Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins says USDA ready to bail out farmers damaged by tariff backlash
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture is prepared to provide financial assistance to farmers impacted by potential retaliatory tariffs, said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in her first Iowa visit.
- The USDA is awaiting President Donald Trump's final decision on tariffs to assess the potential impact on farmers.
- Rollins expressed hope that tariff renegotiations would be positive and eliminate the need for support payments.
- The USDA also announced $537 million in funding to support the expansion of ethanol and biodiesel infrastructure.
ATLANTIC — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has the "infrastructure necessary" to send farmers what could be billions of dollars to offset damage resulting from retaliation for President Donald Trump's tariffs on America's trading partners, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Monday in Iowa.
Rollins, who began a day of events in Iowa with a tour of Elite Octane, a 150-million-gallon-a-year ethanol plant in the western Iowa city of Atlantic, said the USDA is awaiting Trump's final decision on tariffs to assess how it might affect farmers.
Trump said Sunday he expects to place reciprocal tariffs on all countries the U.S. trades with, not just 10 to 15 of the largest.
On Monday, a White House spokesman said Trump would provide no exemptions for farmers, who sell billions of dollars in crops and livestock products annually to countries such as China, Mexico and Canada.
Trump's trade war during his first term hit U.S. farmers hard, forcing the USDA to render $23 billion in assistance to crop, livestock and fruit and vegetable growers. Any new tariff retaliation will be inflicted as farmers are reeling from a downturn caused by the combined effects of low prices and high costs and interest rates.
"My hope and prayer and goal is that we don't have to use those" support payments again, Rollins told reporters, because the "tariff renegotiations will be so positive on the front end for our farmers and our ranchers and our ag community."
Gov. Kim Reynolds, other Iowa leaders join Rollins
Rollins was accompanied on the plant tour by Gov. Kim Reynolds, U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, U.S. Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig, all Republicans.
Rollins said she couldn't specify how much money the USDA might need to send to "make farmers whole." But "if necessary, we are ensuring that we are set up, we have the infrastructure ready" to send assistance to farmers, she said, adding that relief will depend "on what the president announces."
"We're ready to go any which way," she said, adding "we've got the same team that built out the first program" under then-Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, who served during Trump's first term.
"We don't have quite the funds we had back then, because under the last administration, a lot of those were spent," Rollins said at a stop in Waukee. "But we're working on that right now, and as soon as we fully understand the consequences, positive and otherwise of these new negotiations ... we'll have more announcements.”
Rollins said she understood when she accepted the job that tariffs remained "a big part" of Trump's "toolkit … to reinvigorate, to revivify America and our standing in the world."
She said the president “believes very sincerely that for the long term, that this is the right move for the country — that ultimately, the economy will thrive, and all Americans will be better off.
And "from my perspective, our farmers and ranchers better off than ever before," Rollins said. "But we have some, you know, maybe a couple weeks, maybe a few months, while we're working all of that out.”
Rollins also announced the USDA was releasing $537 million that would go to 29 states to build pumps and other infrastructure needed to dispense higher blends of ethanol and biodiesel. She was unsure how much money might be sent to Iowa.
A USDA news release said Trump was honoring his "commitment to America’s farmers," expanding access to "domestic, homegrown fuels" that create "good-paying jobs for hard-working Americans, restore rural prosperity and strengthen our nation's energy security."
Rollins said Iowa was the right place to make the announcement, since it's the nation's largest producer of biofuels, which by law are blended into the nation's fuel supply to enhance American energy independence.
Nick Bowdish, CEO of Elite Octane in Atlantic, said moving the nation from using gasoline with 10% ethanol to 15% ethanol, a goal of farm states and their congressional delegations, would require using 2.5 billion more bushels of corn.
For comparison, he said, ethanol sold to Canada, the largest buyer of ethanol, consumed 200 million bushels of corn last year.
"If the president needs to have tough conversations with some of these foreign markets … he can do that in a way without leaving behind the corn and soybean farmer" by opening up "biofuel demand at home," Bowdish said.
Ethanol producers use about 40% of the nation's corn crop to make the renewable fuel.
Rollins also was scheduled to make stops at a Waukee hog farm and a Colfax seed distributor, then deliver the keynote address at the Iowa Ag Leaders Dinner on Monday evening in Ankeny. Reynolds also is scheduled to speak.
Prior to becoming head of the 100,000-employee agriculture department, Rollins, 52, was president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank.
A conservative lawyer, Rollins also served in the final year of Trump’s first term as acting director of the White House's Domestic Policy Council. She also was among the speakers at the Republican National Convention in 2024.
(This story was edited to add new information.)
Staff writer Brianne Pfannenstiel contributed to this article.
Reuters contributed to this article.
Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com.