percent which is allowing this development to happen, which is absolutely not okay.

If there are things we can yeah,

I would love to work with you.

and if there are things I know my time's expired. If there are things we can do federally to preempt some of this, and it's not just it's not just preempting it federally, I I look at it as like we have to take action federally to return control

That's right.

people. Like the power should be with the people in Copaic,

I agree.

not a bunch of unelected bureaucrats. And if you and I need to work together federally to return that power to them, let's let's do that.

I w I would welcome that. Uh, we're we're already on it. So let's loop you into that work.

Great. Thanks, Secretary.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

You know, once time has expired, uh, now r um recognize Mister Newhouse from Washington State.

Thank you, Chairman Thompson.

See you.

Secretary Rollins, welcome to the Ag Committee. Thank you. And let me just say we appreciate the work you're doing every single day on behalf of our farmers and ranchers. Um, particularly in the state of Washington, as you mentioned in your written testimony. You know, I I'm a third generation farmer myself, my son's a fourth generation. Mm. Uh, we know firsthand the big challenges that agriculture faces. And uh, I know you're we're everybody's looking to you for answers. I just wanna tell you Appreciate your aggressive approach to solving some of the biggest challenges I've ever seen in the agricultural industry.

Mm-hmm. Thank you.

Um, let me get into the weeds just a little bit. Not weeds specifically, but a gentleman from New York raised the issue of apples. Um The supplemental disaster program, which has been a tremendous uh help, um y you've uh extended the application deadline for the twenty three, twenty four program. I've been hearing from several of my constituents ab about some of the issues around the quality loss uh portion of this program. Um, particularly for apples and pears, the iconic Washington apple, I might say. Um, the current reporting period is um, I think, thirty days. Um, and while that works for for most uh producers uh to report a uh quality loss, it doesn't align with uh commercial practices for producing apples and pears. Uh they're stored soon after harvest and as you know uh these fruits are available literally year-round. Um some are in storage uh for weeks before they are uh being graded and sold. So my question has to do with the flexibility around that program. Could we provide uh some some flexibility there around

Yes.

that deadline so that these two fruits are not automatically disqualified.

Yeah, if you'll follow up with me directly and then we'll get the right team on that.

Yeah, absolutely. Well,

Yeah, thank you.

like I, well, 'cause I'd have been hearing from several people about that issue. Um and staying on the assistance uh topic for just a sec, uh I wanna thank you for the recent announcement regarding the assistance for specialty crops.

Mm-hmm.

Uh and while, you know, thank you, very much appreciate that, there's been a lot of concern expressed that there's gonna be additional needs. Mm-hmm. Um so I'm just looking to you for commitment to working with with me, with with Congress um a a and the and the stakeholders, and especially crops, so that we can assess what, if any, additional assistance could be brought forth. Uh particularly for producers whose losses or those cost uh pressures maybe aren't reflected with the current program uh as it was rolled out. I'm particularly thinking about Mm-hmm. Yeah, especially crops are a unique animal.

That's right.

Um, uh a an acreage uh basing uh some of the calculations on acreage doesn't always work. We have to look back at uh production records more so. So, just looking for that kind of opening that door and commitment from you.

Yes, absolutely.

Yep, good, good. Uh, and then I just wanted to to broach the subject of of foreign investment in agricultural uh lands in the United States.

Yes.

And appreciate very much your um understanding that this truly is a matter of national security to prevent, particularly the Communist Chinese Party from owning more uh l land in the United States. So any thoughts about that that you haven't already expressed would be good.

Yeah, I I appreciate your leadership on that so much, and and I do think we have made progress in the last fourteen months of waking up America at what has happened

Yeah.

over decades whether it's the purchase of farmland from foreign adversaries especially around military bases, but also the purchase of some of our supply chains. The fact that foreign adversaries own

Yeah. Absolutely.

about a fifth of our pork, um that Brazil owns about half of our packing and processing, uh that China owns uh our basically our chemical seeds that uh several other countries on our fertilizer, g how did this happen? What what where where were we? Not we in this room, but the proverbial we,

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

what were we doing, and and my goodness what would have happened if if if we didn't have a leader who recognizes that and who's given us the basically the the runway to go try to fix it.

Uh and let me just say uh you mentioned the uh fertilizer production in the state of Washington uh look look forward to working with you and making that a reality.

Yes.

Atlas Agro Agro has some tremendous potential there and will help do exactly what you're talking about bring some of this stuff back to the United States, so we're not dependent on foreign sources.

We have to or we'll we'll lose our country.

Yep. Absolutely.

That's how important it is.

But thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you Madam Secretary.

Mm-hmm.

Thank you, Mister Chairman.

Right. Thank you gentlemen. Uh now recognize the gentleman from California, Mister Carbajal for five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chairman. Welcome, Secretary Rollins. Good morning.

Good morning. Thank you.

I represent the central coast of California, where agriculture is our number one industry. Like many farmers across the country, growers in my district are currently under tremendous pressure. They are simultaneously grapple grappling with labor shortages, a shuttered export market, rising costs, For fertilizers, seed, chemicals, and fuel, as well as increasing competition from abroad, all of which are making it harder to stay f profitable and keep their operations running. You may disagree with my next point, but many of these problems have been caused and or exacerbated by this Trump administration. Whether the misguided tariffs or the war with Iran, it is clear these actions are harming our farmers throughout the country. I hear it every day from my farmers. Specialty crop producers have been hit especially hard, often without access to the same level of federal support and safety net programs available to other commodity sectors. While I was pleased to hear that funding available for assistance for special specialty crop farmers' program was increased to one point six billion it is widely acknowledged by the industry that this funding represents only a fraction of the total economic losses suffered by specialty crop growers. Do you agree that additional assistance is necessary? And does USDA have plans for further assistance for specialty crop farmers in the future?

This is really a congressional question. Uh, we stand by and are ready to assist if that determination is made. I was out in California last week visiting with Allied Potato and meeting with some specialty crop growers Uh there is no doubt that there are some headwinds and w and we need to do everything we can to work on those, whether opening markets, decreasing input prices, or additional assistance.

Are there other actions USDA will be taking to address some of these impacts on farm country?

Well, every day we're taking action you know the the good news from the working families tax cut is there were a lot of provisions in that bill, uh whether it was reference prices, death tax exemption, better crop, uh protection. Of course the new farm bill that you all worked so hard on and and got moved through, also will make additional steps. So we're executing on that every single day. The export market for some of our specialty crops like tree nuts is expected to be way up this year so we're gonna be shipping a lot more around the world so that's good. And then the Make America Healthy Again movement, I'm not sure that anyone's gonna benefit more from that than our specialty crop growers who are growing the healthy veggies, berries, et cetera.

