An oversight hearing to examine the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Good morning and welcome. It's my privilege to call this hearing to order as we examine the work of the United States Department of Agriculture and how we can best support our nation's farmers, ranchers and foresters, as well as strengthen rural America. I welcome our witness, the Honorable Brooke Rollins, our Thirty-third Secretary of Agriculture. Thank you so much for being here today and for your steadfast commitment to America's agricultural community. We appreciate your willingness to serve and your active engagement with farmers, ranchers, foresters, and rural stakeholders, where they live and work. Those conversations provide valuable insight into the challenges and opportunities facing the men and women who grow our nation's food, fuel and fiber. They are impacted by USDA policies and depend on USDA programs daily. What I hear from Arkansas family farmers and stakeholders from across the country is that the farm economy is struggling. Producers continue to face high input costs, rising labor expenses, elevated interest rates and market onset uncertainty. It is necessary that we work together to create an environment where agriculture can thrive and where the next generation sees farming, ranching and forestry as viable and a rewarding career. One way we have delivered on commitment to producers is through the working family's tax cuts. The president signed into law historic investments to farm country one year ago, providing long overdue updates to agriculture policies that better reflect today's realities producers in Arkansas and across the nation experience. These improvements respond directly to concerns farmers have raised for years, and provides meaningful support and predictability to help them continue operating for years to come. We appreciate UJ- USDA's urgency in implementing these policies so farmers can realize their benefits this fall. I look forward to hearing further updates on USDA's implementation of these programs. This landmark law also includes investments in USDA's premier animal health programs to help mitigate threats such as the New World uh, screw worm. We know how critical these investments are, particularly as six domestic cases have been confirmed in just the last week. Madam Secretary, we appreciate the aggressive approach you and your team have taken to slow down the advancement of this pest toward our border and to implement measures that protect America's livestock industry. We have successfully eradicated a new world screw room before, and I'm confident we can do so again. Uh, we are looking forward to you and your team at USTA to continue leading this effort in safeguarding the health and security of America's herd. We must continue supporting agriculture sectors vital to our rural communities. Our cotton producers have faced significant economic headwinds. In recent years, cotton remains a cornerstone crop. of for Arkansas and states across the cotton belt, supporting farm families, rural communities and manufacturers. This is why I strongly support the Buying American Cotton Act. I was pleased to see USDA's recent announcements announcement promoting the domestic cotton industry. We appreciate that very much. At a time when our producers are competing in a challenging global marketplace, we should be doing everything we can to support American grown products. and the hardworking men and women who produce them. Similarly, I know many of our committee members on both sides of the aisle support year-round E fifteen. I do too, and we are working hard uh to get that done. We also need to protect the energy uh security for local and regional communities and protect those jobs in rural America. I support the proposal put forward by Senators Fisher and Capito, and I hope the Senate moves quickly on that bill. Just as importantly, our producers have access to the resources they need to succeed. Fertilizer remains one of the most significant input costs facing farmers, and they are seeing dramatic rises in cost, and are concerned about future availability. The results of the American Farm Bureau Federation survey, this year underscores the concerns I continue to hear from producers in Arkansas and across the country. Among Arkansas farmers who responded, only twelve percent reported pre-ordering fertilizer, highlighting the uncertainty and financial pressures producers are experiencing. I appreciate USDA's attention to this issue as well as the opportunity to join you to discuss long-term strategies to lower the cost of fertilizer. I look forward to working with my colleagues to advance policies to provi- to provide relief in the future. We have a tremendous opportunity before us To update farm policies on farm bill two point O. I look forward to releasing text very soon. It incorporates many bipartisan measures and just as importantly, the priorities of farmers, ranchers and foresters, so they have updated policies to meet their needs. I am hopeful we can deliver a farm bill that farmers, ranchers, foresters and rural communities desire. Lastly, I remain committed to advancing the farm assistance package Senator Hove and I have proposed in January. There are many additional challenges that have risen since then that demonstrate the urgency to provide our producers including our specialty car producers, with more support. Again, thank you very much for being here and I look forward to your testimony. I now turn to our ranking member. Uh, I think she's more than that, but turn to Senator Klobuchar for her words of wisdom.

