Optimism on New USDA Leader, Cabinet

Republican President- Elect Donald Trump has nominated former White House aide Brooke Rollins to be his Secretary of Agriculture as he prepares to move back into the White House in Washington, DC National Cattlemen’s Beef Association President and Wyoming rancher Mark Eisele is cautiously optimistic about Rollins taking the reins of the federal agriculture department.

“She's not a deep-seated producer in that sense, but she is sensitive. She has kids that show steers, which actually sounds pretty good. She can be sensitive to her things. The traceability rule will actually affect her kids. But more importantly, we think she's, for lack of a better term, she's trainable. We can actually show her the rec course and back it up with science and numbers and facts so that she can make good decisions and that she has good people underneath her to help make good decisions. We were limited in our access to Secretary. Vilsack, this will be a refreshing and open book for us. We feel very positive about it at this point.”

Eisele also sees some positive things ahead for cattle producers in the second Trump administration,

“We're going to try to address everything. We're very optimistic, because it took him a while to learn how to operate in DC the last time. Now he knows who the players are, and we also have a better feel for who he's going to have for pointies and Cabinet picks, and we've already been working with them.”

The next session of the US Congress begins Friday.