During Tuesday’s Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee hearing, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) questioned Devon Westhill, nominee to be Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Civil Rights, about managing staff at the United States Department of Agriculture.
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00:00Senator Talberville. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen, thanks for being here.
00:07Five alarm fire. We're in trouble. The Ag Department and us, we have a big
00:12chore in front of us. We're losing farmers every day. We lost 150,000 farms in the last four years.
00:18Our trade deficit is God awful. It's not acceptable. The Biden administration sat on their
00:23hands for four years, didn't do one trade deal, and it looked like they tried to put
00:28the farmers out of business on purpose. My God, I couldn't believe it. Senator watching it.
00:34We have got to do something. I get calls every week, we're going out of business,
00:38worst farmers have ever been. We can't do business as usual. Something has got to be done.
00:44And if we don't do that, we're going to lose them. It's going to be over and we're going to be buying
00:49every bit of the food that we eat out of this country. And we saw what happened during COVID.
00:55It was a disaster when we couldn't, we couldn't get drugs because China's only one to make drugs. So
01:00I'll get off my soapbox here and thank both of you for what you're going to try to do.
01:06Mr. Lindbergh, cotton has weakened due to the surge of low value textile imports of synthetic fibers,
01:14all from Southeast Asia. And they come through a $800 de minimis loophole and it's killing us.
01:24So President Trump's been working to close this loophole. Can you talk a little bit about that?
01:30Senator, thank you. I can. And I appreciate you spending some time with me in your office
01:33to discuss these issues prior to this. Enjoyed our conversation.
01:37Absolutely. President Trump has taken seriously based on the news reports I've seen, the de minimis
01:41exemption, which has been a tragedy for not only our cotton farmers, but also for manufacturers and
01:48a lot of other industries across America. I will absolutely work alongside and look forward to
01:53working alongside our interagency colleagues to make sure that those de minimis exemptions and
01:58things are held accountable and are following the law of the land. Our former governor is now at the
02:03Department of Homeland Security and looking to work with her team at Customs and Border Protection as
02:08well as one agency I hadn't mentioned yet. Thank you. Well, it sounds like a little thing,
02:13but all those little things add up to our farmers. They do. And, you know, we have got to get better
02:18commodity prices. If we don't, I mean, it's going to be over with for United States farmers.
02:23Mr. Westhill, how do you plan to approach and manage the USDA career staffers in the civil rights
02:31departments that do not support President Trump's agenda? Senator, I really appreciate the question.
02:36And I'll say, look, I think the career staffers that I worked with in the first term were many of
02:42them consummate professionals. In fact, one of them's here today supporting my nomination as one of my
02:48guests. He served as the chief of staff the entire time that I served in the first term. I think
02:52the important thing to do is to, you know, to put out a clear vision for what your plan is.
02:59I think the vast majority of the individuals who are in that office want to actually enforce civil
03:04rights. That's why they went into that office. And at the end of the day, it is a civil rights office,
03:09not a DEI office. And I think that the vast majority of those individuals will get behind
03:14President Trump's agenda, which is to advance civil rights. Team. Team USA. I mean, the only way we can make it,
03:21and we can't do it by pulling each other apart. Mr. Lindbergh, the Biden administration put U.S.
03:25cattle producers at a competitive disadvantage and endangered the American public by allowing
03:31imports of beef from Paraguay. This is ridiculous. Paraguay cattle producers do not have the same food
03:37safety standards as the U.S. Can you speak to USDA's plans to ensure sufficient due diligence is done in
03:44these inspections? Sir, thank you for the question. For me, in my role at USDA as the Under Secretary
03:53for Foreign Agricultural Affairs and Trade, that will be an effort by my colleagues. But I look
04:00forward to working with my colleagues and making sure that they have a timely market analysis and
04:04market intelligence on those exact issues. Thank you. Also, our peanut growers in my state, which is huge,
04:11and across the country have been at a competitive disadvantage in the marketplace due to non-tariff
04:17trade barriers on peanuts from alflatoxin in the European Union. I asked Mr. Vaden this when he came
04:25through a few weeks ago, and I'll ask you too. Would you commit to ensuring USDA and USTR work together
04:32on Trump's agenda to reduce trade barriers and prioritize market access for all of our farmers?
04:37I look forward to doing exactly that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.