100 days in, Rollins pushes rollback of Biden-era ag policies

In her first 100 days as secretary of agriculture under the Trump Administration, Brooke Rollins has taken aggressive steps to refocus the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of her mission to put “Farmers First.”

The policy under Rollins has reprioritized some of the doctrine of Trump’s previous Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, who adopted the slogan “Do Right and Feed Everyone” in his tenure. Rollins has zeroed in on the rollback of what she describes as the Biden Administration’s “woke Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion agenda,” aiming instead to build a USDA that emphasizes “unity, equality, meritocracy, and color-blind policies.”

“It is absurd that while the Biden Administration was driving up inflation, American taxpayers were forced to fund billions in woke DEI initiatives. American farmers and ranchers don’t need DEI, they need reduced regulations and an Administration that is actively putting them first,” said Rollins. “In the first 100 days of the Trump Administration, USDA has done exactly that, by cancelling over 3,600 contracts and grants saving more than $5.5 billion. I look forward to finishing our work of cleaning out Biden’s bureaucratic basement and moving forward with this Administration’s priorities that put American farmers first.”

Rollins also directed the USDA to review Inflation Reduction Act funding to ensure that it honors the obligation to American taxpayers — and to ensure that programs are focused on supporting farmers and ranchers, not “DEI programs” or “far-left climate programs,” according to the agency.

As a result, the USDA has terminated 597 grants, which totaled more than $3.45 billion and over 3,000 contracts totaling $1.8 billion. Between grants and contracts and other spending, the USDA says it has terminated more than $5.5 billion in what it has deemed to be unnecessary and wasteful spending. The USDA has identified and canceled nearly 1,000 employee trainings, more than 750 of which the agency said focused on DEI alone. The USDA said the other canceled trainings include topics on “environmental justice” and “gender ideology” classes.

Rollins said she is leading a new era of the USDA that she pledges will be the most efficient, nimble, and innovative department to serve American agriculture since its establishment in 1862.

In her first 100 days, Rollins sent a letter to Maine Gov. Janet Mills announcing the pause and an ongoing review of federal funding that the state of Maine receives from the USDA. Rollins also sent a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom announcing a review of federal funding his state receives intended for research and education.

Additionally, Rollins announced the cancellation of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, referencing it as part of what she calls the “Green New Scam.” Following a line-by-line review of each of these Biden-era partnerships, the USDA said that it became clear that the majority of these projects had sky-high administration fees which in many instances provided less than half of the federal funding directly to farmers.

Select projects may continue if it is demonstrated that a significant amount of the federal funds awarded will go to farmers. With this action, the USDA says it is cutting bureaucratic red tape, streamlining reporting, lowering the paperwork burden on producers and putting farmers first.

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