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Rollins: no aid until government shutdown ends

Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins says more details on farmer assistance from the Trump administration isn’t likely until the U.S. government reopens.

“The president has committed, if we need a bridge, he has talked about that to get us from the Biden years to the new Trump era. That’s what we’re working on every day. We have to get the government reopen so we can move forward on that. Once we do, we’ll be able to move out a significant program to help farmers.”

At President Trump’s Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Rollins said the U.S. farm economy is in an uncertain time, not because of the current trade negotiations “although, certainly, China is part of that, but we inherited a slew of issues. As the president said, when we left Trump 1, we had an ag trade surplus. When came back for Trump 2, we had a $50 billion ag deficit. That’s not everything, it’s just agriculture.”

She says input costs increased between 30 to 38 percent in the last four years.

Long-term, Rollins says U.S. farmers need markets to sell their products.