Let's hope so. Costco began selling grape vines to the retail club members in Northern California. We have since learned that several of these grape vines grape vine plants have become infested with the glassy-winged sharpshooter insect and have now quickly spread across the state as you may know this insect led to the Pierce disease outbreak which caused significant damage to the wine industry there is a need for immediate infusion of funding to mitigate damage for this insect. before it becomes a major problem and causes severe financial losses to our country's leading wine-producing state.

Correct.

Can you share what actions USDA is currently taking to respond to these concerns, and are there emergency funding opportunities currently being considered that could help address these challenges?

Yes, our APHIS team is on it. We just talked about it yesterday. Even though we're dealing with screwworm, which is a a a much uh uh taking a lot more uh uh media than than certainly the pest you announced, but yes, we talked about it yesterday, we are on it, our AFIS team is there on-site and uh and we'll do whatever we need to do to protect to protect those vineyards and those vines.

Thank you. Secretary Rollins, horticulture and floriculture are vital sectors in my district as well, yet they were excluded from the assistance for specialty crop farmers program, despite facing many of the same input costs, increases, or other agriculture producers. Would you agree that they deserve assistance as well?

Yeah, I would love to see more information on that. We had to draw the line somewhere. We drew the line at what people eat. That was over a hundred specialty crops were included in the last round. But again, from a congressional perspective, if Congress decides that additional assistance is needed for horticulture, flora, culture, I will of course support that.

Thank you very much. Mr. Chair, I yield back.

Thank you, sir.

Aye, thanks, gentlemen.

We'll follow up on the on the pest. Yeah, thank you.

Now I recognize the gentleman from New York, Mister Mannion, for five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chairman. Um, thank you Secretary Rollins for uh being here today,

There you are. Thank you.

answering our questions and providing uh so many details. And thank you for coming to upstate New York uh to highlight our region's dairy industry. New York's twenty-second congressional district's home to a great dairy industry that is immensely important to our state's agriculture. Um I've heard directly from my dairy producers about the issues and uh I'm sure you've heard across the country as well issues related to labor shortages, high input costs, and very real profitability concerns that we've talked about here today and I appreciate uh the details you've provided in your answers. So um one of the reasons I was excited to be a member of this committee is the spirit

Thank you.

of bipartisanship that exists here and has operated to support our nation's farmers through

Mm-hmm.

unexpected crises both here and around the world. I've been pleased to work in that same bipartisan spirit to expand market opportunities for our dairy farmers including through the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act. That was a real bright spot for our producers and I appreciate your work in helping getting Yeah. that legislation quickly animated implemented and guidance out to our schools. Thank you. I wanna focus on two issues today that are at the front of my mind and certainly at the front of the minds of my I'll run through both and welcome your thoughts at the end.

Sounds good.

Um first, Governor Hochul recently submitted a request for disaster designation,

Mm.

I believe my colleague from New York mentioned that as well, for a large portion of my district and other parts of the state that were impacted by uh the April frost which has decimated many fruit operations including our apple and grape producers. New York is the nation's number two apple producer. Uh and our grape growers support thousands of jobs on farms, in tasting rooms and in packaging facilities. Um so now they're looking at more than thirty million dollars in estimated losses. Unfortunately this comes on the heels of an already difficult stretch for our growers who face back-to-back years of weather related losses, and for many of these operations another significant crop loss could be um an event that forces them to close. So Uh, I would appreciate at the end if you could provide an update on where USDA is on processing the Governor's request and any information you can share so that I can communicate that directly back to our producers.

Sure.

The second issue is on rural development. Like some of my colleagues, I was concerned to see the deep cuts to rural development programs included in the President's budget I'm worried that these cuts along with the proposed changes to the USDA home loan programs will restrict access to rural home ownership at the exact moment when families in places like Central New York and the Mohawk Valley are already facing higher housing costs, higher interest rates, and fewer affordable homes. So, I'm asking uh if you can commit to ensuring that families in rural communities who rely on section five O two direct loans as their primary pathway to home ownership will not see processing delays or reduced access as a result of the administrative changes. Thank you, Secretary.

No, thank you so much. So first on the disaster declaration, we received uh Gov Governor Hochul's letter on May nineteenth. Uh we are moving, in fact I I keep this with me, I understand how important this is, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland are the ones we're looking at right now to with the utmost speed possible to get those declarations out so you have my personal commitment I'm checking every single day. Obviously a lot of data has to be gathered, but uh but we've gotta do that at just at warp speed. So if you're hearing or seeing something different, would you just flag that for me directly and I'll gi I'll give you my number. Um the second thing on the Rural Development Housing program, the uh there were first of all there is no um there's no less amount of money going into the program but there is a rule change that allows that money to be spread more evenly across the country. And so, you know, your concern is real for those from New York and California. That is arguably less money for for your constituents to put into housing. And so I hear that. Um, I I I take it to heart. I understand it. But the the goal of the program, again, is to get as much money as we can to help as many rural homes as we can get built. But I would welcome a continuing dialogue on that and especially specifics that you may have that show how this is hurting your constituents. as we're continually updating and looking at those rules.

Great. Thank you so much, Madam Secretary. I yield back.

Thank you.

I thank the gentlemen, yield the gentleman yields back, now I recognize the gentleman from Indiana, Mr. Mesmer.

Uh thank you, Mister Chairman, and uh thank you, Madam Secretary. Appreciate your your work uh to strengthen the coordination between the USDA and the Department of War, by signing an MOU with uh Secretary Hegseth in February. That same month I introduced the DOD and USDA Interagency Research Act. A bill that would foster collaboration between the DOD's Office of Research and Engineering and USDA's uh AGARTA program it would strengthen our agricultural security, and it will accelerate innovation for American farmers and ranchers. Uh since signing the MOU, how has the USDA worked with the Department of War, specifically DARPA, and the USDA's USDA's Office of the Chief Scientist to Advance Agricultural Security and Innovation.

