Today, U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, questioned Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on her plans relocate parts of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), like the Agricultural Research Service (ARS). During the hearing, Fischer advocated for Nebraska to be considered, given the proximity to land grant institutions, lower cost of living, and a strong existing relationship with the USDA's ARS facilities in the state.

Fischer also raised concerns about the need to address overregulation to reduce the high maintenance costs of USDA's ARS facilities, and whether the USDA would ensure that improvements made to these facilities are affordable.

In addition, Fischer emphasized the importance of preserving the customer service experience at the Farm Service Agency (FSA), highlighting the value of in-person interactions with clients.

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Fischer Questions Rollins :
Fischer: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Rollins, it is so good to see you here today. Thank you. I share your desire to realign and reprioritize resources across USDA, to put our ranchers and our farmers first. This is especially important for USDA's Agricultural Research Service to ensure that we are funding innovative and high impact research that benefits our farmers and ranchers. I've been working to secure funding for an ARS facility that's focused on innovative precision agriculture research that is co-located at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and I look forward to continuing to work with you on that facility to ensure we can have high impact, high priority research taking place there. You have also talked about having more USDA's workforce located closer to the people that they serve. And while no official announcements have been made, I think this would be a great step, and I know Nebraska would be a great location to relocate parts of USDA, like the Ag Research Service, giving our proximity to a number of strong land grant institutions, lower cost of living, and strong existing relationship with the agency at the facilities I mentioned beforehand. Can you talk about your plans for relocating parts of USDA to the heartland, and how do you anticipate relocation efforts could save taxpayer dollars and create greater efficiencies for the agency itself?

Rollins: We are very close. I'll say, in the coming weeks, you will hear a lot more about these plans. And I have really, I'm so grateful because I've gotten a lot of feedback from you and from others about potential locations around the country. What I'm most excited about in this realignment, though, is exactly how you outlined it, Senator, that we have to move. This is a customer service oriented agency, and why do we have so many people in Washington, DC? And then you bring the forest part into that, and then the nutrition into that, and it just doesn't make as much sense. It would also be cheaper for the taxpayer, and the customer service agent will be closer to the people that they serve. So we are very in the weeds on that today, and an announcement is forthcoming.

Fischer: I appreciated your comments to Senator Moran about the FSA and keeping those local offices open. I am very well aware in rural communities across my state how important it is that, that farmers have that in person access. And while we may be using technology in many areas, there's still, I think, at this point in time, needs to be that face-to-face contact.
Rollins: I agree.

Fischer: So thank you for that as well. In Nebraska, we are also so proud of the work that's being done at USDA's Meat Animal research center at Clay Center, that is a strong relationship that the Center has with our livestock producers in the state. Last month, both Nebraska Cattlemen and Nebraska Pork Producers talked to me about how they valued the research that's being done there. The President's budget does call for cuts to ARS funding, but I think it's also important for us to make sure that the dollars that we do spend on research and facilities gets stretched as far as it can. Due to over regulation, you've touched on that in some of your answers, a lot of burdensome contracting requirements out there. Simple maintenance and upkeep costs end up costing sometimes three to four times more than they should. And this is especially true for unique research centers like USMARC at Clay Center, who operate. They are working farms. They are working ranches. They handle livestock on a daily basis. So would you agree that research done in collaboration with the livestock industry at USMARC's working farm and ranch is important? And would your team work with mine to ensure that the improvements that we make to ARS facilities don't end up dramatically costing more than it would for the private sector to operate those?

Rollins: I will, Senator, and I appreciate that and the great research that happens in Nebraska. A quick note on ARS, while we are decreasing the budget, it's 2.1 billion currently under the President's budget. From Friday, it goes down to 1.9 billion. That's about a seven and a half percent decrease. And that's really focused on just some facilities that are way behind on repair and just out of date and not meeting the mark, obviously not yours in Nebraska. So that is, that is a very targeted decrease in funding that shouldn't affect, we remain highly, highly focused on the priorities of ARS and ensuring those are funded.

Fischer: You know, I hope you can also look at that over regulation that we have with contracting that I mentioned. Because a lot of times just those really simple maintenance, it does end up costing more and more and more. Where if we can, you know, you always hear about government regulation and how burdensome it is, and there's some good examples that we need to get rid of those good examples and make sure that we're dealing with common sense and in the real world to meet those lower costs that should be available.

Rollins: And the most important thing you can do is send us, have your team send us those examples, and we'll, we'll get on it right away.