Susan Collins Presses Ag. Sec. Rollins On Frozen USDA Program Funds, Cites Lack Of Clarity In Timing

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During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) questioned Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins about frozen USDA funds.

Transcript

00:00Rollins to start that process. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Welcome,

00:06Secretary Rollins. Thank you. It is great to see you here today. When we first met,

00:13we discussed PFAS. Those are the toxic class of forever chemicals that are being found

00:22in our soils, water, animal feed, crops, and livestock. In Maine, the presence of

00:29PFAS in wastewater sludge that was spread decades ago as a fertilizer is preventing some of our

00:40family farmers from being able to sell their products, causing them significant financial

00:47harm. To support these affected farmers and to come up with solutions, the University of Maine

00:56is undertaking research on the presence of PFAS in agricultural land. To build upon this work,

01:05I secured $17 million in fiscal year 2024 for the ARS and the University of Maine to establish a new

01:16center of excellence for PFAS solutions. And the whole purpose is to help address these very serious

01:25PFAS contamination in agriculture. Madam Secretary, will you continue to support the partnership between

01:38ARS and the University of Maine in establishing this research center to help our farmers? And I would

01:48note that the research that's being done there won't just help the farmers in Maine, but across the nation.

01:55Across the country. Well, Madam Chairman, as we discussed, this is an issue that is very close to my

02:01family's heart. My mom, Helen Kerwin, is 70, almost 78. She is the youngest elected freshman to the Texas

02:10House of Representatives in Texas history. And her number one issue is PFAS. And she decided to run for

02:18a lot of reasons. But one of those was, I believe it was the New York Times did an expose or a big story,

02:24if you will, on a farm in Johnson County, Texas, which is close to where we grew up and where my mom still

02:31lives, rural Texas. And she was so stunned by what had happened to these farmers, and specifically

02:40through the PFAS contamination. It had destroyed their lives. And so she became very, very passionate

02:49about this particular issue. She is crushing it in her first session in the Texas legislature right

02:57now. And in fact, her very first bill that she will get a hearing on is her PFAS bill, and it will be

03:03tomorrow in Austin. So I've been hearing a lot about this at the family dinner table for quite some time

03:08now. But yes, we remain committed to this research. Very proud of that $7 million grant to the Center for

03:14Excellence. And I think that at least according to my mom, who is amazing, raised my sisters and me by

03:19herself. She was a single mom. But at least according to my mom, Maine leads the way in many respects on

03:26this important issue for all of our farmers and our ranchers. And I'm excited to learn more, perhaps

03:31even come visit the Center in Maine, see the work that they're doing firsthand, and to continue to

03:36support it. So thank you for your leadership on that. Thank you so much. And in this case, listening to

03:42your mother makes all the sense in the world. All the sense in the world. I need to tell my four

03:47teenagers that. Yes. In late March, I wrote you a letter detailing my concerns about USDA's delay in

03:58releasing some program funds. I've heard from constituents who have received grant award letters

04:07from USDA in the previous administration, only to later receive letters from USDA informing them that

04:17their grant funding is frozen. Now, this is obviously very troubling to them. It creates a lot of uncertainty.

04:25And we are a state that has lost 600 farms in the past decade. And that is very troubling to me. I grew

04:38up in northern Maine. One of my first jobs was picking potatoes for a farmer. And I am aware of how

04:47how important that heritage is to our state and to our food supply. So we've seen a situation where

04:56farmers, landowners, loggers, natural resource businesses that have applied for USDA loans still have no

05:07clarity on what decisions will be made. And the timing of this funding is absolutely critical,

05:16because as you know, well, agricultural producers are making purchases now for this year's crops

05:24and processing facilities need to order equipment for the summer and the fall harvest. Local farm

05:33economies are fragile and timing is really important. So I know and appreciate that you've made some

05:44significant strides in releasing program funding over the past few weeks. Could you provide the subcommittee

05:53with an update on federal funding at USDA that remains frozen and a timeline for when you plan to finish your

06:04reviews? I will and I take to heart so sincerely everything you've said. And I know many of you have reached out during

06:12this process of frozen funds from both sides of the aisle. And my goal is to respond immediately. Sometimes

06:18it's at midnight, sometimes it's at 5am. But my goal is always to respond and to be available. I have an amazing

06:25team. Kaylee Bowler is our chief of staff. She's here, Jen Teller and a few others that you all probably know well. And we are

06:31working around the clock going line by line by line. We're down to the final 5 billion out of I believe almost 20 billion of

06:39frozen funds. But $5 billion is a lot of money. And when you think about that in terms of, you know, grant or contract

06:46and moving that out quickly, we're very hopeful to keep moving through that very, very quickly and have

06:53that done very soon. But what I will say, and you all know this that have worked with me, I am always

06:58available. So if there is one or a group in particular that you want us to make sure we're getting to, please just

07:05let me know. I know almost everybody here has my cell phone number, maybe not a few of you, but

07:11I'm always available. Several of these guys have it too. So just call me and just know we're doing our

07:17very, very, very best. Some of the funding that we have pulled back and then reopened, we've asked for

07:23reapplications to realign around this president's priorities, which of course, not surprisingly, is not

07:30diversity, equity and inclusion or some climate programs, but instead to reapply where the farmer

07:35would receive, farmer or rancher would receive 65% of the funding or more. That's another piece of this

07:40as well. So we again are going line by line. We're working around the clock and believe me, we are on

07:47it. But please know to always reach out if there's something specific. And I hear you.

07:51Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chairman.

07:54Appreciate it. Senator Shaheen.

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