The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to confirm Brooke Rollins, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump and former White House policy adviser who has expressed doubt about climate change, to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Rollins will head an agency with 100,000 employees that oversees farm programs, food benefits, and school lunches. Her appointment comes at a time of low farm income, potential cuts to domestic food aid, and an aggressive campaign to reduce the federal workforce led by Elon Musk.
The Senate voted 72-28 to confirm Rollins. The Senate Agriculture Committee held Rollins' nomination hearing Jan. 23 and Feb. 3 advanced her unanimously.
Rollins spent 15 years as the head of a conservative Texas policy organization backed by the oil industry. Under her tenure, the group produced reports criticizing ethanol and farm subsidies. In her nomination hearing, Rollins said the reports were decades old and did not reflect her current policy positions, and that she supports ethanol.
Asked by Agriculture Committee ranking member Amy Klobuchar in follow-up questions after her nomination hearing if she believes climate change is a threat to U.S. farmers and ranchers, Rollins said, "We all know the climate changes throughout the year, but the cause and solutions are not widely understood or defined," according to a copy of her responses seen by Reuters.
Rollins was acting director of the White House Domestic Policy Council in Trump's first administration, and then led the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned policy group.
The Trump administration's freeze on most foreign aid and some farm grant and loan programs have led to work stoppages at a network of agricultural research labs and meant some farmers are not getting expected government payments.
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