During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) spoke about the planned relocation of the USDA research service.
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00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Rollins, it is so good to see you here today. Thank you.
00:07I share your desire to realign and reprioritize resources across USDA to put our ranchers and our farmers first.
00:17This is especially important for USDA's Agricultural Research Service to ensure that we are funding innovative and high-impact research
00:28that benefits our farmers and ranchers. I've been working to secure funding for an ARS facility that's focused on innovative precision agriculture research
00:39that is co-located at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and I look forward to continuing to work with you on that facility
00:48to ensure we can have high-impact, high-priority research taking place there.
00:54You have also talked about having more USDA's workforce located closer to the people that they serve.
01:02And while no official announcements have been made, I think this would be a great step,
01:07and I know Nebraska would be a great location to relocate parts of USDA, like the Ag Research Service,
01:16giving our proximity to a number of strong land-grant institutions, lower cost of living,
01:22and strong existing relationship with the agency at the facilities I mentioned beforehand.
01:28Can you talk about your plans for relocating parts of USDA to the heartland,
01:35and how do you anticipate relocation efforts could save taxpayer dollars
01:40and create greater efficiencies for the agency itself?
01:45We are very close, I'll say in the coming weeks.
01:48You will hear a lot more about these plans.
01:50And I have really, I'm so grateful because I've gotten a lot of feedback from you and from others
01:56about potential locations around the country.
01:59What I'm most excited about in this realignment, though, is exactly how you outlined it, Senator,
02:04that we have to move, this is a customer service-oriented agency,
02:09and why do we have so many people in Washington, D.C.?
02:12And then you bring the forest part into that, and then the nutrition into that,
02:15and it just doesn't make as much sense.
02:17It will also be cheaper for the taxpayer, and the customer service agent will be closer to the people that they serve.
02:23So we are very in the weeds on that today, and an announcement is forthcoming.
02:27I appreciated your comments to Senator Moran about the FSA and keeping those local offices open.
02:36I am very well aware in rural communities across my state how important it is that farmers have that in-person access.
02:45And while we may be using technology in many areas,
02:50there's still, I think at this point in time, needs to be that face-to-face contact.
02:55I agree.
02:56Thank you for that as well.
02:57In Nebraska, we are also so proud of the work that's being done at USDA's Meat Animal Research Center at Clay Center.
03:07That is a strong relationship that the center has with our livestock producers in the state.
03:15Last month, both Nebraska cattlemen and Nebraska pork producers talked to me about how they valued the research that's being done there.
03:24The president's budget does call for cuts to ARS funding, but I think it's also important for us to make sure that the dollars that we do spend on research and facilities gets stretched as far as it can.
03:39Due to overregulation, you've touched on that in some of your answers.
03:43A lot of burdensome contracting requirements out there.
03:48Simple maintenance and upkeep costs end up costing sometimes three to four times more than they should.
03:58And this is especially true for unique research centers like US Mark at Clay Center, who operate, they are working farms, they are working ranches, they handle livestock on a daily basis.
04:13So would you agree that research done in collaboration with the livestock industry at US Mark's working farm and ranch is important?
04:24And would your team work with mine to ensure that the improvements that we make to ARS facilities don't end up dramatically costing more than it would for the private sector to operate those?
04:38I will, Senator, and I appreciate that and the great research that happens in Nebraska.
04:42A quick note on ARS. While we are decreasing the budget, it's $2.1 billion currently under the president's budget from Friday.
04:50It goes down to $1.9 billion. That's about a 7.5% decrease.
04:55And that's really focused on just some facilities that are way behind on repair and just out of date and not meeting the mark, obviously not yours in Nebraska.
05:07So that is a very targeted decrease in funding that shouldn't affect.
05:12We remain highly, highly focused on the priorities of ARS and ensuring those are funded.
05:17You know, I hope you can also look at that over-regulation that we have with contracting that I mentioned because a lot of times just those really simple maintenance, it does end up costing more and more and more.
05:33Where if we can, you know, you always hear about government regulation and how burdensome it is.
05:39And there's some good examples that we need to get rid of those good examples and make sure that we're dealing with common sense and in the real world to meet those lower costs that should be available.
05:53And the most important thing you can do is send us, have your team send us those examples and we'll get on it right away.
06:01Great. Thank you.
06:02Thank you, Senator.
06:03Thank you, Madam Secretary.
06:04Senator Heinrich.