Former TPPF leader Brooke Rollins confirmed by Senate for agriculture secretary

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed Brooke Rollins, former president and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, to be President Donald Trump’s agriculture secretary.

Rollins enjoyed a relatively seamless confirmation. The Senate voted 72-28 to confirm her nomination. She easily sailed through the Senate Agriculture Committee earlier this month on a unanimous vote. Democrats and Republicans alike said they had productive and pragmatic conversations with her on agriculture policy.

Rollins spent 15 years leading TPPF, the top conservative think tank in Texas and one of the leading conservative groups in the country. She was previously an aide to then-Gov. Rick Perry, serving as policy director with a portfolio that included agriculture. A native of Glen Rose, Rollins graduated from Texas A&M University and was the school’s first woman student body president. She got her law degree from the University of Texas at Austin Law School.

Rollins is a fierce Trump defender. She served in the first Trump White House where she directed the Domestic Policy Council and the Office of American Innovation. After Trump left the White House, he tapped her to lead the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-loyal think tank that Rollins said she modeled after TPPF.

During her nomination hearing, Rollins said she would advocate for measures to protect farmers and rural development, acknowledging they could be harmed by some of Trump’s policies. She supported aid for the agriculture sector if he implements his steep tariff plan on Mexico, Canada and China, which could have an outsized impact on Texas farmers. Mexico, Canada and China are Texas’ biggest export markets. During his first presidency, Trump granted aid for farmers reeling from his tariffs against China at the time.

Rollins also expressed commitment to upholding the Agriculture Department’s rural development programs, which cover a host of issues in rural areas including health care, housing and education.

She differed with Democrats on nutrition assistance programs such as SNAP which provide food benefits for low-income households. While Rollins said she supported those programs, she said they could be more efficient. Republicans have advocated greater work requirements for the programs (almost all participants already have work requirements) and for regulations that food bought with federal assistance to be healthful.

Rollins also supports Trump’s promises of mass deportations of all undocumented immigrants. More than 40% of farm workers are undocumented, a point that came up during her nomination hearing. Rollins said she would work with Trump’s Department of Labor to try to make up for the labor shortage. That could mean reforming the H-2A temporary agricultural worker visa.

“Listen, the president’s vision of a secure border and a mass deportation at a scale that matters is something I support,” Rollins said during her hearing. “That is my commitment to help deploy President Trump’s agenda in an effective way.”