Brooke Rollins Confirmed as Secretary of Agriculture

Brooke Rollins was confirmed by the Senate as secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Feb. 13 by a vote of 72–28. An advocate of family farms, Rollins was a Future Farmers of America state officer growing up. During the first Trump administration, Rollins served as assistant to the president for intergovernmental and technology initiatives and as a member of the Office of American Innovation. She was influential in passing the First Step Act, which sought to reform the U.S. prison system. Speaking ahead of the confirmation vote, Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, said Rollins’s executive leadership during the first Trump administration makes her “uniquely qualified to serve in this position and advocate for family farms.”...