Nice suit.
Thank you so much. Thank you. Great to be with you all. This is my first time back here at the White House. I think a lot of you know, I was here in the first term with the president's domestic policy agenda. But what an honor and great blessing. I was sworn in, Harrison, less than 24 hours ago, but we are already hard at work.
I'll leave here and head to Kentucky to a major farm show there and then we'll start moving around the country, but really glad to be with you all. Thank you.
Madam Secretary, I was --
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you so much for doing this. Can you talk about what the administration is doing right now to help Americans address the egg prices? How long do Americans have to wait to see prices come down on that front?
Yes, thank you for that question. Clearly, one of the -- the key issues facing all Americans right now is the price of food and grocery prices. I know President Trump and -- and what an honor to -- to represent his vision, even talked about this quite a bit while he was on the trail over the last few years.
We have seen the prices continue to rise. I of course was just sworn in less than 24 hours ago, but my very first briefing in my office last night was on this particular issue, was on the avian bird flu. We are looking at every possible scenario to ensure that we are doing everything we can in a -- a safe, secure manner, but also to ensure that Americans have the food that they need.
And as a mom of four, four teenagers actually, I fully understand and feel the pain of the cost of these eggs. So, we will be announcing more in the coming days. But just so you all know, I'm already in massive contact and lots of discussions with the team here at the White House, with teams across the federal agencies, but certainly with the extraordinary team and the bright minds at the USDA.
Madam Secretary --
Yes, ma'am.
-- thank you so much. Obviously, right now we're seeing a lot of mass firings across the federal government in a number of agencies. I know you talked about going to the farm show's one of your first orders of business, but are you laying off staff? And if so, how many and for what purpose?
Thank you for that question. Clearly, it's a new day. President Trump was elected, won every swing state, won the popular vote by a significant number of votes. There is a mandate and we, as his cabinet, those of us who've been confirmed, most of us now, the few that are left, our job is to implement that mandate.
I think the American people spoke on November 5th that they believe that government was too big, that it was no longer in many respects serving the people for which our founders intended, right? We're -- we're a government, a country based on self-governance. And so, what can we within the cabinet do within our agencies to ensure that that vision is enacted?
We -- this morning, I spoke to about 700 people I think were in the atrium to greet me as I came for the first full day. I was there last night. And I spoke this morning. I gave about ten minutes of remarks. Obviously, the vision of rural prosperity and getting our farmers and ranchers and our ag community back to profitable.
We're in the worst economic times for our farmers and ranchers than we've been in decades today. But part of that is making these government agencies more efficient, more effective and more aligned with the vision for which they were originally intended. So, we have welcomed, as I mentioned this morning, the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk with open arms.
We welcome their input into how we can do our job at the USDA better and how important it is to do so. To date, I think we've canceled almost 1000 trainings that were DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion, gender ideology focused. We've also begun the process of canceling a significant number of contracts.
And as far as the layoffs go, I don't have the exact number, but yes, those will be forthcoming as well. Yes.
Madam Secretary --
Yes, sir.
-- some of those farmers and producers, the Iowa Soybean Association says that about 1000 Iowa farmers are sort of locked out of about $10 million of payments that were promised contracts by the federal government and now the funding freezes on those programs. What assurances do you have to Iowa farmers and farmers throughout the Midwest that they will get paid or perhaps will they not because these contracts were from the previous administration?
Thank you for that question. There's a lot of questions right now amongst the agriculture community on where we are on the payments under the freeze. I am just getting my arms around that, but my commitment is that we will move so fast that if there are farmers that are indeed waiting for payments that have been committed to them, those will come through.
But at this moment, as we're reviewing almost a thousand contracts very quickly, through the night, on the weekends to ensure that everything we're doing is aligned with President Trump, but also continues to honor the commitments that we've made.
Thank you so much for being here. So, the President, you know, has been leaning into tariffs, become the word for this administration so far. And I'm hearing from you know the ag community that there is some concern on what the tariffs could mean for -- for farmers across the country. I was just wondering, you know, how do you plan to address some of those concerns with farmers, the industry?
Well, again, this is a -- a major issue and I -- I appreciate the question, especially in the agriculture community. As the president has long said, the tariffs and using those are a major tool in his toolkit to make America great again. And having been with him three years in the first term, your two, year three, year four, I watched first-hand as we hit numbers in employment and -- and job creation and housing and -- and poverty rates were lower than they'd ever been for almost every single category of Americans.
I watched firsthand at the skill that he was able to execute on ensuring that using those tariffs and putting America first literally did the job and we saw that. To your question on the ag community, there's no doubt, we all understand that the president believes that tariffs are part of that toolkit. They're a very important part.
He's already begun to execute on it. But that now and his heart and we've talked about it is ensuring that our ag community is made whole under any circumstance that -- that ultimately may compromise their ability to make money. We believe, could not believe more strongly. In fact, the first phone call I had after I was confirmed yesterday, even before I was sworn in, I talked to President Trump on the phone and we talked about this very issue.
But how important it was to him to assure our agriculture community that the best interests and the best days lie ahead for this community, even after especially the last four years of some of the hardest times that some of our farmers and ranchers have seen. So, I am acutely focused on this exact issue as we move forward.
Last question.
Madam Secretary --
Oh, I'm sorry, yes, sorry.
Thank you, ma'am.
You're in my line of sight. Sorry, I'm sorry, you go ahead.
Thank you. Just on SNAP real fast, can you expand on your plans to make that program and other food benefits programs more efficient like you said on your -- during your confirmation hearing? And then also, will DOGE be directly involved in that process?
I am not sure on the last part. I -- I am -- I would welcome DOGE to be involved. I think anytime that the government and massive government programs like the SNAP program which is our food stamp program, anytime you can get sort of a business perspective on, "Are we hitting our goals? What are the metrics?
What is the metric for success?" Oftentimes, these government programs are started with the idea that you're going to help people. It's not a handout, it's a hand up. And then years later, the government, the -- the programs are even bigger and you've got more people on them and -- and are we really giving people a hand up or is it instead a handout?
So, if we can have you know a -- a whole other group of really smart people looking at SNAP and other programs at USDA that will allow us to ensure, "What are our metrics for success? Are we meeting those metrics for success?" Will we ever take food out of a hungry child's mouth? Of course, not this is the United States of America.
But truly this program has grown so large, especially in the last administration. Under Biden, I think SNAP grew almost 30 percent more than before. We really have to look at where that money is going, what it is being spent on. I look forward to working with Bobby Kennedy as we figure out, do we have the healthiest choices?
So, when a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, do they -- are they OK with us -- them -- with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who perhaps need something more nutritious? So, these are all massive questions we're going to be asking and working on in the coming months and years, and I look forward to solving some of these major, major issues for this country.
Thank you so much.
God bless you all. Thank you so much, really good to be with you. Thank you all.