Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins Asked For Message To Americans Who Rely On SNAP As GOP Budget Has Big Changes

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Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins speaks to reporters outside the White House.

Transcript

00:00a couple questions. Yes, sir. House Republicans, they're working on President

00:18Trump's big beautiful bill on the ag portion. Yes. Seems like there are

00:22concerns about how the cost sharing on snap is going to go. I wonder if you

00:26have any thoughts on that? If you can explain how you think that process. Well, I

00:31appreciate that. Obviously, the president has a vision that and really and and

00:35almost entirely aligned Republican Party behind him in the in the House and the

00:41Senate. We so look forward to delivering on tax cuts and deregulation, all the

00:47pieces of the president's economic vision. Clearly, as Secretary of Agriculture, I am

00:51very focused on it. I'll be testifying tomorrow in the House, actually the

00:54Senate tomorrow. The House on Thursday to talk about the agriculture piece of

00:57it. A lot of people don't understand that the USDA almost 80% of our big budget is

01:02the snap food stamp program. To your point and only about 15 or 20% is actually

01:07farming and ranching. So a big part of this to my for my opinion is that

01:12realigning USDA obviously ensuring that the best parts of the food stamp the snap

01:17program stay in place that we continue to feed those and provide that

01:21supplemental nutrition to those who need it the most, but also ensuring that we're

01:25prioritizing our farmers and our ranchers as we're moving forward. Can you just

01:28can you? Yeah, sure. Go ahead. What would you tell Americans who rely on snap? Should

01:33they be expecting potential cuts to those services? So I think it's really

01:37important also to understand that on snap and on food stamps in the last

01:40administration, we had a massive influx of dollars, almost a 35 to 40% increase of the

01:47snap program under the Biden administration that didn't necessarily

01:51mean more money to families. It just meant a massive new layer of bureaucracy

01:55of NGOs, etc. So as we are realigning and reforming the snap program in

02:00partnership with our great friends GT Thompson, John Bozeman, others on the

02:03hill that ensuring that as we are looking at that, the money goes to what it was

02:08intended and that is a supplemental nutrition program for American families

02:12that need it the most. And that's what we're really focused on.

02:14Secretary, I'm Tara. To farmers who say they are feeling the impact right now.

02:19Yes. Wondering how long this is going to go on, when trade deals will be announced.

02:23What can you tell them about the timeline? Well, what I have been saying to our great

02:28farmers and ranchers, but especially our row croppers who are very much affected by

02:32the ongoing negotiations, that relief is in sight, that deals are being negotiated

02:38right now, that when the president says he's got 100 countries who are coming to

02:42the table, he is absolutely right. Next week, I'll be in England discussing these

02:47things. A few weeks after, I'll be in Italy. Then soon after that, Vietnam and Japan and

02:52India. So, and I'm, I'm reflective of a larger cabinet effort on behalf of this

02:56president to get out into the world, to expand the markets. And from, you know, with a few

03:01exceptions, for the most part, our agriculture community, our farmers and our

03:05ranchers have been extremely gracious, supportive, excited and encouraged, even

03:12in this time of uncertainty. And I know we've seen the market fluctuate, our soy

03:16and corn farmers, especially some of our hog farmers, especially. But at the end of

03:19the day, what we're doing is we're realigning an entire world economy around

03:24American products. And that will affect our farmers and our ranchers more than any

03:28other, I believe, more than any other American producer and whatever they're

03:31producing. And so I'm actually so excited and I'm so encouraged. And the

03:36conversations that I have had, which I obviously can't talk about here, have

03:39been incredibly encouraging with our partners around the world. And so I'm

03:44just so grateful to President Trump. I'm so grateful to Secretary Besant, Secretary

03:48Lutnik, to Jameson Greer, who've been leading these efforts. I think that there are

03:51major breakthroughs that will be announced very, very soon.

03:54Thank you all so much. Great to see everybody.

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