President Trump’s agriculture secretary nominee Brooke Rollins passed the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee barrier by 23-0 votes on February 3, 2025.
The unanimous decision means that the agriculture pick is all but clear as she awaits Senate’s final confirmation.
Her immediate reaction was to cite her honor to immediately start defending American farmers and ranchers.
Collins has been setting out a diverse agricultural approach since her confirmation hearing began on January 23.
USDA
During the hearing, Rollins revealed her stand on several sensitive issues affecting the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
One of these is pandemics, especially avian flu, which first hit American poultry in 2022. Collins promised to give priority to the current critical stage of the flu, including its jump to livestock in 2023.
Notably, USDA in May 2024 gave select ranchers some $28,000 per farm to fight avian flu in the dairy sector.
Biofuel
On ethanol fuel, the agriculture nominee admitted being a backer of fossil fuels but will still champion all fuels.
Interestingly, she distanced herself from Texas Policy Foundation’s papers of 2008 which showed ethanol/biofuels as hurting food prices.
She instead noted to the committee that her stand on biofuels echoes that of the President’s, which is currently evolving. Back in 2020, Trump had planned to make biofuels to constitute 30% of American transportation energy by 2050.
Agriculture Secretary vs. Tariffs
Regarding the eventual tariff impact on farmers from trade wars, Rollins said that she would invoke the Market Facilitation Program (MFP).
MFP was instrumental in 2020 when farmers received cash compensation after export market disruption, especially with China.
So, the long wait to the Agriculture Secretary post is almost over for Collins. The confirmation process has let Americans know the brass of the former chief of the Domestic Policy Council of Trump’s first administration. To learn more on the economic impact of an Agriculture Secretary in the U.S., peruse the statistics below.
United States Recent Agriculture Secretary Impact Statistics
Because the Agriculture Secretary makes key policy decisions, their impact on American agriculture can be profound. Below is a look at this impact in the consecutive terms of the outgoing agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack, since 2015.
In general economic terms, Vilsack’s 2023 term saw the agri-food and related industries represent 5.5% of the United States’ GDP. This translated to $1.537 trillion of the entire gross domestic product, according to USDA.
Regarding employment, the AG secretary’s decision to restructure the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an equal opportunity employer impacted numbers. By 2022, agriculture and related industries represented 10.4% of American labor. Some 2.6 million jobs or 1.6% of all jobs nationally were direct farm jobs while all agriculture-related jobs totaled 22.1 million.
What is the impact of USDA’s food assistance programs?
Another way an Ag secretary leaves an economic legacy is through channeling funds to federal food assistance programs. For example in 2015, Vilsack helped the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) realize 73% of all USDA fund releases.