Brooke Rollins was confirmed Thursday with broad bipartisan backing to be President Donald Trump’s Department of Agriculture secretary.
The GOP-controlled chamber voted 72-28 in favor of the appointment. Democrats agreed to fast-track her confirmation on the floor after she was unanimously voted out of committee last week.
Rollins has a history of family farming and previously served in the administrations of former Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) and Trump during his first term. Rollins was most recently president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, which was founded to promote Trump’s agenda.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) described her as a “policy wonk with a farmer’s heart.”
“I know that farmer and ranchers will have a friend in Brooke Rollins,” Thune said. “Mrs. Rollins grew up in an agricultural town of Glen Rose, Texas, spent summers working for her family on the farm in Minnesota, helping with corn, potato, and soybean crops. She was an FAA state officer, and her four kids are keeping up the family’s way of life.”
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Her confirmation came as the USDA is looking to dole out disaster and economic aid to American farmers affected by damaging events that swept across the country, such as severe weather and animal disease outbreaks.
Congress is also working to reauthorize a five-year farm bill that controls food and agriculture spending, which lawmakers have failed to do in Washington for the past two years. Congress has twice extended the bill after it expired in 2023.