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Washington – Brooke Rollins, the choice of President Donald Trump for the Secretary of Agriculture, was held behind the president’s proposals for mass deportations and prices even if she recognized that they could make life more difficult for farmers.
But she told the senators at her appointment on Thursday that she would find ways to pay the blows.
Trump believes that prices are “a very important tool in his toolbox to continue bringing America back to the world and to make sure we have a flourishing economy,” said Rollins. “But as he did and we did it in the first administration, he also includes the potential devastating impact on our farmers and breeders. So I understand perfectly and we are ready to do something similar – to make sure that we can close these holes in the future under any kind of price execution. »»
Trump threatened to take prices of 25% from China, Mexico and Canada. Mexico is the largest trading partner in Texas and one of the largest agricultural export markets in the state, as well as Canada.
Texas farmers have aroused the consequences of Trump’s prices against China in 2018, which encountered reprisals by Beijing on cotton, corn and sorghum, some of the largest exports in Texas. The Trump White House aid at the time to the agriculture sector to withstand some of the losses resulting from prices.
The Democrats of the Committee noted that several farmers said in the last Trump administration that they would prefer to “exchange, no help” and open markets abroad. Rollins said that she would work with the US trade representative and other members of the administration to ensure that farmers are protected in the midst of prices.
Senator Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, also stressed that 40% of workers in the country’s agriculture are undocumented. Rollins did not dispute the dependence of the industry in the undocumented labor but defended Trump’s plans for mass deportations.
“Listen, the vision of the president of a safe border and a mass deportation on a scale that counts is something that I support,” said Rollins. “It is my commitment to help deploy President Trump’s agenda effectively.”
Many Democrats have asked for how farms could work with a large part of the expelled active population. Rollins has repeatedly said that she would work with Trump’s Ministry of Labor to “ensure that none of these dairy farms or producers are put out of work”. She said that the temporary visa reform of H-2A agricultural workers could fill the gap for work. She pointed out that Trump was “very clear that this first round is addressed, as you mentioned, to those who committed crimes”.
Rollins, originally from Glen Rose, is one of Trump’s least controversial appointments. The Agriculture Committee, which is largely bipartite, will vote during a future meeting to advance its appointment to the complete Senate, which will vote on its confirmation.
Rollins currently heads the America First Policy Institute, a conservative reflection group closely linked to Trump. Previously, she was CEO of the Public Policy Foundation Texas, one most eminent of Texas Conservative reflection groups. The group had a disproportionate influence on the national scene with several of its former students who are gaining importance in national conservative circles. Rollins said she had shaped the America First Policy Institute of TPPF.
“At TPPF, we have fundamentally redefined the mission of a reflection group to simply have ideas or writings about them in white buses to effectively change the policy for the inhabitants of our state,” said Rollins. “We have been strongly committed during these 15 years with rural communities and small cities in Texas, giving them a voice to the government which has too often been refused.”
Rollins promised to devote the first 100 days as a secretary to push disaster aid to farmers in shock from recent natural disasters, including droughts, hurricanes and heat waves. The Congress adopted a rescue set in the event of a disaster in December which included more than $ 3 billion which should go to the agricultural sector of Texas. It has portrayed an agricultural environment besieged by high contribution costs and market uncertainty.
“It will be a quick and furious effort to ensure that we move this economic aid,” said Rollins.
It also agreed with the Democrats of the Committee that the trend of farms bought by multinational companies at the expense of small farms should be reversed.
“We have to find a better way, and that cannot always go through government’s subsidies. We have to extend the market, ”said Rollins.
Rollins has promised to support food assistance and nutrition programs that make up the share of federal agricultural expenses such as SNAP. She said that she was “fully aware and had a heart for this work”, but added that it is imperative to ensure that these dollars of taxpayers go to the expected beneficiaries and are spent effectively.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been divided on the implementation of stricter work requirements for SNAP. Food assistance programs like SNAP constitute an overwhelming majority of expenses under Farm Bill, a gigantic legislative package normally adopted every five years. The Congress bordered more than a year to renew the agricultural bill, with work and nutrition requirements for SNAP remaining a crack.
