Lawmakers question Rollins on ethanol, fossil fuel ties

By Marc Heller | 01/23/2025 04:19 PM EST

President Donald Trump’s nominee for Agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, faced little questioning on climate policy.

Brooke Rollins speaks during her confirmation hearing.

Brooke Rollins, President Donald Trump's nominee for Agriculture secretary, speaks during her confirmation hearing Thursday. Francis Chung/POLITICO

President Donald Trump’s pick for Agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, stepped carefully through her confirmation hearing Thursday, telling lawmakers with wide-ranging rural interests that she’ll represent “all of American agriculture.”

A lawyer with an executive resume at conservative policy groups and a rural Texas background, Rollins navigated questions on biofuel policy, national forests, support for historically Black research colleges and possible repercussions of new tariffs.

Rollins said her top priorities would be swiftly delivering financial help to farmers hit by recent natural disasters and bringing change to USDA operations. Democrats didn’t press her on the new administration’s disdain for farm policies geared to climate change.

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The nominee said in her opening statement: “We must immediately begin to modernize, realign, rethink the United States Department of Agriculture, responding to the clear needs and desires of the American people as set forth so well by the president of the United States over this last historic week.”

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