Alright. Well, thank you. thank you very much mister chair and thank you for being here um secretary rollins and thank you mister chair for leading with uh the hope that we can move forward on a bipartisan farm bill i appreciate you wanting to um ramp up a number of the bipartisan proposals that we have uh to include we had a very good meeting with you uh with our members i think people made it clear um they're concerned about uh the inequity of the snap shifts to the states with the big error rate states uh getting off for two years and then the entire midwest not and we're hoping once we get the numbers especially at the end of june that um from the usda the final numbers we might uh be able to make some changes there which unite our members as well as many other issues i also appreciate you raising the e fifteen issue mister chairman and your support for it secretary um the house as we know has passed this i'm also supportive of the bill that you mentioned and have been one of the leads on this and you know this is something that could be voted on separately uh because of the committee jurisdiction that we could even do sooner rather than later and i think it would um really be a smart move to get this done very near and i hope you bring that um not only back to the usga but uh to the administration to push so that we can get a vote on that uh very soon. Um I do wanna thank you for the USDA's expedited disaster assistance uh for Farmer Secretary Rollins uh for the losses in twenty twenty-three and twenty-twenty-four and the payments in April which Senator Slotkin and I had urged. Um getting the second payment uh put over seven hundred million in Minnesota farmers' pockets this spring. Uh I also want to address the recently confirmed cases of New World's here within the us in texas new mexico and i recognize the administration's ongoing response working with animal health officials as well as livestock stakeholders um and they're clearly we need a long-term response i continue to be concerned about the some of the reorganizations cuts to usda how that could affect our long-term response um senator loohan and i will be doing a letter on that um immediately after this hearing has concluded um and i'm sure he will ask some questions as will i um secretary rollins since your last appearance before the committee uh it has been a turbulent time for farmers ranchers and really all of rural america unfortunately i believe that much of this turbulence uh would have been could have been would have been could have been entirely preventable i've been clear that The administration's across the board tariffs have been terrible for farmers. The IEPA tariffs added nearly one billion in cost to critical inputs like fertilizers, seed, machinery and chemicals from February through October of last year. These tariffs, rightfully struck down by the Supreme Court, were so unnecessary given that the legality, the constitutionality of them were in question. from the very beginning and thus they added so much uncertainty and cost. Now unfortunately and unnecessarily the president has chosen to bulldoze ahead with more tariffs at great cost to the economy and more uncertainty. In addition to the chaos from the tariffs, the unilateral decision to start a conflict in the Middle East is causing real and direct harm to farmers and consumers in Minnesota. One year ago the average price for a gallon of diesel in my state was three forty. Today the average is five thirteen. That is a fifty-one percent increase in a single year, and just this morning we got the consumer price index numbers for the country up four point two percent, and that is up from the exact inverse, two point four percent that we were seeing uh before the conflict began i'm also concerned of the edge that this war has given russia and china and other countries that are not friends of the us uh in the global battle for competitiveness uh because of the fact that we are so reliant i met with producers on the tate farmer family farm in cannon falls minnesota where i heard from producers that the skyrocketing cost of fertilizer is threatening their operations. As we all know nearly half of the global urea and thirty percent of global ammonia exports used in nitrogen fertilizer supply chains move through the Straits of Hormuz. Earlier this spring the farm bureau highlighted the financial strain farmers are experiencing estimating that seventy percent of farmers couldn't afford all the fertilizer they needed of the farmers they surveyed ninety four percent said their financial situation has worsened or flatlined in the past year this morning a number of us met with key economists expert economists about the long term here and what they told us uh this was not a really a political based meeting was just that even if the streets of hormuz were opened immediately the