During Tuesday’s Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee hearing, Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) questioned Luke Lindberg, nominee to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, about staff cuts at the United States Department of Agriculture.
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00:00Senator Welk. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Delighted to be here. Mr. Lindbergh, really enjoyed our visit in the office and, of course, quite proud of you and your family connection to Vermont, in Norwich, Vermont, where I live. So, welcome.
00:20Second, I want to acknowledge your experience is really quite perfect for the job for which you're being considered. So, I want to acknowledge my respect for the work you've done and what you bring to this.
00:33But third, and this is where it gets really tough for me, my view on these tariffs is that they're catastrophic for the farmers. And that's based on roundtable discussions I've had with many Vermont farmers.
00:47We import a lot of our fertilizer from Canada, in many cases our grain. And the dilemma I have is the dilemma you'll face. You can be the best negotiator possible, but if there are administration policies that make an uphill climb, an up-mountain climb, how are you going to deal with that?
01:12You have no control over the tariff policies, but those are hammering our farmers in Vermont right now, and I suspect, all across the country. So, how do you deal with that?
01:24Yeah, thank you, Senator, and appreciate, again, our time together.
01:26I believe that President Trump has demonstrated an ability to sign and execute new trade agreements. In his first term, he signed significant bipartisan trade agreements, including USMCA, and 50 total agreements that supported over a million jobs.
01:44And so, my faith is in the fact that we are going to get better deals for farmers, and that's what he's tasked me to do.
01:49And I think through those deals, there will be a boon to our farming economy.
01:53All right. I understand you don't have any say or influence over the tariff policy.
01:58You just have to deal with the deck, the hand you're given.
02:02But I do, as I expressed to you privately, say publicly, I think these tariffs are going to make your job much more difficult,
02:08and the day-to-day economics of our farmers much more difficult.
02:13Second, the USDA, Vermont farmers love it. It really has a great reputation.
02:21It's a lean and mean machine, and we're seeing cuts in the number of staff, and I object to that, and they don't seem to have any rhyme or reason.
02:33But the foreign assistance folks are also getting cut.
02:38So, how are you going to contend with doing a very demanding job, a very important job,
02:44with these significant staff cuts that appear to be taking place within USDA?
02:50Yes. So, Senator, since I have not been in the building yet,
02:53I can't comment on administration policy related to staff plans,
02:58and I've not seen anything public about cuts at this time to the Foreign Agricultural Service
03:02or the organizations I'll oversee in this capacity.
03:07What I will say is that my experience working with the Foreign Agricultural Service staff
03:12and the Codex staff in my past capacities is that they do provide a very valuable service
03:18and have done, generally speaking, a very excellent job globally to represent our farmers and ranchers,
03:24and I look forward to working with them in this capacity.
03:26Well, you're going to, you have a very hard job, assuming you're confirmed for it,
03:32and it appears that some of these forces are going to make it more difficult, but I wish you the best of luck.
03:38Mr. Westhill, equal opportunity, you're totally committed to it.
03:44You're an incredible example of what can be done where you work hard
03:48and overcome whatever obstacles face you, but also, obviously, you have some sensitivity
03:54that the deck is stacked in some ways much more significantly for some people than others, correct?
04:02Senator, certainly people are disadvantaged.
04:04There's no doubt about that.
04:05Right, and there's a real administration opposition to DEI,
04:10and from a distance, it appears oftentimes that that means if the white person didn't get the job,
04:19there's suspect about whether there's been preferential treatment.
04:22That's been an action that's been taken by the administration.
04:25What's your observation about the administration action so far about DEI on university campuses,
04:33going after law firms, going after private entities that really, in my view,
04:39shouldn't be subject to the willful action of the executive?
04:45Senator, thank you very much for the question.
04:47I'm not familiar with the specific example that you cited in terms of the white person getting the job.
04:52Paul Weiss, I mean, these are law firms where the administration is saying
04:58that they don't like their hiring practices.
05:00Sir, what I've noticed from the outside, what I've observed,
05:04is that the president has put together what I think is a very bold agenda for civil rights advancement.
05:11Anything that goes against the advancement of civil rights as it exists in the law will not be tolerated.
05:18The executive orders, for example, that I've read, once again,
05:22not seeing what the implementation is like inside the administration yet.
05:28If I'm fortunate enough to be confirmed, I will be able to evaluate that.
05:31But it looks to me like anything that is discriminatory,
05:35the president has said that is going to be prohibited.
05:39And that is exactly what civil rights laws are meant to do.
05:42Okay. Thank you very much.
05:44I yield back.
05:44Thank you very much.