I I I'm so happy you asked this question. Uh I never before has the Secretary of War, previously Secretary of Defense, actually signed an MOU with the Secretary of Agriculture. We have ta- uh under any administration, we have talked at length today about the national security implications of agriculture and and how for so many years America I believe has been asleep. And and while we've been talking about a stronger military and reshoring manufacturing, well what about reshoring our fertilizer? What about reshoring our seeds? What about ensuring that um foreign adversaries can't buy farmland. And so I called Pete about this, our Secretary of War, uh back last year and I said, " I really wanna elevate, even in your own mind, how important agriculture, farm security, food security is national security." And he said, " Brooke, I'm all in." And so that's what that MOU represented. We have been working back and forth. The screw worm is a really good example of this, um real world example, that the screw worm is potentially a compromise to our food supply system, that um we we produce uh we consume thirteen million metric tons of beef every year in America eleven million metric tons of that we raise ourselves we import between two and three million metric tons well if we have a big screw room infestation which we will not we are on top of it but that's the challenge. If we're not ready for it then that could very much compromise our beef cattle industry and in inuring to us relying on other countries for our protein our beef. called Secretary Hegseth, uh called General Graham, Head of the Army Corps of Engineers, obviously part of the Secretary of the War Department, and they immediately prioritized our screw worm facility in South Texas, a seven hundred and fifty million dollar investment, to make sure this doesn't happen again once it's up and running. So that is an example, there are m there are dozens and dozens of example, but that is an example of how the Department of War is prioritizing agriculture.

'Kay, thank you. Uh Your your team has already been instrumental in the in the the the development of my bill, and I'd like to see if you could commit to further uh relationship with me as we move closer to the end zone.

Yes, we would be we would so welcome that.

Okay. Thank you. Um also Indiana is the fourth fourth largest turkey producer uh in the nation. In twenty twenty four, the Hoosier farmers raised twenty million birds. Through the s through the success of the USC and MCA, Mexico has become the number one destination for American turkey products and a major export market for Indiana producers.

Yeah.

unfortunately, will lack the same kind of access to the Canadian market. While exports of uh turkey uh to Canada have been stagnant for the last decade, imports from Canada have increased. Um uh Madam Secretary, can you commit to working with the US Trade Representative to expand access to the Ca- Canadian market for US turkey producers through the upcoming USMCA review?

Yes, one hundred percent, and and uh Jameson and I talk almost every day, so so there will be uh a lot of opportunity to to make sure that's prioritized. So thank you, if you'll just stay in touch with me as we move forward.

Yep. Perfect, thank you.

Yeah.

Um before I conclude I wanna reiter reiterate my strong support for USDA's reorganization plan and thank you for having Deputy Secretary uh Vaden in Indiana today um as a leader in snap efficiency and a trailblazer in ag research, Indiana is well prepared to welcome the USDA staff looking to set down roots in the Hoosier state uh as Indiana continues to ready.

We are uh w yes, we will follow up with you on that. We're obviously finalizing all of the details. Indiana was such um for me as we were deciding where to move a lot of the the the the different uh silos different organizations within USDA the the importance of Indiana from being in the middle of the country uh having so many research hubs within

Right. Mm-hmm.

one of your shining stars. Uh there's just so much opportunity there from the research perspective, but to your point on on FNS, now FNA, uh the food and nutrition, there is uh there's getting to be really, really good, whether it's Indiana, Dallas, other parts around the country, to have those in the middle of the country that are closer to where they're serving. And of course we have we have uh offices in Colorado and Utah coming as well. And and we've put a lot in Iowa and some of the other states too, so We're still finalizing that but moving very quickly.

Thank you. We're uh my office is willing to do anything we can to help in that transition and I yield back.

Thank you. Thank you.

I thank the gentlemen uh we've had some extenuating circumstances after consulting with the ranking member we're gonna recognize Mister Harris from North Carolina next I know that's out of line out of order but then we'll go with um um two of our Democrat colleagues back to back next. So, uh, Mr. Harris, um, Interim Vice.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and uh thank you Madam Secretary for your presence here Good afternoon. Thank you. and appreciate the incredible work that you are doing. You know, it's no secret that under the previous administration, the Department of Agriculture willfully engaged in racial discrimination when administering several of the programs, in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion. And in many cases these discriminatory policies provided an enhanced benefits, there was some preferential treatment, there was priority consideration within the USDA programs to individuals classified as socially disadvantaged and that was based on race, ethnicity, and gender. And recognizing the problem with this, that's my understanding, um that was plaguing the federal government, President Trump shortly after coming to office signed the executive order, ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs, and preferencing. I just wanted to ask you real quickly if you could share some specific examples of actions that the department has been able to take to comply with President Trump's executive order and to remove these preferences uh to insure that our farmers and ranchers are all being treated equally under the law.

On day one we cancelled nine hundred DEI trainings, uh which is k kind of stunning that the US Department of Agriculture was spending so much time and resources and taxpayer dollars I training the number of um grants that we canceled that were focused on things like, uh this is the name of the grant, Queer and BIPOC Farmers and Food Justice in San Francisco. This was an actual USDA grant. Uh looking at racial uh injustice in the pest control business, that was another grant.

Mm-hmm.

Uh looking at the uh menstrual cycles and transgender um Americans,

Wow.

I mean i it is it is stunning and and I have to believe that m maybe not every American who hears that but I've gotta believe most Americans,

Mm-hmm.

no matter where they vote or what side of the aisle they vote on would agree that that is not a good use of taxpayer dollars coming through the US Department of Agriculture and so aligning the USDA recalibrating the USDA

Right.

and putting the farmer and the rancher as our number one customer. We do a lot of things every day, all day every day, but when Abraham Lincoln founded this department in eighteen sixty two, never in a million years would he ever have been okay with some of the the uh the priorities that the last administration had had uh had put in place. So that's what we worked hard to change.

Well, and I agree a hundred percent. And and I will say that um that's why I was pleased to see in February of this year, the Solicitor General uh John Sauer sent a letter to Speaker Johnson stating that the Department of Justice had identified and concluded that several of these statutory provisions of federal law,

Mm.

governing these programs that establish race and gender-based preferences for individuals designated as socially disadvantaged according to John Sauer, they were unconstitutional.

Mm-hmm.

Um and so while the DOJ's determination is important to me, hypothetically speaking, if Congress doesn't remove these provisions from federal law, could a future administration reinstate these race and gender-based preferences and reverse the reforms that your department has now started to implement?

That is the challenge, that is the imperative, that Congress has to act. That, and it and it isn't just on DEI, i i that's important, and it isn't just on some of the other silly stuff that we inherited, but even out in the countryside, the farmers are so I'm very thankful. Thank you for changing the adverse effective wage rate for H two A, so it's now I can afford my H two A employees.

Sure. Sure.

