WASHINGTON —Kansas U.S. Senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall on Thursday questioned Brooke Rollins, President Trump’s nominee to be the Secretary of Agriculture, during a Senate Committee on Agriculture hearing.
“It has been described here the dangerous and dramatic circumstances that farmers and ranchers find themselves in across the country – it is certainly true in Kansas,” said Sen. Moran. “We have the same difficulties that everybody else has across the country with high input costs and low commodity prices, but I would add that almost 80 percent of the counties in Kansas are in a drought, and so you add to those problems that we can’t grow a crop.”
Sen. Moran raised the importance of quickly administering the disaster and economic assistance passed by Congress in December and emphasized the need for transparency on how the assistance will be distributed so famers will be in a better position to financially plan for the planting season.
Sen. Moran also highlighted to Mrs. Rollins the importance of passing a new Farm Bill, the need to have USDA employees in office, the Farm to Fly Act, the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas, and important research at land-grant universities across the United States.
Senator Marshall discussed Brooke’s life-long passion for agriculture and her extensive professional experience in the White House and domestic policy. Having grown up on a farm in a small town, Brooke’s love for agriculture started at a young age, participating in Future Farmers of America, 4H, and earning her agriculture degree from Texas A&M. Brooke shared her heart for America’s farmers and ranchers, and her commitment to defending our food producers and rural Americans’ way of life.