long term effect of going through our reserves as we have done globally is going to keep these prices high as i have said before this is a perfect storm of ugly to quote one of my soybean farmers from the fuel and the fertilizer cost to the tariffs it has made it really hard for our growers especially our small growers who do not have the reserves to make long-term business decisions with any confidence secretary rollins many of us believe that you can be a voice of reason uh when it comes to these issues with the administration. Uh we know that you have expressed views in the past um about uh the effect this is having on the farm economy. But right now, I fear and many of us fear and many of farmers fear that these voices of reason are falling on deaf ears. Uh because on top of the decisions uh to go into this unilateral war and just to continue these tariffs. Uh we have just seen such pandemonium when it comes to the response and so many bad effects on rural America from the decision not to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits which are percentage wise uh more relied on in rural America uh to many of the decisions that have been made to reduce staffing whether it's social security or usda that people in rural america rely on my concerns uh with the usda right now is this pushing forward of a reorg plan right in the middle of all of this mess the department has already lost around twenty percent of its employees meaning fewer fsa staff to process farm loan and disaster aid applications just at a time when farmers are facing more problems than they were the year before the year before the year before fewer nrcs conservationists to help farmers adopt popular conservation practices and this really does mean something in the midwest where many of them rely on these programs and fewer researchers developing solutions for the challenges our farmers face today including as discussed earlier the new world screw worm these staff losses come before a series of announcement from the department, moving multiple agencies across the country, which we know results in even more disruption to staff. Farmers in Minnesota won't be better served by fewer experienced employees being relocated to Indianapolis, Kansas City, or yes, Salt Lake City, not exactly an ag-focused state. Instead, I encourage the USDA to prioritize staffing local county offices and ars labs to help farmers access services and tackle issues they are facing right now the department's reorganization proposal will significantly affect the ability to provide services to usda stakeholders and the lives of the employees we are asking for transparency and an open dialogue with the shared goal of ensuring the usda is efficient and effective in its mission. Our concern is doing this right now in the middle of what is clearly some of the biggest headwinds that we've seen coming at agriculture and at rural America, is a huge mistake because it will mean, of course, less staff to deal with it, less experienced staff to deal with it, and I an unnecessary disruption to serving our farmers. So I look forward to hearing from you today, and I appreciate uh the members that are here and uh their their input as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, it's my pleasure to introduce Brooke L. Rollins, the thirty-third Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture. Secretary Rollins is originally from Glen Rose, Texas. Most recently, Secretary Rollins served as the founder, president, and chief executive officer of the America First Policy Institute, AFPI, during President Trump's first administration. She was the Director of the Domestic Policy Council and Assistant to the President for strategic initiatives in the White House. She also served as Director of the Office of American Innovation. In these roles she developed and managed the transformational domestic policy agenda of the Trump administration leading to historic achievements for the American people. Rollins graduated with honors from Texas A and M University with a degree in Agriculture Development and was the first female to be elected student body president. After earning her Juris Doctor with honors at the University of Texas School of Law, she served as Governor Rick Perry's Policy Director before running the Texas Public Policy Foundation for fifteen years. At the foundation, Rollins elevated a small policy organization to a national force. and redefine the possibilities for a state-based think tank. Setting the model and aspiration for AFPI. Ron's her husband Mark call Fort Worth Texas home, and spend a majority of their free time taxing their four very active children to baseball games and cattle shows and piano lessons and Aggie football games. Uh, we appreciate you being here. I think the only thing they left out were your former uh barrel racing days,