Thank you for putting, you know, for for putting um real food back in the dietary guidelines and for our school lunches. Thank you for de-consolidating the packers and getting well thank you for all that, but unless we get it codified and into law, it's these farmers are gonna face whiplash again and they're gonna go back again.

That's right.

And so I I just can't understate it. And y'all have been heroes on trying to get all of this into law,

Well, uh Madam Secretary, that is exactly the concern, and that's why I introduced the Equal Treatment for Farmers Act, which would strike the very provisions in the US Code that the DOJ has identified

Yeah.

as unconstitutional and prohibits future administrations from discriminating, based on race or gender. I think all of us, all of us agree discrimination is wrong.

That's right.

It always has been. It is antithetical to our American values. But the solution to discrimination is not more discrimination in the opposite direction, is providing equal treatment under the law. And I was very thankful to have twenty-six co-signers almost immediately when we dropped that bill and it's something that's gonna be important.

Yeah.

So I wanna say thank you to you and to your department and to this administration for the work they're doing. Thank you.

Thank you, sir, I'll look forward to partnering with you on that further.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, gentlemen, his time has expired. Um, I believe the secretary's got a hard stop at two o'clock. So we just asked people to, you know, just ask your questions, but uh beast is ksink and I recognize the gentlemen for Virginia, Mister Vendman for five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chairman. Thank you, Madam Secretary, for

Alright, thank you.

coming back this year. So um last or yesterday I had a group of women farmers from across the Commonwealth of Virginia come visit me, and um they were very stressed and and frankly alarmed at the state of uh agriculture in in production this year. Um one particular producer out of Orange County um was talking about the effects of uh the weather and um shocks to input costs and I think you and I can agree that times are tough for America's farmers today.

Mm-hmm.

And so um as we look at the cost of fertilizer um the the uh cost of fuel those input costs and then the natural shocks uh of weather, there's a particular issue that I wanna discuss with you. In in my state, in the in the Commonwealth of Virginia, farmers have experienced significant damage to their crops due to below freezing temperatures losses were well above the thirty percent disaster trigger as a result

Mm-hmm.

of these freezing temperatures and some farmers are even anticipating a hundred per cent per cent loss of their crop and so I'm concerned that between this, the current drought, that they're facing, the high fertilizer costs, the cost of diesel, um even more Virginia farmers will be forced to shut down, shut their farms for good, and we've seen a pretty significant increase in um farm bankruptcies over the course of the last year.

Mm-hmm.

They need USDA disaster assistance urgently. Governor Spamber requested the USDA issue a disaster declaration for all counties in the Commonwealth. Can you commit today to issuing a

Well we obviously have to get the data to make sure, but but her letter came in uh the twenty seventh, I think just a couple of days ago. We've already reached back out to her office to begin that data collection, and my commitment is to move that as quickly as humanly possible so we can get some um, some some some word to those farmers that there is will help coming.

Thank you. With that I yield back.

Thank you, sir.

I thank the gentleman, now I'll recognize the General Lady from Maryland, Liz McLean Delaney for five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chair and Ranking Member, and thank you Madam Secretary for joining us again, it's great to see you and thank you for uh I I think you're now at three and a half hours,

Good to see you too.

so

I may not be quite as uh as sharp as I was three and a half hours ago,

I I

Um I guess.

so forgive me.

Oh no no not at all. Um a as you might remember I represent Maryland's sixth congressional district

Yeah.

which is western of Mountain Maryland, and am the daughter of a potato farmer. Um a as many have talked about the um you know our farmers are really being squeezed, and I'm in constant contact with our five farm bureaus. We have over twelve thousand farms that support over eighty three thousand jobs and generate billions every year in Maryland. And as yes you also heard, you know, farm bankruptcy is up forty seven percent this year over last by the tariffs, immigration related workforce issues, and cuts at USDA. And I won't go into it, 'cause I can hear um from many of my colleagues, including my colleagues from Alabama and other places, um you know these tariffs and farm inputs have been really hard and destabilized markets and I um I take note that you are trying to help with those nineteen different trade agreements across uh uh the world, um and that we do have to um take back and p um a lot of those um farm inputs from fertilizer and other places back into our country.

Mm-hmm.

However, there has been a lot of disruption and some of it self-inflicted um and I am concerned and so um a couple of things I wanna first um like my colleague um R Vintman um going into the frost um just wanna lift up. Last May uh Mountain Maryland was hit by historic flooding that ravaged communities and hundreds of kids were rescued from Western Port Elementary. I returned just last week with Governor Westmore about from the reopening of its school and even though uh Western Maryland did meet the thresholds for FEMA aid, and the Western Port fire truck crossed three miles over into West Virginia to put out fires, same community and same storm. The president and this administration did deny um FEMA aid for Maryland but granted it three miles away for West Virginia. And I firmly believe in the public interest and that our government resources like FEMA, emergency funds, infrastructure, broadband, or healthcare dollars water resources, and USDA resources like grants, and infrastructure should be given irrespective party, zip code, or circumstance. And I show up with my big mama bear arms for every single Mm-hmm. constituent and fight like hell for them including for my farmers. Mm-hmm. And I mentioned this like this uh Maryland recently also did request a sectoral uh dis uh disaster designation for our farmers. Mm-hmm. Um we lost ninety nine percent of our peach crop Ninety eight percent of our barley crop and thirty six percent of our grape loss. And so um considering Maryland has met the thresholds and you just granted Pennsylvania a disaster declaration, um like my colleagues I just commit to offering the same relief for Maryland's far farmers irrespective of of zip code or party or circumstance,

Yes.

and elaborate that we can you know ensure that politics do not impact the economic viability or safety and health and well-being of our farmers, or Of all of our Americans.

Of course, one hundred percent, and um I'll follow up with you on something you mentioned.

That would be excellent.

Yeah.

They are really suffering and and really need it. Um I also do wanna recognize some staff from BARC and AFG who are here today. Um BARC stands for the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, and I do serve my other committee is SST, Science, Space and Technology. I'm a big believer in science and what it does for our US competitors, our national security and our health and well-being, and I think BARC helps with all of those. And for nearly a hundred years it has helped farmers fight pests and disease, and like the screw worm, I even have this ugly picture somewhere. Yes, there it is, yack yack.

He's looking at me, yes.

Um and and you know they help do nutrition and host our bee lab. Um but you know uh many of us believe that you know, moving facilities and this relocation closer to the farmers understand why it might be you might think It has to be done thoughtfully in a way which does not include losing decades of research and institutional knowledge in the experienced staff.

Right. Mm-hmm.

