Two years after President Abraham Lincoln created the Department of Agriculture in 1862, he nicknamed it the "People's Department" because half of Americans at the time lived on farms. Today, less than 2% of Americans work in agriculture, but the Department of Agriculture still impacts people's lives in many ways.
The modern USDA is a massive bureaucracy with an annual budget of $231 billion. Although its headquarters is in Washington, D.C., approximately 90% of its employees work in offices across the country. Others serve in nearly 100 embassies around the world as part of the Diplomatic Agricultural Service, promoting American food and agricultural products.
The most common misconception about the USDA is that it is primarily dedicated to supporting farmers and ranchers and protecting agricultural lands. These are critical tasks, but as a former deputy secretary of agriculture, I can attest that they represent only a small portion of the department's work.
For example, nutrition assistance programs help tens of millions of people escape food insecurity each year. Depending on the year, they consume 70 to 80 percent of USDA's total annual budget, which includes school meals, nutritional support for women, infants and children, and food benefits for low-income families. By comparison, only 13 percent of the agency's budget is devoted to agriculture, conservation and commodity programs.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkVtstI10_M[/embed]
If confirmed, President Donald Trump's pick for agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, would run one of the largest federal bureaucracies and work with Congress to draft reconciliation and farm bills. Additionally, she is likely to be drawn into debates about lowering food prices and the consumption of processed and sugary foods.
A lifeline for rural America
Throughout the history of the Department of Agriculture, presidents have used it as a tool to meet the needs of rural America, reaching far beyond the farm. This role continues today even as the United States has become a more urban nation.
Need broadband, water or wastewater? Need to build a library, community center or hospital? For small towns, the USDA will help fund all of these things, as well as purchase fire trucks and police cars. If you live in a community with a population of less than 35,000 people, the agency may help you buy, build or repair affordable housing.
One of my favorite programs is the Commercial and Industrial Loan Guarantee Program, which helps private businesses refinance debt, purchase land and machinery, and build factories, among other things. It does this by lowering risk for commercial lenders by guaranteeing loans, thereby helping borrowers obtain financing at the best rates.
From egg grading to fighting wildfires
The Ministry of Agriculture has 17 agencies, whose focus areas include food safety, research, nutrition, conservation, rural development, etc. From 1999 to 2001, I served as the Administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service, where I oversaw food standards that defined categories such as Grade A eggs, prime beef, and organic products.
The U.S. Forest Service is the largest agency within the USDA, with 33,000 employees. It manages 106 national forests in 37 states, assists with urban tree management, and conducts research on trees, wood products, and wildlife. Initially, the agency's mission focused on producing timber, but now it also manages the forest for other benefits, such as wildlife habitat and recreation.
About 10,000 Forest Service employees are firefighters. This used to be a seasonal job, but climate change has made it a year-round occupation. The agency fights about 5,000 to 7,000 fires on national forest lands each year and helps fight fires elsewhere.
Farm bill pending, SNAP in focus
About every five years, Congress debates a farm bill, a massive piece of legislation that sets the direction for about $662 billion in spending over five years and determines about 70 percent of the Department of Agriculture's work. The last farm bill was enacted in 2018, so new measures are long overdue.
In December 2024, Congress passed the American Relief Act, which included $10 billion in farm market relief, $21 billion in disaster assistance for farmers, and a one-year extension of the current Farm Bill. The next big farm issue Congress will tackle is the fight over funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP), which helps some 42 million low-income people supplement their grocery budgets.
SNAP could be a target in the budget reconciliation process that Congress considers in early 2025. Republican leaders aim to cut SNAP funding to achieve multi-year budget savings and redirect them to agricultural benefits.
Because budget reconciliation only requires a majority vote in the Senate, it is filibuster-free, unlike the farm bill. That means cuts to SNAP, a program that critics say is too costly and supporters say is a critical part of the social safety net, will be easier to achieve, often sparking heated debate.
Special Financing Institution
Another potentially contentious agriculture issue is the agency's ability to borrow up to $30 billion directly from the U.S. Treasury at any time, with Congress appropriating money to repay the loan if the agency runs short. This is done through the Commodity Credit Corporation, a government-owned financing agency created by Congress in 1933 to help stabilize agricultural prices.
I serve as Vice Chairman of the Corporation, a position that requires Senate confirmation. Other federal departments envy its power, and it has traditionally been used to make payments and loans to help stabilize farm incomes.
Recently, however, governments have used it for a wider range of purposes. Those include compensating farmers harmed by tariff wars during Trump's first term, as well as addressing climate change and other priorities during the Biden administration.
The expanded use of the Commodity Credit Corporation has angered members of Congress, who have derided it as a slush fund for the Department of Agriculture. This little-known and little-understood mechanism could become a central issue in the upcoming farm bill.
New challenges for incoming secretaries
Plan 2025, a transition plan developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation and backed by many Trump supporters, calls on Congress to narrow the scope of USDA's activities and refocus the department's mission on food production superior. That means cutting programs in other areas, such as farmland protection, or moving them to other agencies, as the plan suggests nutrition programs like SNAP.
But because USDA serves so many constituencies, including all those rural towns that now receive funding from the department, I believe the new secretary will have a hard time capitulating to policies that conservatives demand that are limited to the farm fringe.
USDA also faces broader challenges. These include an ongoing outbreak of bird flu, which has forced farmers to cull millions of chickens and turkeys since early 2022 and is now spreading among dairy cows, threatening dairy workers and the safety of the nation's milk supply.
The broader issue is food costs, which are motivating voters in the 2024 election after inflation during the Biden administration led to historic increases in food prices. Trump acknowledged the importance of the issue, saying, "I won on the border, I won on groceries."
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwDRASw7DRQ[/embed]
Many experts believe there is little the USDA can do to directly lower food prices. Still, the next secretary will need to manage public and White House expectations. If Trump's mass deportation plan affects many farm workers, it could put upward pressure on food prices.
Finally, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has a lot to say about what USDA should do. Kennedy made widespread calls to get America back to health, an idea Trump seemed to embrace.
Among other things, Kennedy harshly criticized "Big Food," referring to the large food and agricultural corporations that produce much of the U.S. food supply. He supports limiting SNAP purchases of healthy foods, eliminating ultra-processed foods and banning toxic pesticides. If Kennedy is confirmed, he will likely have Trump's ear as USDA discusses key issues.
This story is part of a series of profiles on cabinet and senior executive positions.