That's right.

which we can be proud of. So again, thank you for being here and uh we look forward to your opening statement.

Thank you so much. Uh, Chairman Bozeman, Ranking Member Klobuchar, and distinguished members of this committee, in less than one month, uh, we will celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. And its principal honor uh author, Thomas Jefferson, once noted that agriculture is truly our wisest pursuit. If we are to secure land and liberty for future generations, we must fight for American agriculture together with every fiber of our being. And we are. Our efforts over the past seventeen months reflect the Trump administration's commitment to ensuring that America's food supply remains the best in the world it's safe it's reliable it's healthy and it's affordable. Last Friday's jobs report beat every economist's forecast when a hundred and seventy-two thousand jobs were added in May, submitting the Trump economy's record of delivering for American workers month after month. In fact, more people are working today than ever before in American history. Further, thirty year fixed mortgage rates are down and our deregulatory efforts are projected to save Americans a collective two hundred and tw- collective two hundred and twelve billion dollars, or roughly twenty five hundred per a family of four. For our farmers, that's a big number. Uh, by contrast, we know in the previous administration, home prices rose twenty-five percent, thirty year fixed rate mortgages rates were up a hundred and ninety-four percent, national average gas prices peaked a hundred and twenty-four percent up and food prices up twenty-three percent. And notably for this committee, farm income saw the largest dollar value loss in history of our country, as it fell over ninety billion dollars from twenty-twenty-three to twenty-twenty-four. Further, commodity prices plummeted. from thirty year highs in the last administration and of course we saw zero new trade deals while inheriting a fifty billion dollar agricultural trade deficit after leaving with an eight billion dollar agricultural trade surplus just four years earlier. While we cannot reverse this trajectory for ag overnight, we can and we will continue building upon the progress that has already been made. Last year President Trump and uh congressional Republicans delivered the working a historic piece of legislation and a victory for US agriculture, which increased reference prices for the first time in more than a decade, and saved two million family farms from the death tax, amongst so many other wins. Moreover, President Trump has already secured nineteen new trade deals in just over one year, helping us slash that fifty billion dollar agricultural trade deficit by uh, by almost fifty percent. from just one year ago, so think about what that means for our producers. As we expand opportunity over the long term, we are also providing uh farmers with our short-term support today, through the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, the Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers Program and others. USDA has delivered tens of billions of dollars in targeted direct relief to help our farmers manage natural disasters and temporary market disruptions. We are also helping our farmers manage the input prices, the cost of which we know exploded under the last administration. Under Biden, fertilizer prices surged at more than fifty percent, reaching n- on average, reaching ninety-nine percent at their highest peak. And I know we're gonna talk a lot about fertilizer today, but even after the Iranian conflict and even after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, fertilizer today is still less than at what it was in the peak of the Biden years. President Trump has reactivated and activated our, not reactivated, our entire cabinet, on this particular issue and we can talk more about that today. Truly affordable domestic inputs are a matter of national security. Our ability to feed ourselves is fundamental to our freedom in this country. That's why we launched for the first time ever our farm security action plan last year, integrating agriculture into America's national security strategy for the first time ever. We are determined to protect the security and integrity of everything we are responsible for at the USDA. including the federal nutrition programs that constitute our largest expenditure. When it comes to rooting out snap fraud, in just over one year we have already made nine hundred arrests, this is through USDA, pursued over one hundred and twenty convictions, and have a hundred and thirty-two million in restitution. And we're literally just getting started. We're also working to protect our producers from diseases and pests that threaten their livelihoods uh very quickly before I l- go get into screw room, let's talk about uh the avian influenza, the HPAI with our with our with our chickens. Since last year when we launched that plan, we have seen a forty-one percent decrease in HPAI and a fifty-one percent decrease in total birds affected. We still have a ways to go, but we're making progress. And this year is no different. Uh, and I'm gonna talk, uh, sir, about the New World Screwworm just at the outset, and then I'm sure we'll we'll dive into it more. We continue to prioritize defeating the New World Screwworm. Over the past week and a half, USDA has confirmed six cases of the New World Screwworm within the US, all but all but one in the South uh South of Texas. I was just in Texas uh two days ago to inspect a USDA research facility that we just opened two weeks ago, developing new technologies to combat this pest, and went back tomorrow on-site in South Texas in La Prior to uh to to visit that ranch and talk more about what we're doing. The Biden administration's open border policies combined with the Mexican cartels' refusal to crack down on that through South and Central America allowed the screw room to move north for the first time in fifty years, beginning in twenty twenty-two when the Darien gap was breached, into twenty twenty-three when the screw room began moving at rapid pace up through uh Central America and hitting Mexico in twenty twenty-four, under the last administration. We know this development is a serious threat, but it did not catch us off guard. Uh, we've established the twenty kilometer uh movement zone, expedited targeted release of sterile flies in the affected area. We've increased the trapping for flies along the border and uh ramping up surveillance. But more importantly, I think for this committee is very quickly uh, Senator Bozeman, I wanna talk about over the last year what we deployed. Over one billion dollars, one point three billion dollars since we walked into the door last January, twenty twenty five, has been invested and deployed to battle just the New World screw worm. We have been forward leaning, EPA just approved some new fly technologies we've announced just the last few days, which will significantly increase our ability to battle this through sterile flies. We also broke ground on our more air-based sterile fly facility in Texas about six months ago that's a seven hundred and fifty million dollar project. and that uh also opening up a dispersal facility earlier this year uh for the first time, and outfitting a facility in Metapa, Mexico uh that will open this month that will increase our sterile fly production by a hundred million flies. That all happened because of what we ins- uh implemented over a year ago in preparation for this moment. And since January twenty twenty five, and this is a really, really important point for those who are saying that we have not, we were caught unprepared. When we walked in the door in January, twenty twenty five, the last USDA had an equivalent of ten full-time employees working on the New World Screw Room. So about seventeen months ago, a week ago, before it was even confirmed, we had over a hundred and ten full-time staff that we had staffed up over the last fifteen months in preparation. Almost a one thousand percent increase in over a year uh in preparation. In short, we're using every single tool at our disposal. working very closely with our Governor, Governor Greg Abbott, and all of the teams on the ground in Texas, in New Mexico, and across this country. Thank you again for the opportunity to be here, Senator, um, and ranking member Klobuchar, as we celebrate our two hundred and fifty years of freedom. I know we will continue to fight together for the men and women who feed and clothe and fuel this great country and the world. I look forward to your, uh, questions. Thank you.