And um, you know, when USDA l relocated ERS in twenty nineteen, nearly eighty-five percent of those staffers quit or retired, and we're hearing up to seventy-five percent might do so um here in Maryland. And I know that you did open up this new um livestock insects research lab in Texas, and it's exciting, but it takes a while to set up research.

Mm-hmm.

And um particularly with our B lab and others, you know, the research constant is important. Um I'm just asking is there a way to keep current facilities here with experienced staff but you'll still experiment no pun intended with setting up other labs across the country 'cause in the end it's about you know keeping our research and results an impact for our farmers and also protecting those who have given decades to USDA.

Mm-hmm. Um obviously this is a much longer conversation and and we have been analyzing it from every angle but I again, and I and I hope you know I'm sincere, I would welcome the opportunity to sit down and meet some of those um men and women. And I have been completely I know GT's gonna yell at me cuz I'm ten seconds over, but I have been so inspired by the USDA career team, those who have given decades from you know, Annette who runs the print shop to the researchers. It's they are so inspiring, their public service, so I would I would again, yes, I would welcome the opportunity to sit down.

I would only say Teddy, who's here from USDA said decision makers sometimes don't understand the research that's being impacted and I know some are here.

Yes. Yes.

God bless you, thank you, and I yield back.

In all these

Thank you.

In all these times, this is Breyer.

God bless you too, thank you.

Now I recognize the gentleman from Ohio, Mister Taylor, for five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman, and thank you very much, Secretary Rollins, for being here.

Very patient, we're on the front row.

Thanks for You they put the the really important people down here to

Yeah, exactly.

the the what uh also comes with this seat is everybody's asked every question

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

But uh

At least I can see you. This is this is actually a benefit, yes.

Right. Like that may not be a good thing. Um Again, thank you so much for your your incredible hard work and your service uh to this point. Uh it's been very impressive and appreciated. Um I do get some questions in my district occasionally about staffing at USDA offices. Are there steps being taken as the USDA uh at the USDA to to make sure that as we rightly pursue efficiency that the safety of our

Yes, we uh we uh obviously the you know, the the reduction in force that was voluntary through the DRP's last year, the idea we needed to right size across the federal government, um the President had been talking about that for some time. Uh w it is not an imperfect process, and so what we've been doing the last year is figuring out what that right balance is and and at the very top of my list obviously is research, which is very important, but also the FSA offices and and where we provide the front-line services for our farmers. And so we've been in touch, I've been visiting FSA offices, I've had some of our best practices in my office here in Washington. How do we support those farmers? I know we're moving to one farmer one file, moving to more technology, but those offices will never close, that's congressional statute, and so ensuring that we've got the resources on the ground. continues and we're shifting around and rehiring uh et cetera and and understand the challenges.

Great, th thank you for that. Also we we talked a little bit about the the situation now with uh with Iran driving the high prices and uh not just on fuel but on uh fertilizer and other things.

Mm-hmm.

Is there planning going on currently at the USDA to assist our farmers in the event that that situation drags on?

That is an ongoing conversation, honestly even before the situation in Iran, how How and what more do we need to do? This is a listen, the farmers are the heartbeat of our country. Everyone is on this committee because they love the farmers, the agriculture, rural America. We're fighting for them, but it's so much bigger than that. It's a national security issue. And the more we lose our farms, whether it's to, you know, development, data centers, et cetera, understanding, you know, progress quote is important, but we've gotta be able to preserve these farms. And and the trajectory has been the other direction for a really long time, but the opportunity to reverse back now, I think is where we are in our country's history. I think the Make an America Healthy Again movement, sourcing more locally grown foods, processing them locally, the USDA spends four hundred millions a day four hundred million dollars a day on nutrition. There's a whole market there that we can capture that will again reverse the trend for our farmers, I believe.

Right. Great. Well thank you very much. And I did just wanna say a a quick thank you on uh behalf of rural America, Mm-hmm. Mm. I appreciate you uh your your commitment to following up on that. Uh we did uh submit a bill that's in the uh the foreign bill um to codify that, That's right. and and hopefully that gets done soon, as well as your attention to the Snap Friday that we've talked about a lot today. Yeah. And we have also sponsored a bill to require a five year look-back reporting from each state and an annual report. Hopefully that gets some traction as well. Um, also wanna mention that, you know, we've had uh we worked with the Ohio State USDA Office of Rural Development, and they've been a a wonderful asset. Uh, Charles Tassels, the the director, and he's been incredibly helpful not just to my farmers but to constituents of all kinds.

That's great.

So I wanted to say thank you for for for them their

Thank you for telling me that.

responsiveness and actually uh their proactiveness. So, thank you again for being here today. And uh lastly I'll just say after the the four years of very difficult conditions the USDA, it's good to have people that have actually been to a forum in charge of the USDA. So thank you for all your work and Chairman I yield back.

Thank you, sir.

Chairman yields back, now I recognize General Lady from Maine, Miss Ben-Griph for five minutes.

Well there. Hi. Thank you, Mister Chair, and uh welcome Madam Secretary, thank you so much for being here with us and for spending this much time. Thank you. Um I could have used up the entire time just to give you my list of things and I share so much of the concerns that other people have said about the reorganization and the downsizing,

Yeah.

Um there are just so many issues uh that I'd like to talk to you about, but I'm gonna try to focus on a few things and I'm gonna um just beg you to be

Okay.

willing to follow up with me on a couple of things I don't expect you to

One hundred percent.

answer everything now I'm not giving you a lot of yes or no quick questions. Um I really do wanna solve some issues.

Thank you.

Um I'm the co-chair of the organic caucus along with Representative Newhouse who was in here earlier, it's a bipartisan caucus. And so you can imagine that glyphosate has been one of those issues I worked on Yeah. for a very long time and I was really pleased in the part where both you and RFK have said we're trying to figure out ways to support more regenerative and organic farming um but my concern is that's not always coming through. Mm-hmm. I just recently heard um that we're so far behind in the uh um organic cost share program um that right now, six months into twenty twenty six, there's no indication when the twenty twenty five application or payment process will take place. So I wanna follow up with you on that. I'll run that down today. That money was in the reconciliation bill and other reconciliation bill money has been spent. Um but it's a huge problem and I was really sad to hear that le just last week, um it was reported in our state that five farms have voli voluntarily let go of their organic certification. Oh no. And the number the thing they cited was that the cost share money wasn't there. So it's just a specific problem we could fix. Okay. Yes, agreed. And I just wanna see you guys put your money where your mouth is on these things. I've also heard on your new regenerative program we have at least one farmer who's applied for that and it has been months and months and no answer on that. So again, Okay, I'll follow up on that today. I'm fol I'm really happy to follow up and just talk to you about that, or we don't have to figure it all out now. I wanted to say in one of the great things, um I was pleased to hear about your

Mm-hmm.

