Brooke Rollins introduced as U.S. agriculture secretary, outlines priorities including ending DEI and returning staff to offices

Brooke Rollins was introduced as the 30th U.S. secretary of agriculture at a morning event at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where she outlined immediate policy priorities including ending identity-based diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at USDA, returning employees to physical workplaces and working with the White House and Congress to focus USDA on core agricultural programs.

The acting official who introduced Rollins praised her background and described her as a “bold energetic leader” who will “chart an ambitious course for this great department,” noting Rollins’s experience in state and federal policy roles and her leadership of the America’s First Policy Institute. The introduction referenced recent work at USDA on executive-order compliance, an avian influenza response, protecting cattle markets at the southern border and wildfire and disaster response.

In her remar…