No. Thank you very much for being here again, and, uh, we're gonna start our round of questioning. We're gonna have seven minute uh, seven minutes to ask our questions, which is longer than normal, but I would ask you to, to be sure and adhere to the time, because we got a lot of people are gonna wanna ask questions. And there is an incredible amount of stuff going on as we speak right now throughout Congress. So, we do appreciate the hard work that uh, that you've done and the preparation, slowing things down so that we would have uh, you know, additional time to, to get ready for this concerning the screw worm. Uh, is there, I, I guess the only question I would have, is there any more authorities that we need to give you or any more resources that would be helpful, uh, you know, as we fight this battle?

I appreciate that. I appreciate that question, and I know we're, um, I'm on multiple calls every day, uh, since we have moved now into the next phase of the battle. Uh, you all know we closed the ports a year ago, which was a very difficult decision, especially for our feeders in Texas. But the purpose was the every model showed screwworm hitting our side of the border last summer. So that would have been just about eight or twelve weeks after we, uh, came into office. And I looked at all the facts and said, we've gotta slow this down and do whatever we can to be better prepared when it gets here. And and that's what we were able to do. So, Senator Bozeman, right now, um, there are no additional but I really appreciate uh the question. I I wanna give a big shout-out to my boss, President Trump. Last spring, as you know, uh we were deep into the Department of Government efficiency with with Mister Musk and we were working to try to return the footprint of government back to something that was reasonable for our taxpayers and for our country but I walked in the Oval Office and I said, sir, there is a a a pretty serious threat to our livestock that's headed our way, and when we need five hundred million sterile flies a week, we're only producing a hundred million out of Panama because everyone took their eye off the ball years ago. And unfortunately, because of the border policies, it's coming our way. And he said, " Well, what do you need?" And I said, " Well, I need a billion dollars to start building a significant facility to to surge staff." This was about fourteen or fifteen months ago. And without hesitation, a couple of questions, but without hesitation, he said, " Go." So because of that green light, we were able to move very quickly to prepare for today. But we'll stay in very close touch on that, Mister Chairman. Thank you.

Good. Very much. I think I can speak for the committee that we're all uh committed to helping in any way that we can, and we do appreciate your efforts. As I mentioned in my opening statement, farmers across the country are struggling in this economic environment. I was pleased that we were able to secure ten billion dollars in economic assistance at the end of twenty twenty four, which your department implemented very, very quickly. And I appreciate the administration developing additional programs late last year to provide further assistance to our row crop and specialty crop producers. Uh, I think that we all realize that this is still not enough to stop the bleeding in farm country, which is why uh we're working with Senator Hoeven uh to build upon the farmer bridge assistance program and the assistance for specialty crop farmers program. I was pleased to hear that the president mentioned uh additional assistance during his event in Wisconsin last week. Uh, can you confirm that uh uh that this is a when we hopefully we'll have a supplemental appropriations in the very near future and that this is something that we could get included as we go forward.