I'm also the co-chair of the organic uh no no, sorry, the slow fashion caucus. And the reason we have that is because we're trying to get more domestic fibers and less use of synthetics that end up in landfills,

That's right.

which is a huge problem. So would love to follow up with you about that, about how you're really gonna implement it, how you're gonna help the farmers, and about other domestic far fibers. We've heard a lot about the people in the fashion industry unable to source domestic cotton, linen, hemp, and wool. And sometimes it's about the infrastructure, Mm-hmm. and particularly in the hemp sector where we tried to expand that a lot, there was literally no processing, so most hemp is procured in other places. Mm-hmm. Back to glyphosate, um I'm very worried about the overuse of glyphosate in the forest service and the spraying that's going on right now. Mm-hmm. Um in another, you know, world uh Representative Huffman and I just sent a letter to Chief Schultz uh to ask for far more details about the use of glyphosate. And um I'll copy you on that just because I think it's really important. Yes. Um when you said uh I I heard you talking to McGovern earlier today, and you said glyphosate is safe if it is used as directed, well one of the concerns people have is how many places it's turning up. Yes, I understand. And so one of the questions we're asking is if there's widespread um use of it in the forest service now which happens in my state and many other states, Is it being used properly? Are we looking at the run-off? Are we looking at the whole picture of what's going on here? And is that the best way to regenerate our forests as we go through this? And secondly, that's true as uh as glyphosate is used increasingly as a desiccant in crops.

Mm-hmm.

And that's another thing that I think people are concerned about. And you see some states like Florida, um Texas, not exactly the hotbed of um liberalism now testing for glyphosate in oats.

Right.

And I think your mom's a Texas legislator if I can yeah,

She is.

so there we go. Um

She's very concerned about this as well.

Exactly.

So, yes.

So I hope your mom is calling you up as much as I call an egg my daughter.

She is, she is.

Um and that leads me to one last thing that I'd like to talk to you about, and that's PFAS. That's been uh an area where we've done a lot of work in my home state. Um I've made it a point on agricultural appropriations to funnel more money towards the USDA for PFAS work, and we need more action going on that.

Yeah.

And I haven't heard a lot about what you're doing.

Mm-hmm.

Um again, I'd be just really pleased to sit down

I would welcome that. Yes. I would love that and welcome it,

Mm.

and we'll follow up and get something scheduled right away.

Okay, if you don't follow up we will,

Yeah. Okay.

and we'll we'll just we'll just pop over there one day and you'll be like, oh no, now she's here, I can have a meeting.

No no no no, I I would really really welcome it, and all issues that you ran through, I know we're out of time, but all issues that we ran through I talked to RFK yesterday about the regen program talked to our forest term this team this morning about glyphosate,

The General General Lee's time is expired.

so I'm tracking,

Okay. Alright, thank you.

I'm tracking. Mm.

Yeah, I'll recognize the gentleman from California, Miss Valadao, five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, sir. Secretary Rawlins, thank you for being here and thank you for coming to visit us in the Central Valley last week.

Mm.

Um, lot of great feedback. My uh farmers really enjoyed the conversation and the continued conversation you've had with them

Yeah.

over the weekend. Uh very early emails Monday morning,

Yeah.

so I know you're working a lot of hours, so thank you for that.

Thank you.

Uh your team and yourself have been great to work with. I noticed that uh Representative Carbajal brought it up and talked a little bit about glassy wing sharpshooter. Uh I was just on the floor talking about an amendment to the Ag Approves bill on this. Uh wanted to follow up just a quick question. Uh given the outbreak is linked to a nursery stock, what further steps can APHIS do h take to help prevent future pest introductions

Oh yes, we've been we've been tracking it. Uh I mentioned we've been very caught up with screw worm and HPAI the last year. That's taken a lot of our attention. But no, we've got entire teams who are looking at all of these pests that are potentially and we've talked a lot today not in this pest world but we have talked a lot today, about agriculture, farm security as national security. There is also a real threat in compromising our food um our food supply chain with uh pests that are brought in with that purpose in mind.

Alright. Um, switching up a little bit, flavored milk in schools, USDA currently enforces that flavored milk in schools must contain no more than ten grams of added sugar per eight ounce serving.

Mm-hmm.

This is a workable guideline that encourages milk consumption in kids and adds healthy a healthy supplement to their diet. While there are valid concerns about excessive added sugar consumption among children flavored milk remains an important source of key nutrients like calcium vitamin D and protein. Many dairy producers appreciate USDA's decision to

Yes.

Easy, yes or no answer. That's great, thanks.

Yes.

Um, specialty crops continue to report that labor challenges are outpacing the development of mechanization alternatives. These emerging technologies help producers lower input costs and maximize profits. What is the USDA doing?

Yeah, we've invested tens of millions of dollars, just USDA. I know there's a whole private sector, Silicon Valley, uh you know, b out in your part of the country, a lot of those sort of geniuses have actually pivoted to agriculture. And so to see what they are building and creating with AI, et cetera, the drones that can fly over a a crop a a a field of corn, and tell you exactly where a pest is, um uh p potential uh pickers, et cetera. Um ear tags on the cattle that can tell you, you know, how your dairy cattle, how she's feeling that day, how what she's eaten, whether she's a little bit sick. This is the future and as you r refer to labor, uh there's obviously a lot of challenges. A lot of your farmers talked to me about that when I was in your district last week. Uh we're working on that obviously for the now, but we also have to look for the future and and we're making a lot of progress there.

Appreciate that. Now on research. One of the most important ways USDA supports specialty crop producers is through agriculture research. The work conducted by ARS has been critical to the success and competitiveness of our domestic specialty crop industry. I have concerns about the department's proposed reorganization and potential disruption to research programs and facilities. While I support efforts to improve efficiency, agriculture research depends on specialized facilities and experienced personnel throughout this process. How is USDA maintaining critical research capacity in avoiding disruptions on ongoing research?

