The Secretary of Agriculture appeared in front of Congress for the first time to answer questions about the president’s proposed budget.
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The Secretary of Agriculture appeared in front of Congress for the first time to answer questions about the president’s proposed budget.
May 6, 2025
May 6, 2025 – During her first appearance in front of Congress as Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins defended both USDA’s funding freeze and cuts to local food programs, research, and staff. She also said she’ll unveil a plan to move more USDA staff out of Washington, D.C. within the next few weeks.
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The hearing today in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s agriculture subcommittee was scheduled to question Rollins about the President’s budget, released Friday. (She will appear in front of the House’s version of the same committee tomorrow.) The budget includes deep cuts to USDA spending, but it will not be enacted as is, since it will need a simple majority vote to pass in Congress, and there is some level of bipartisan opposition to cuts of that magnitude. Still, the budget reflects the president’s desire to slash spending across most agencies, and Rollins has been prioritizing that task during her first 82 days on the job.
Democrats grilled her on how cuts and freezes are impacting farmers and hungry families, while Republicans repeatedly praised her commitment to eliminating bureaucracy. However, many Senators shared concerns that crossed party lines, particularly about potential cuts to Farm Service Agency (FSA) staff who work directly with farmers in rural areas, freezing or cutting agriculture research, and the elimination of popular USAID programs that purchased American farm products to provide international food aid.
Here are the topics Rollins was asked about the most.
On the restructuring of the USDA and staff cuts: Republicans said they supported downsizing the agency, but many joined Democrats in asking Rollins to resist cutting staff at local FSA offices. “We do not have sufficient personnel in those county offices today,” said Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kansas). Rollins said FSA offices “remain a priority” and that the agency is not currently cutting staff or closing offices, but that the FSA is “also working to be again more efficient with online technical assistance so that in the future we may not rely so much on an on-the-ground presence.” Some FSA offices have already been targeted by DOGE for closure and the president’s budget would cut $358 million in FSA salaries and expenses.
Rollins confirmed that 15,000 USDA staff had accepted the administration’s deferred resignation offer, on top of earlier layoffs. Through those processes, she said the agency had lost people in key positions and is now “actively recruiting” to fill those positions.
“You let people go—or however you want to characterize it—who knew these jobs, and now you’re looking for people to fill these jobs because now we know how essential they are,” said Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington). “That doesn’t seem to me to be very efficient.”
In response to a question posed by Senator Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska), Rollins said the agency is very close to finalizing a plan to move USDA staff from D.C. offices to other locations. “We are very in the weeds on that, and an announcement is forthcoming,” she said. During the last Trump administration, the USDA moved its Economic Research Service to Kansas City, leading to major losses in experienced staff with significant costs to taxpayers.
On cuts to food aid and school food programs: Democrats grilled Rollins on her decision to end two programs that move food from local farms into school and food banks and cuts to The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). Each time, Rollins said the local food programs were COVID-era programs that were not intended to continue. “It was the decision of our president and this administration that perhaps that COVID-era program had fulfilled its purpose,” she said. She also responded to each Senator with numbers saying their states still had money in the bank to spend on local food.
“I can’t speak to what the state is doing, and we’ll be happy to run that to the ground, but the people I’m hearing from are literally the schools and the producers,” said Senator Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico).
During an exchange with Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) in which he asked about the $500 million that the USDA cut from TEFAP, which was authorized in 1981, Rollins appeared to confuse TEFAP with the local food programs, calling it a “COVID-era program.”
On farmer grant funds that have been frozen: Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) asked Rollins to provide an update on which grant programs are still frozen and a timeline for when her review would be finished.
“We are working around the clock, going line by line by line,” she said. “We’re down to the final $5 billion out of, I believe, almost $20 billion of frozen funds.”
But Democrats came back to the point over and over. “What I’ve heard from farmers over the past 100 days of this administration is that they’re not sure they can trust the federal government anymore,” said Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire). “I’ve heard from farmers across our state who no longer know if they can rely on the federal government honoring a basic signed contract.”
On cuts to agriculture research: Murray, Fischer, and Senator Gary Peters (D-Michigan) all brought up concerns about cuts to agricultural research. The president’s budget calls for a $159 million cut from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), but Rollins said that only represents a 7 percent decrease and that cuts would be focused on closing outdated facilities. “It shouldn’t affect the key, most important parts of the research,” she said. The funding freeze and cuts to grants have already upended some important agricultural research. (Link to this post.)
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