I will confirm that this president, on the trip to Wisconsin, while we were in Wisconsin, on the trip back, his commitment and love for rural America and our farmers is real. And as he said, uh, so I, I'm not getting ahead of him, I'm always a little bit concerned about getting ahead of him,

I just

but he said at the event on Friday that he wanted to do more. And so I think we can work, um, arm-in-arm on, and hand-in-hand across hopefully both sides of the aisle and, uh, and get to, uh, another point where that is possible and feasible for our farmers.

No, and I certainly don't wanna speak for him either. The, uh, but, uh, when we were able to, uh, uh you know, sign and uh, you know, able to come up with the dollars previously. Uh, we mentioned then, you know, that, that this was great, and uh everybody's very grateful for his support, not only in this administration, but in the past one, for our farmers, but that we might have to come back, and he did, he agreed with that, so. Uh. I'm very pleased that the administration being aggressive in negotiating new trade agreements and putting high priority on opening markets for ag products in these negotiations. I commend the administration for completing nineteen agreements since the time President Trump took office. I also firmly believe that in addition to strengthening our export markets, we must build demand here at home. As I mentioned in my opening statement, I support legislation aimed at increasing domestic demand for ag products like the buying american cut-knack the fisher capital uh klobuchar uh year-round e fifteen bill what are other actions what other actions is the is the administration taking to increase domestic demand uh for our american ag products are there areas in which the senate and administration can work together on

well i think that the trade piece is important and i realize uh, Senator Klobuchar, probably Senator Booker, and some of our other friends on the other side of the aisle have some, some serious questions about the, and I'll, and I really look forward to having that discussion with them. What I will note is when the President had the liberation day, which is when he announced that, instead of going country by country, we're gonna have an all of world approach on renegotiating our trade. That to date the fact that our great producers in America, uh, when, when they, when we send their goods out on average it's about a fifteen percent tariff into other countries. when those goods from other countries come into America, it's an average of five percent. So our farmers and producers have been, you know, just compromised year after year under these trade and tariff regimes. And so in just over a year, nineteen new trade deals is remarkable, it is historical, it is unprecedented, and it is already paying dividends. As I mentioned, we've cut the agricultural trade deficit in half in one year. We expect it to come down another thirty percent this year. Corn exports are gonna be record-breaking, based on the numbers that just came out yesterday. We expect a thirty-five percent increase in volume in corn exports. Dairy exports are gonna be up almost ten percent. Sorghum is gonna be up almost a hundred percent. Tree nuts up eleven percent. Ethanol up at least eleven percent, probably more. Wheat exports are up eight percent. Soybean oil up a hundred and twenty-nine percent. To your point, uh, Mister Chairman, this opportunity, this is what farmers want. They don't wanna farm for a check from the government. They want a farm to be able to sell their market, uh their goods on an open market that's fair. So that's the international play. And then to your point about the local domestic markets, opening that up as well, whether it's E fifteen or forty five Z, all of the work that this administration has done, again, unprecedented, the moves that we've made for our biofuels community, et cetera. And then the next step down, and I know you've mentioned cotton, uh Senator Hyde-Smith and I have talked round and around, I give her a lot of credit. for bringing the cotton to my um to my attention and also when i've been out in the country i've been in to almost every state i've visited with thousands of farmers and uh and i kept hearing cotton and rice honestly coming up again and again and again as uh is really really struggling the moment that captured in my mind especially with cotton is with the make america healthy again how we have basically offshored all of our clothing production ninety seven percent of our clothes today are made with synthetic fiber fiber from a for an adversary.

Right.

And that's about enough. But then when, when you look, then when you look at the health impact of the sheets we sleep in, of the clothes we put on our bodies, that's real. So the cotton, I think renaissance is coming, and I'm really proud to be a part of that with you all.

Very good. Thank you, Senator Klobuchar.

Uh, thank you very much, uh, Mister Chair. Um, Secretary Rollins, um, I just The numbers for me, uh, that matter is the numbers like bankruptcy numbers and in the first quarter uh we've had a number of farm bankruptcies in our state with calls to the minnesota farm and rural helpline up two hundred percent nationwide chapter twelve farm bankruptcies increased for the second year in a row reaching three hundred fifteen filings in twenty twenty five this is a forty six percent increase from twenty twenty four i just think those numbers don't lie Farmer lender mediation notices are the highest they have been since twenty nineteen. What actions is the USDA considering to assist producers facing bankruptcy and prevent the loss of more family farms? And why did the USDA budget propose eliminating the certified mediation program?