You know, we obviously are closing no research down. We are relocating to parts of the country that are aligned with a university, like a Purdue, for example, in Indiana, or any of our amazing land grants. Um, you've got some incredible ones in California and and out west. Really, they're all so incredible. So that research can begin to build upon itself. The challenge is when you have decades uh of of Washington DC located research. They're doing extraordinary work, extraordinary, but you begin to lose out on the opportunity to have some of the brightest minds, who may not wanna leave a Purdue or a Texas A and M or an Oklahoma State and move to Washington where it's much more expensive to live, and to do that research, that what the feedback we've gotten, and and I realize, listen, I'm not here to say it's been perfect, everyone is so excited to move to Indianapolis or Colorado Springs or Salt Lake City, or Raleigh, North Carolina, But at the end of the day, the opportunity to move those core functions out into America and al and the research part aligned with real research universities where we're spending billions of dollars, I think that's gonna be a much better use of our taxpayer dollars. And I also think it's going to serve as a recruitment tool to get even even more researchers interested in the USDA research.

I appreciate that. With seven seconds left, thank you for your time, and I appreciate everyone bringing up squirrel Screw worm, it's a huge concern for us in the dairy industry as well.

Yes.

I appreciate your efforts on that and Chairman I yield back.

Thank you, great to see you.

Gentleman yields back, uh the secretary's been very generous with her time, she's gonna extend another ten minutes and we do have we have three members left, so um if uh just encourage everybody to be succinct. Uh and I recognize uh Mister Gray from California.

Thank you uh, Mister Chairman, good afternoon, Madam Secretary.

Good afternoon.

Nice to see you again.

You too.

Thank you for being here with us today. I'd like to begin with a little thought experiment. Let's imagine that you became President of the United States. And California wasn't exactly in your corner during the election. You sit down with your closest advisers and you say I'd like to come up with a plan to make life as difficult as possible for California farmers. What would that plan look like? You know, what would we do? Well first, we might disrupt the labor market. California grows many of the fruits, vegetables and specialty crops that are among the most labor intensive in the world. If you wanted to create problems, that'd certainly be a great place to start. Then we'd announce tariffs. and then change them. Then maybe announce new ones and then change them again. California is the nation's largest agricultural export state. Our wineries depend on customers in places like Canada, our almond growers depend on export markets around the world. If nobody knows what the rules are from one week to the next, that's a pretty effective way to create uncertainty. While we're at it, let's pick some trade fights. with some of our biggest customers, if foreign consumers stop buying American products and retailers start replacing California wine, almonds, pistachios, walnuts, and other products with something else, all the better. Next, let's cut staffing levels at USDA offices and local service centers, especially the offices farmers rely on to access conservation programs, disaster assistance, and economic relief. If we're going to promise help, we should probably make it harder to access it at the same time. Then, let's increase input costs, fuel, fertilizer, energy, equipment. And maybe we could even add a little uncertainty around water policy too. California farmers love making long-term planning decisions when they don't know what their water supply will look like six months from now. Then let's freeze funding for pest detection and inspection programs, cut surveillance efforts, reduce Research into drought, wildfire resilience, invasive species, maybe crop productivity. And if we're really committed to the plan, let's make some of those research cuts large enough that farmers are still feeling them ten years from now. And after all of that, let's announce a massive economic relief package for American agriculture, and then distribute it in a way that leaves California farmers with little to show for it, cuz Yeah after all, if you're trying to punish California agriculture, it would be a shame to let the relief program get in the way. So, Madam Secretary, I'm obviously being a little sarcastic. But the reason the joke works is because every one of these things is a real concern being raised by farmers in my district in California today. California farmers certainly don't expect special treatment. They don't expect every policy decision to benefit them. They just want a fair shot to compete. They grow the fruits, vegetables, nuts, dairy products, and wine that feed families across this country and around the world. They support rural communities, create jobs, and help make America an agricultural powerhouse. So when policies on labor, trade, research, water, pest prevention, and federal assistance all move uh in the wrong direction at the same time, it certainly makes people start to wonder whether anyone in Washington gets it. So, I'll leave you with the success of American agriculture, depends on the success of California agriculture. And I hope collectively we haven't lost sight of that.

May I respond?

Please.

If I were looking to compromise our California farmers, I would shut down trade access around the world. I would take away about fifty billion dollars in trade opportunity. Um if I were looking to hurt California farmers I would oversee between a forty and fifty percent increase in interest rates labor fuel fertilizer land cost property taxes if I were looking to hurt far- uh farmers in California I would recalibrate the USDA around a climate change agenda and a diversity equity and inclusion agenda that included supporting grants. that supported BIPOC and queer farmers, their words, not mine, in San Francisco for food justice. I would spend taxpayer dollars on whether there's racial discrimination in the pest control industry and whether transgender um men and women need more menstrual cycle support that's what I would do if I would hurt farmers. And so uh I think you and I have a very um different view of what this looks like.

Well let's hope you and I don't uh I'll take

Gentlemen's time has expired.

Thank you.

I now recognize the gentleman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

You're welcome. I recognize a gentlelady from from Florida. Mrs. Kammeck for five minutes.

Hello. Thank you, Mister Chairman, and thank you, Madam Secretary, for being here and your patience and uh your tenacious attitude, I love it. Um I know that you're you have been here a really long time.

You have been here a really long time, so

Um I just wanna say I am so very grateful as are the forty four thousand producers that call the Sunshine State their home. We are so grateful for your leadership uh at USDA. We have seen under your tenure USDA come through in so many different ways. Uh just most recently the one point six billion dollars for specialty crop producers that opened up um a little over a month ago, the cutting edge citrus root stock technology was approved. That would not have been possible without the cooperation and data.

Mm-hmm.

um from USDA and as co-chair of the aquaculture caucus, I was happy as a clam uh when the office of seafood was opened, and I was so grateful to be a part of that announcement. Mm-hmm. So it has been an incredible five hundred days, as you pointed out, um for the USDA as well as um the administration, but as you know s also well, we have so many challenges, and so I'm just gonna jump right into the disaster assistance. Mm-hmm. We've spoken about this, you have been incredibly forthcoming and had an open door policy working with our producers who have faced disasters. And uh just this week, Congressman Franklin and I, we introduced a bill that opens up that would provide three point five billion dollars in disaster assistance with the majority of our delegation as cosponsors.

Mm-hmm.

When Congress approves that funding, how fast can you get that money out the door?

We'll move at warp speed. Trump speed is what we call it at USDA, but we will move uh as quickly as humanly possible. This team is working seven days a week and and I'm so proud of them,

Absolutely.

so absolutely yes.

And in that same vein, what i have you seen that you are working to streamline and change within the agency when it comes to disasters? Um I I have uh a long history of dealing with hurricanes and freezes, Mm-hmm. and we've seen a lot of broken systems. What specifically are you working on that has helped streamline assistance when disaster strikes.

