WASHINGTON (AP)— The 72-28 vote for Brooke Rollins puts a close ally of President Donald Trump into a key Cabinet position as mass deportation plans could lead to farm labor shortages and tariffs could hit agricultural exports.
Rollins served as chief for domestic policy during Trump’s first administration. Now she must oversee nearly all aspects of the nation’s food system, including standards on farming practices and livestock rearing, federal subsidies to farmers or agribusinesses and setting nutrition standards for schools and public health officials nationwide.
She acknowledged that deporting people could lead to labor shortages on farms that count on migrants to harvest crops. But she said “the president’s vision of a secure border and a mass deportation at a scale that matters is something I support.”