So a couple of points on that. Obviously, even one bankruptcy is heartbreaking, uh, but a couple of points. There are about there are one point zero seven seven million farms and ranches in America. The bankruptcies um that are reflected in your numbers are about point O three percent, point O three percent of the total farms in our country. Now again, I do not wanna sit here and say it's nothing to worry about. Every farm is absolutely something we should be fighting to save. We have a concierge effort going for those three hundred farms that are in chapter twelve. Again, chapter twelve doesn't mean they're going out of business, it just means they're reorganizing. But certainly with the loss of markets, the cost of inputs, et cetera, there's no doubt that the farm economy is facing uh serious headwinds, and that's what we're all working together to solve. On the mitigation program, Senator, let me circle back to you, I wanna make sure I fully understand uh what it was that we pulled back and, and what the utilization was, and then perhaps work together to think about how to solve for that.

Thank you. Appreciate you getting back to me.

Yeah.

Uh, and I just, our concern is we're heading in a trend, um, especially when you look at these the fact that the diesel and gas prices are not gonna go down anytime soon because we've gone through our reserves as well as fertilizer so you we've discussed fertilizer and senator marshall and i have introduced the homegrown fertilizer act uh to make this program permanent in the meantime do you intend to use the new ccc funds to support the development of domestic fertilizer

uh yeah so let me answer that cause it's an important question and then if we have time i will talk about the diesel prices and other things so we realized uh as fertilizer was coming down before the iranian conflict and before the hormuz strait was closed fertilizer was down about fifty percent on average over the last fourteen months so we were headed in the right direction gas was way down diesel was way down of course with this conflict um it has certainly bumped prices up now i do wanna say that even though fertilizer prices are significantly higher since the Iranian conflict, they're still lower than the than the peak during the Biden years. Having said that, Senator, what this has allowed, this conversation has allowed is a light to be shined on the fact that we've offshored our fertilizer production to almost fifty percent of total fertilizer. In the last couple of decades, this did not happen under any one administration. And so as we've seen that offshore, that happened, it's a national security issue, it's obviously a cost issue for our Uh, I'll talk about the CCC if I have time, but what I'll say is immediately I called Chris Wright, uh, our secretary of energy who has a big pot of money for energy investment, made the case that fertilizer is perhaps the most important energy to invest in, and his number two largest project he's investing in is a fertilizer plant. We called Howard Lutnik, who has a pot of investment from s- funds from the president's negotiated tariffs and trade, a significant pot. he is now prioritizing that and we have the largest ammonia plant in the world that I'm breaking ground on in two weeks in Louisiana. Next to it about a month after that we're gonna be breaking ground on one of the largest phosphate plants in the world. So we're beginning to re- to re-shore to onshore that fertilizer back to America. But just as important, and in fact I think one of them's in Minnesota, there are about eighty um more mid-sized smaller fertilizer projects going on, funding and prioritizing, a pretty good one in Minnesota, a big one in Washington State and some others. So we have put those on warp speed to get those uh effectuated.

Just OK, I'm I'm gonna run out of my time for questions,

Sure.

and just that uh the CCC has fourteen point three billion in emergency funding, and I would just encourage you to use some of that for the domestic fertilizer.

Do you, can I talk to that? Because I think it's mutually beneficial. So the problem with the CCC, it hasn't been the the loan rate has not been increased for eighty years. What is left in the CCC right now, Senator? we're gonna need to meet the obligations of the working families tax cut act and the the increase so if we could all work together i know we've been talking about that to try to open that up but yes yes ma'am we'll be looking at that too

um and uh we discussed early on uh new world screw worm and the animal and plant health inspection service has lost twenty five percent of its staff including more than three hundred employees in veterinary services alone since the administration came in How do you plan on ensuring that each of these critical threats, such as New World Screwworm, receives individualized resources? We're very concerned about this.