I think what we have learned, what I have learned, first of all we have an extraordinary team, our Under-Secretary is has been out this a long time, the entire team, but when you're working with fifty different states, with fifty different agricultural industries and needs, uh the back and forth sometimes takes a little too long. And I've asked the team to really come back to us the for the next round, to figure out how to cut out You know, I think I was going back and forth with with one of the Congress women from the Northeast, and uh it got a little loud, uh but at the end of it there were twenty-seven meetings uh between the the state and our team to get to a yes. That's not fair to our farmers. I I think we have to be fair to the taxpayers, make sure the dollars are being spent wisely, so there has to be some real intention in it.

Mm-hmm.

But we've just gotta be more efficient on both sides, both the states and uh and and the USDA team that works this through.

Absolutely. Well, and uh uh staying in the Florida vein here, obviously we've talked about Florida's citrus industry and the decline that we've seen over the last several decades due to citrus greening, hurricanes, rising production costs, input i inputs are through the roof. Um we are grateful for your support as we move forward on that. And that brings me to um USMCA and the need for a seasonal and perishable provision to be included in

Yep.

the the newest version of this agreement. Um I know that USTR is leading on this, but would USDA support a seasonal and perishable provision?

Mm-hmm.

Well, I think USDA will support anything that helps our farmers and ranchers, and uh I'm in constant contact with with Ambassador Greer. He's been uh he's got an incredibly complex and nuanced job, but he does it as well as I think anyone we've ever seen,

Yes.

so yes, Those conversations will continue and I will continue to be the advocate that is necessary for all of our producers in that next round of uh decisions in negotiating.

And that means the world to Florida because both through NAFTA and and USMCA um there's been a real imbalance and struggle that our producers have seen. I want to give you my last thirty-four seconds to address any uh accusations or comments that have been levied your way um so By all means, take the last thirty seconds to respond to any accusations you would like to address today.

Well, I appreciate that. I I think that we have had a really good productive conversation for the most part. Um there have been a little bit of of of sort of not being able to appropriately respond on the snap fraud side. But I do believe that most Americans understand inherently the extent of the fraud, while at the same time understanding how important these programs are for those who truly need them. And this body has done remarkable work with work requirements, et cetera, to make sure those who really need it get it, but that we're doing what we can best way with the taxpayer dollar. So thank you, Ken.

Excellent. Thank you for your leadership, secretary.

Thank you.

With that I yield, Mr. Chairman.

Good to hear all these times.

Good to see you.

Good to see you.

Inspired. And uh the final word goes to Mister Nunn from Iowa.

Last but never least, Zach Nunn. It's good to see you.

Secretary Rollins, thank you very much for being here. Chairman, thank you very much for holding us. We're playing wrap-up. Uh, but here's the reality, you went into overtime here to take care of farmers who had questions, responsibilities that we have. You've been asked a lot of hard questions, Madam Secretary. I don't think you've been asked the really hard requirements that are needed by this committee. And so, I'm gonna ask it. Look, the reality is right now, Texas, Iowa. Who has the better state fair?

Oh, you're putting me in a really a really tough position. What I will say is that that Iowa State Fair and showing the steer uh and being part of that whole effort was really incredible so I think I'm coming back and uh I'm very proud but as the former Texas

Yes ma'am.

State Fair FFA-er and Cotton Bowl Queen all the things I've I was able to do you know, my heart is in Texas so yeah it's it's a great question.

That's absolutely fair. Well luckily this year's the two hundred and fiftieth uh birthday of America and we're gonna have the State Fair right here on the mall you'll get to see them all and thank you very much for what you're doing.

The great American State Fair.

The

We've got a rodeo coming.

Sorry.

We've got FFA are showing their animals. It's gonna be really great.

That's absolutely fantastic. I've got uh four daughters showing this year.

Yeah.

They're gonna be in four age. We've got uh two sheep, one hog and one Persian cat. It's a pro-American Persian cat, but we're all gonna be in the fair together,

Did you just say you're showing a Persian cat?

that's right. Yes we are, yes we are. Come to the come back to the state fair, you're gonna love it.

Okay. You

We'll we'll send you the pictures, Madam Secretary.

You learn things new every day. Who knew? The Iowa State Fair.

That's right, that's right. If you were in Florida, you'd be showing gators. So this is fair. Madam Secretary, I just look at what we've been able to accomplish here in a short year with bipartisan support. We passed, you know, sixty six billion dollars to help farmers, uh the largest farm safety net since twenty uh two thousand two.

Yes.

We passed the farm bill that moved forward here in the house with a good bipartisan lead. That hasn't happened in nearly a decade. We've been able to, you know, move forward with something very important to our state here now, helping with the biofuels solution for America's energy independence,

Yes.

year-round nationwide E fifteen, and your leadership has helped bring to the farm country a USDA operation for the National Food Safety Center, two hundred new federal jobs, not here in Washington, but right in the district, that's absolutely huge in my uh home community of Urbandale.

Yeah.

Thank you for the leadership on this.

Thank you.

You know, eighty-seven thousand family farmers are making decisions right now on things like input costs including fertilizer. I'm working with my friend Dusty Johnson here on the fertilitr or helping folks make educated and informed decisions. Can you highlight for us the real here that USDA is helping to help drive down input costs,

Mm-hmm.

and things like fertilizer?

No, uh that's it's such an important question. We have talked about it a little bit, but I appreciate sort of ending on this, uh unless we have one more. The challenge that American agriculture faces didn't just happen yesterday, this is decades of policy of offshoring, whether it's fertilizer, seed, uh whether it's over government regulation,

Sure.

whether it is uh you know it's just one hit after another, and the input side of the of the equation, we're solving for the export the the market side of the equation, I think really um impressively and I'm really proud of that. But the input side is gonna take a little bit of time to get the inputs back down, even before the Iranian conflict uh the the cost of as I said, interest rates up seventy three percent, property taxes, fuel, labor, seed, fertilizer, just inflation overall, what we stepped into last, me for me February thirteenth, for the president January twentieth, it's the largest inflation since the Jimmy Carter years. That's just gonna take a moment. And uh once we get out of this conflict with the which the president is hyper-focused on doing very quickly, you'll begin to see a lot of that come back down. We'd already seen fuel decrease, labor is on the uh on the downward trend, a lot of that's on the downward trend, interest rates are gonna come down. But uh but it is a massive issue and these farmers,

Madam Secretary, just God bless you for your leadership on this. I think this is really what government should be

Thank you.