Almost all SNAP participants are already required to work unless they have extraordinary circumstances such as childcare and care for the elderly. Rollins described the work requirements of “important” and said that it would commit to working with the Democrats to ensure that they are implemented fairly.
The department of agriculture manages a portfolio in vast. In addition to the country’s agriculture, the ministry also oversees rural development in areas such as health care and housing.
Senator Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat, feared that the USDA rural development program, a branch that is not understood by the agency that is involved in rural issues ranging from health care, could be emptied in the Frame of the push of the effectiveness of the Trump government. Government’s efficiency is an absolute priority of Trump’s White House, the new government’s efficiency department led by Elon Musk being reducing billions of dollars in federal spending.
Rollins said that she appreciated that rural development went beyond agriculture and that “revive, restore and bring back rural America” was one of the programs that were most excited to it, in particular by supporting housing and education for rural Americans.
Under its direction, the TPPF opposed biofuels, which are made from agricultural products and are a major priority for agricultural interests that cross the lines of the parties. Questioned by senator Amy Klobuchar, the best democrat of the Agriculture Committee, on the organization’s opposition post, Rollins has recognized that the group has historically supported the state oil and gas industry, which is Sometimes in competition with the production of biofuels. But she said she was open to supporting the biofuels industry, just like Trump.
Klobuchar asked questions about the financial interests of the Rollins family in the petroleum and gas industry, which Rollins had to disclose in the context of his appointment. Rollins insisted that “anyone who has ever worked with me will tell you, even to the detriment of organizations that I have led, financially to my potential family, which I have never made a decision based On financial interests, never. “
None of the two Senators in Texas is part of the Senate Committee for Agriculture. But both senses. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz presented Rollins at the hearing on Thursday, calling it “evidence”. The two have known Rollins for decades to return to his time in the Governor’s office of Texas and direct the Public Policy Foundation Texas.
“She turned out to be a leader, she turned out to be an innovative policy thinker, and she has proven herself able to bring people together to achieve major goals,” said Cruz.
“Everyone who knows Brooke Rollins like Brooke Rollins, and you too,” said Cornyn.
During the first Trump administration, Rollins worked at the White House as Director of the Domestic Policy Council and as the president’s assistant for strategic initiatives. In this role, she worked with Democrats and Republicans in the Congress to adopt the first step on stage, a bipartite bill for reform of criminal justice which was promulgated in 2018 – an experience she underlined to show that it was impatient to work with members of members the two parties at the USDA.
Rollins was previously director of policies for former governor Rick Perry, where his portfolio included an agricultural policy. Several Republican governors approved the appointment of Rollins, including Governor Greg Abbott, in a letter earlier this month.
“In simple terms, there is little better qualified than the designated secretary Brooke Leslie Rollins to understand and initiate the concerns of the State, the priorities of the State and the action of the State”, wrote the governors .
Texas is a leading agricultural state, with more than 230,662 farms covering 125.5 million acres. The majority of Texas agriculture is made of meat, with more than half of the market value in industry – around $ 15 billion – being in the production of beef, according to Texas Department of Agriculture.
The mother of Rollins is the representative of the State Helen Kerwin, who represents the District 58 of the State House, based in Cleburne and Rollins, jokingly joking the “oldest first -year legislator in the history of Texas”. Kerwin was in the audience during Thursday’s audience and took advantage of his trip to Washington to speak with PFAS senators, chemicals often used in water -resistant materials related to cancer.
Rollins graduated from Texas A&M and the Faculty of Law of the University of Texas.
Disclosure: Texas Public Policy Foundation was a financial supporter of Texas Tribune, a non -profit non -supported press organization which is partly funded by donations of members, foundations and business sponsors. Financial supporters do not play any role in the journalism of the gallery. Find a full list of them here.
