Klobuchar Opening Remarks at USDA Oversight Hearing with Secretary Rollins

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, today delivered the following opening statement at the Agriculture Committee oversight hearing on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Testifying at the hearing was Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.

A rough transcript of Klobuchar's full opening statement is available below and a video can be found here.

Senator Klobuchar: Well, thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you for being here, Secretary Rollins. And thank you, Mr. Chair, for leading with the hope that we can move forward on a bipartisan Farm Bill.

I appreciate you wanting to ramp up a number of the bipartisan proposals that we have to include. We had a very good meeting with you, with our members. I think people made it clear they're concerned about the inequity of the SNAP shifts to the states, with the big error rate states getting off for two years and then the entire Midwest not, and we're hoping once we get the numbers, especially at the end of June, from the USDA, the final numbers, we might be able to make some changes there, which unite our members, as well as many other issues. I also appreciate you raising the E-15 issue, Mr. Chairman, and your support for it, Secretary. The House, as we know, has passed this. I'm also supportive of the bill that you mentioned, and have been one of the leads on this, and you know this is something that could be voted on separately because of the committee jurisdiction, that we could even do sooner rather than later, and I think it would really be a smart move to get this done very near, and I hope you bring that not only back to the USDA, but to the Administration to push so that we can get a vote on that very soon.

I do want to thank you for the USDA's expedited disaster assistance for farmers, Secretary Rollins, for the losses in 2023 and 2024, and the payments in April, which Senator Slotkin and I had urged. Getting this second payment put over $700 million in Minnesota farmers' pockets this spring.

I also want to address the recently confirmed cases of New World Screwworm here within the U.S., in Texas, New Mexico, and I recognize the Administration's ongoing response, working with animal health officials, as well as livestock stakeholders, and clearly we need a long-term response. I continue to be concerned about some of the reorganization's cuts to USDA, how that could affect our long-term response. Senator Luján and I will be doing a letter on that immediately after this hearing has concluded. And I'm sure he will ask some questions, as will I.

Secretary Rollins, since your last appearance before the committee, it has been a turbulent time for farmers, ranchers, and really all of rural America. Unfortunately, I believe that much of this turbulence would have been, could have been, would have been, could have been, entirely preventable.

I've been clear that the Administration's across-the-board tariffs have been terrible for farmers. The IEEPA tariffs added nearly $1 billion in cost to critical inputs like fertilizers, seed, machinery, and chemicals from February through October of last year. These tariffs, rightfully struck down by the Supreme Court, were so unnecessary, given that the legality, the constitutionality of them were in question from the very beginning, and thus they added so much uncertainty and cost.

Now, unfortunately and unnecessarily, the President has chosen to bulldoze ahead with more tariffs at great cost to the economy and more uncertainty.

In addition to the chaos from the tariffs, the unilateral decision to start a conflict in the Middle East is causing real and direct harm to farmers and consumers in Minnesota.

One year ago, the average price for a gallon of diesel in my state was $3.40. Today, the average is $5.13. That is a 51% increase in a single year. And just this morning, we got the consumer price index numbers for the country, up 4.2%, and that is up from the exact inverse, 2.4%, that we were seeing before the conflict began.

I am also concerned of the edge that this war has given Russia and China and other countries that are not friends of the U.S. in the global battle for competitiveness, because of the fact that we are so reliant.

I met with producers on the Tate Farmer Family Farm in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, where I heard from producers that the skyrocketing cost of fertilizer is threatening their operations.

As we all know, nearly half of the global urea and 30% of global ammonia exports used in nitrogen fertilizer supply chains move through the Strait of Hormuz.

Earlier this spring, the Farm Bureau highlighted the financial strain farmers are experiencing, estimating that 70% of farmers couldn't afford all the fertilizer they needed. Of the farmers they surveyed, 94% said their financial situation has worsened or flatlined in the past year.

This morning, a number of us met with key economists, expert economists, about the long term here. And what they told us, this was not really a political based meeting, was just that even if the Strait of Hormuz were opened immediately, the long-term effect of going through our reserves, as we have done globally, is going to keep these prices high.

As I've said before, this is a "perfect storm of ugly," to quote one of my soybean farmers, from the fuel and the fertilizer costs to the tariffs, it has made it really hard for our growers, especially our small growers who do not have the reserves, to make long-term business decisions with any confidence.

Secretary Rollins, many of us believe that you can be a voice of reason when it comes to these issues with the Administration. We know that you have expressed views in the past about the effect this is having on the farm economy. But right now, I fear, and many of us fear, and many farmers fear that these voices of reason are falling on deaf ears.

Because on top of the decisions to go into this unilateral war, and just to continue these tariffs, we have just seen such pandemonium when it comes to the response, and so many bad effects on rural America - from the decision not to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, which are percentage-wise more relied on in rural America, to many of the decisions that have been made to reduce staffing, whether it's Social Security or USDA, that people in rural America rely on.

My concerns with the USDA right now is this pushing forward of a reorg plan, right in the middle of all of this mess.

The Department has already lost around 20% of its employees, meaning fewer FSA staff to process farm loan and disaster aid applications, just at a time when farmers are facing more problems than they were the year before, the year before, the year before. Fewer NRCS conservationists to help farmers adopt popular conservation practices, and this really does mean something in the Midwest, where many of them rely on these programs. And fewer researchers developing solutions for the challenges our farmers face today, including, as discussed earlier, the New World Screwworm.

These staff losses come before a series of announcements from the Department moving multiple agencies across the country, which we know results in even more disruption to staff.

Farmers in Minnesota won't be better served by fewer experienced employees being relocated to Indianapolis, Kansas City, or yes, Salt Lake City - not exactly an Ag-focused state. Instead, I encourage the USDA to prioritize staffing local county offices and ARS labs to help farmers access services and tackle issues they are facing right now.

The Department's reorganization proposal will significantly affect the ability to provide services to USDA stakeholders and the lives of the employees. We are asking for transparency and an open dialogue with the shared goal of ensuring the USDA is efficient and effective in its mission.

Our concern is doing this right now, in the middle of what is clearly some of the biggest headwinds that we've seen coming at agriculture and at rural America, is a huge mistake, because it will mean, of course, less staff to deal with it, less experienced staff to deal with it, and an unnecessary disruption to serving our farmers.

So I look forward to hearing from you today, and I appreciate the members that are here and their input as well.

Thank you.

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