Agriculture Secretary Pushes Farm Bill on Visit to Wisconsin Dairy
After yearslong delays, farm bill scheduled for vote in Congress this week.
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins shakes hands with U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, during visit to dairy farm in Onalaska on Monday, April 27, 2026. Hope Kirwan/WPR
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said a new farm bill will help Wisconsin farmers.
The secretary visited a Wisconsin dairy farm Monday to promote the Trump administration’s actions on farm issues. At a private roundtable, she met with dairy farmers, cranberry growers and others from the state’s ag industry.
Speaking to the press after the event, Rollins highlighted President Donald Trump’s support for whole milk, including his signing of legislation to add whole milk back to the National School Lunch Program.
She also pointed to new trade deals negotiated by the Trump administration that she claimed will open up export opportunities for U.S. agricultural products. But Rollins did acknowledge the negative impact retaliatory tariffs have had on Wisconsin cranberry growers.
Rollins voiced her support for the farm bill, a package of agriculture- and food-related legislations expected to get a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives this week. She pointed out that several major programs like crop insurance were previously updated in last year’s reconciliation bill.
“What this current farm bill represents is the addition: what we need to do to strengthen crop insurance, what we need to do to make sure we have the right labor rules on the ground so that our farmers can actually have labor that can work year round, things like that,” Rollins said.
She said congressional leaders have been “resolute and relentless” in making sure a farm bill “stays front and center for all Americans.”
Farm bill programs are typically updated every five years, but Congress failed to pass a new package in 2023 and 2024.
USDA Secretary Brook Rollins, center left, speaks with a group of Wisconsin farmers during visit to the state on Monday, April 27, 2026. Hope Kirwan/WPR
Rollins was joined by U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, who said the farm bill was “going to pass” a vote on the House floor this week.
Van Orden told reporters that legislation to allow the sale of higher-ethanol fuel, called E-15, during the summer months is not in the farm bill. But he said federal lawmakers are working on a separate bill to continue year-round sales, which are currently allowed because of federal waivers from the Environmental Protection Agency.
“We’ve been working on a piece to make sure that is solidified,” Van Orden said. “I want our farmers not to have to wring their hands every year thinking, you know, are they going to get a waiver or not?”
The USDA has been through significant changes under the Trump administration. The agency lost thousands of workers across the country during the administration’s move to downsize the federal workforce last year. And leaders recently announced several reorganization efforts that would relocate hundreds of jobs outside of Washington, D.C.
Rollins celebrated the changes, saying they “meet the moment the president outlined” by moving federal workers into other parts of the country.
USDA Secretary pushes for farm bill passage during visit to Wisconsin dairy was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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So mention some bs about whole milk but no mention of Republican efforts to shield chemical giant Bayer, maker of “RoundUp” weed killer, from lawsuits?
(regarding the issue, from a CNBC webpage dated 4-27),
“The court (Supreme Court) will hear a case Monday (4-27) to decide whether federal law preempts state-level lawsuits alleging glyphosate, the chemical in Bayer’s herbicide Roundup, causes cancer. And the U.S. House is expected to take up the farm bill this week, a massive agricultural policy measure that includes new protections for the chemical”.
(from Congresswoman Chellie Pingree’s press release dated 4-22 regarding the “Pingree-Massie Protect Our Health Amendment”)
“Republicans’ Farm Bill, which is expected to be taken up by the House next week, includes provisions that would shield chemical manufacturers like Bayer from lawsuits and would preempt state and local warning label laws or usage regulations for potentially harmful products”.