Senator Collins Questions Secretary Rollins on Forever Chemicals, Rural Development Programs

Comments on the New USDA Office of Seafood

Click HERE to watch and HERE to download

Q&A on PFAS

Click HERE to watch and HERE to download

Q&A on Rural Development Programs

Click HERE to watch and HERE to download

Q&A on Specialty Crops

Click HERE to watch and HERE to download

Washington, D.C. - At a hearing to review the Department of Agriculture's Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget request, U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Chair of the Appropriations Committee, thanked Secretary Brooke Rollins for help establishing the Office of Seafood at USDA, and asked for the Department's support for UMaine research on forever chemicals, Maine's rural development programs, and disaster assistance for specialty crops.

Comments on the New USDA Office of Seafood

Sen. Collins: Let me start by thanking the Secretary for taking an action that we have been pushing for many years, and that is the establishment of the Office of Seafood at the USDA, for recognizing that our fishermen, our lobstermen and women, are farmers of the sea. And I'm very appreciative.

This is something that has been needed to be done for years to help with everything from disaster assistance, to marketing opportunities, and I am delighted that you have brought it about. So, I start with that thank you, and I do want to point out that the Ag Appropriations bill includes funding for you to establish a seafood industry liaison, and I hope to see that happen next.

Sec. Rollins: That's great.

Sen. Hoeven: Would they be techn ically ranchers then?

Sen. Collins: Farmers-we'll stick with farmers.

Sec. Rollins: Senator, I will say that I remember we talked about this when I came to visit you during the nomination process, and I never forgot. And we kind of touched base a few times over the last 14 months. I didn't understand why it hadn't been done in the past. It seemed so clear to me that was the right thing to do. And we had some fishermen, I'm so sorry you couldn't be there last week when we launched it, but we had some fishermen from your state. So, we gave you a lot of credit for getting to that point and your leadership and focus on that. So, thank you. It was an honor to get to do it.

Sen. Collins: Well, thank you for getting it done.

Q&A on PFAS

Sen. Collins: There was another issue that you and I discussed early on, and I know we have a common concern about, and that is the impact of PFAS, the toxic class of forever chemicals that are being found in our soils, water, animal feed, crops, and livestock. This is having a detrimental impact on agricultural producers.

In Maine, the presence of PFAS in wastewater sludge spread decades ago as a fertilizer, where here the farmers were trying to help out the municipality in which they lived, but the result is preventing some of our family farmers from being able to sell their products, such as milk, for example, causing them significant financial harm. The University of Maine has undertaken research that is relevant to the presence of PFAS and how to remove it.

I've been pleased to support this important work by securing nearly 33 million over the past five years for the Agricultural Research Service at the University of Maine, to establish a new Center of Excellence for PFAS Solutions. Madam Secretary, I know this is something that's near and dear to your heart, and that your mother has been very involved in this issue as a legislator as well, so that you're very familiar with it. I simply will ask that you continue your support of this partnership between the ARS and the University of Maine.

Sec. Rollins: Yes, thank you. And I know Maine is sort of the hub for the research, for the leadership. It's in large part due, well, probably primarily due to you, if not entirely due to you, Senator.

And certainly, as we discussed, my mom, who is the oldest freshman state legislator in Texas history, maybe in American history. At almost 80, she ran and won for the first time, and she's known as Hurricane Helen in Austin because of this issue, and she certainly has been following in your footsteps, a pioneer. So yes, I am fully supportive and will do whatever I can to make sure we're making sure our farmers and ranchers have what they need on that.

Sen. Collins: Thank you. I love your mother's role in this, and I know that she cares deeply about it and is making a real difference.

Q&A on Rural Development Programs

Sen. Collins: I want to switch quickly to two other issues. One, is that the budget has cuts in rural development. That is extraordinarily important to my state, which is one of the most rural in the entire nation.

It helps to provide access to safe and reliable water and wastewater systems, telecommunications, broadband connectivity, housing, and so much more. So, I was disappointed to see that the President's budget request has major funding cuts to several rural development programs, which follows other changes, such as handbook revisions, creating significant restrictions on home loans. What is your plan for ensuring that rural Americans continue to have access to programs that rural development has traditionally funded?

Sec. Rollins: Yeah, I will respond a couple different ways. First, obviously, my boss, the President, and OMB, is very focused on realigning the government and making sure every dollar that is spent is spent in the best possible use. Having said that, I agree with you that our rural development programs are key.

We have talked at length about the importance of returning prosperity to rural America. Having grown up in a town of 1,200 raised by a single mom, I can attest firsthand to the importance of these programs. So, finding that balance is what we're looking toward. We did inherit in rural development a 25 percent default rate for the loans that were pushed out.

Certainly in the last Administration there was a lot without any guardrails on. So, trying to "right-size" that at the same time that we are writing the budget is a big priority. But understanding that there are really important programs that need to be supported through these programs. So, as I have, hopefully for the last 15 months, worked with each of you, when you have something that pops up, something specific, my promise is to continue to do that and to keep sending us feedback as well on these programs.

Q&A on Specialty Crops

Sen. Collins: Finally, very quickly, specialty crops are very important in Maine, whether it's our wild blueberries, apples, potatoes, and they've had a hard time lately. Our wild blueberry crop and our apple producers were affected by an excessively rainy spring that prevented pollenization from occurring, and then they were hit with a drought in the summer and fall.

A lot of times, the disaster assistance programs are really tailored for row crops, and they're not easily accessible for specialty crops. There was some money set aside, but frankly, it's not enough. So, I would simply ask you to commit to work to ensure that our specialty crop producers have this backstop that is needed to overcome conditions, not of their making, not of their fault, but which have a truly detrimental effect.

Sec. Rollins: Yeah, if I could, three very quick things on this. First of all, we are almost at the finish line for the Specialty Crop Block Grant for Maine. I know we've had 19 meetings with your team from your state. We got the work plan about a month ago. We are literally about to be able to deploy those funds. That's the first thing.

The second thing I'll say is, in Missouri, on Friday, I'll be announcing some tweaks to the SDRP program, and they're tweaks specific to specialty crop producers. If you're a blueberry grower, you don't have the same paperwork that, you know, a corn or wheat farmer does, and so what I've learned is that has been to the detriment of the specialty crop growers. They don't fit into the box of applying for these programs. So, we've got, I think, a really good announcement on Friday to adjust for that and to create some more bandwidth there, which, again, I don't want to get too far ahead of the announcement. We're still finalizing all the details.

And then the third thing, on the 1 billion that we did carve out from the farmer bridge assistance in December of last year, we announced. And we are moving through the specialty crop deployment of that funding right now. We got word, we closed the portal to start figuring out how to deploy the money, and then I got a call from Senator Slotkin, actually, from Michigan, another big specialty crop state. And she said, Brooke, my guys didn't even know how to apply. This is such a new day for them. So we reopened the portal for another 30 days and deployed more resources to help the specialty croppers be able to apply for these programs. So, again, I realize we have a long way to go, but I do think we're making some progress.

###