Gary Peters Presses Agriculture Secretary Rollins On 'Hefty Cuts' To Agriculture Research In Trump Budget

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During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) spoke about the cuts to agriculture research in President Trump's budget request.

Transcript

00:00Senator Peters. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning. Secretary Rollins, good to see you again.

00:05You too. Welcome to the committee. Thank you. Secretary, as part of the 2018 Farm Bill,

00:11Congress passed the PAWS Act legislation, which I authored to establish a grant program to provide

00:18shelter options for domestic violence survivors with companion animals. Research had found that

00:25up to 84% of women entering domestic violence shelters reported that their partners had

00:31threatened, abused, or had killed the family pet, used that as a source of intimidation for these

00:39survivors. In fact, nearly half the survivors report that they've stayed with their abuser longer,

00:45sometimes months, sometimes years, because of fear of what would happen to that beloved part of their

00:51family. PAWS funding is a priority that I pushed throughout my time on this committee and in the

00:57Senate, and it's a line item that I hope to see in the President's budget once we receive the details.

01:03So my question for you, Secretary Rollins, is would you be willing to support this important issue,

01:10and certainly I'd hope to count on you to get that continuing support that survivors have been able

01:14to get these last few years? Senator, if we could follow up and have a longer conversation, I would

01:19welcome that opportunity. This is the first I've heard of it, so I don't want to commit without

01:23knowing more, but I really appreciate your leadership and your quiet, steady hand in all

01:28of this, and I would love to have a longer conversation about that. Great. We will follow

01:32up. Yeah, it would be great. I'd be happy to do that. In my home state of Michigan, food and agriculture

01:38is the second largest contributor to our state's economy. Everybody thinks about manufacturing and making

01:44cars. We do that really well, but ag is incredibly important, and specialty crop industries are the

01:51biggest part of that equation. That's why I've long fought for strong, consistent funding for the

01:56APHIS Specialty Crop Pest Program, and that's also why I'm so alarmed by some of the recent reports that

02:03more than 1,300 APHIS employees have accepted the deferred resignation option. So my question for you,

02:12Madam Secretary, is how will your agency continue to meet its responsibilities after such a major

02:18reduction in staffing? Well, it's a really important question, and one that I have been talking about

02:26quite a bit in media. I think that while we are moving through the reduction in force, but one point

02:33that I made, Senator, I don't know if you were in the room, that while 15,000 of our employees of 106,000

02:39staffed agencies, so a little less than 15 percent, have accepted the deferred resignation program.

02:45Our typical attrition is between 8,000 and 10,000. Now, obviously, this is a significant jump from

02:50that, but it is one that I believe is manageable. I signed a memorandum a few weeks ago at USDA

02:55putting our key areas, such as APHIS, such as wildland firefighting, such as FSA offices, at the very top of

03:03the list. So as we have lost important employees as part of this process, we are out recruiting and

03:10ensuring that they become and are prioritized as we rehire, realign, and reorganize the agency.

03:16Okay, well, I look forward to working with you on that as well. It's a major concern for us.

03:21As you know, public investment in agricultural research has decreased since 2002. While we've seen

03:29competitors such as China surge in their research efforts, they've now far surpass U.S. investment

03:37in agricultural research as well as development. And given the critical importance of food security

03:43to national security, China competitiveness in this context, I think, is of much utmost importance for

03:49us to keep an eye on. That's why I'm frustrated to see that the President's budget calls for hefty cuts

03:54in ag research funding. So my question for you, Madam Secretary, is ag research a priority for this

04:02administration? And if so, how do you square that with this year's budget request?

04:09In the, obviously, the research is a key component of this, of the work at USDA. In this budget discussion,

04:16we're just talking about the discretionary funding, which is about $30 billion of our total $200-plus

04:22billion annual budget. So at about 20% total is what we're discussing today. In total, of that,

04:29the research part of it and the budget that came out Friday went from $2.1 billion down to $1.9 billion.

04:36So while it is a cut, it's not a massive cut. It's a 7% cut, and it's very much focused on outdated

04:42facilities. So as we continue the high priority and the focus on the important research, I believe

04:49that none of that will be compromised, Senator. If you see something different on the ground in

04:54Michigan or across the country, would you please flag it for us? Because it shouldn't affect the key,

04:58most important parts of the research. All right. Well, thank you for that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

05:03Thank you, Senator. Good to see you.

05:06Senator Ossoff. Good morning.

05:09Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

05:10Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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