Yes, ma'am. As I mentioned, w- a year and a half ago there were ten uh APHIS employees working full-time, a total of ten working full-time all in. Now we've got over a hundred and twenty. Uh, so we've increased uh the amount of employees in APHIS working on New World Screwworm by a thousand percent in the last fourteen months. So as you can see, we're prioritizing where the big threats are as we're working to uh to ensure that we're meeting all of the needs across the country.

Uh, different subject, last November you announced a far-reaching final rule implementing crop insurance provisions from the budget bill enacted last summer, that I did not support. However, buried within that rule was a provision that removed an important risk management option for farmers in my state and several others. prevent plant buy-up coverage has been a critical tool farmers use to protect against extreme weather at planning time. On January twenty second, Chairman Boesemans and Erhoven and I led sixteen of our colleagues asking the USDA to reverse this decision and Under Secretary Fordyce replied in April indicating that concerns are being evaluated. What is the status of our request?

I actually have talked to Under Secretary Fordyce that but i don't have an immediate response but again i'll check on that today and uh will get back to you senator

ok thank you very much and i'll have questions later thanks

thank you so much ok sounds good thank you

uh senator marshall

alright chairman thank you and and welcome secretary e fifteen e fifteen e fifteen those are my top three priorities that i'm preaching to the choir thank you for your support of this You know, why is E fifteen, urine E fifteen important? It would mean another two billion bushels of corn consumption per year. Uh, prior, uh, you know, prior to President Trump, maybe we were exporting two point three billion. So it's almost like doubling our export market. That's why it's important. But I wanna talk about forty five Z, which I think actually has a ten X opportunity, uh, compared to ethanol. And maybe you could just update us, uh, you mark, we need to get this across the finish line. as far as the rules and i i know it's out in different agencies any update on the forty five z rules

our uh obviously there's many multiple hands in the proverbial rule pot uh in the administration but it is a top priority for me personally uh and certainly my partners uh around the the cabinet understand that so it is it is imminent uh forthcoming i don't wanna give you an exact date but it it is coming hopefully very quickly. And it is really, really important. The regenerative side of that, the maha side, there are just so many wins for so many of our Americans in that.

Right. So this from a regenerative standpoint to your point, is uh the ethanol companies making the ethanol can pass on ten, twenty, thirty, fifty cents a bushel. Uh, if they're doing this regenerative agriculture, which is good for the soil, which is better for the the nutrient health.

Mm-hmm.

So I do appreciate uh this all of government approach on that as well. Uh, we addressed fertilizer. That would probably be my third uh biggest issue on trade, wanna emphasize value add is when the American farmer makes money. Uh, when we, when we turn corn into beep, when we turn soybeans into diesel, uh, that's when the American farmer makes money. And I'm sure you're constantly communicating that to USTR. Yeah, what are the opportunities you think this going forward these nineteen trade deals on the value add part of this?

I think they are unlimited. And as I traveled a little bit of the world last year, uh, and talked to some of these other countries, I I was sat down with, uh, some ethanol buyers in England. And as so many of these countries, whether we agree with them or not, but they have, uh, put themselves into a certain category of reaching certain numbers on carbon, et cetera. Um, it is our farmers in America that will be, I believe, the most benefited from those rules around the world. And so now my job at USDA and our other wonderful uh trade negotiators, Lutnik and Greer and Besant, uh have this at the top of their list wherever they go. So, again, we're already gonna break records this year on corn exports, ethanol exports are gonna break records, but again I think it's just the beginning of the opportunity.

OK. I I wanna give you an opportunity to talk a little bit more about the CCC needs. And and the background to the meeting is this. No one has done more for the American farmer in rural America than President Trump has done these last two years. We added sixty five billion dollars to crop insurance, crop protection. Um, we've, he signed forty some billion dollars of of a farm aid, a fifty billion dollar rural health transformation fund. We doubled the death tax exemption. The one ninety nine A permanent pass through was so important to the American farmers. And bonus depreciation, interest deductibility, I'm not sure what I'm missing,

The death tax.

but it was the, so we doubled the death tax ex exemption. So we did a lot. Uh, we're increasing trade. Uh, and, and yet we're struggling, I think mainly due to input cost. And, we, we do need some more help, I'm af- I'm afraid. We need to help more. Well, what does that look like to you, whether it's more fertilizer like, like Senator Klobuchar pointed out, some monies towards those projects.