Hi, everybody. Good morning. Do a couple questions. Yes, sir.
House Republicans, they're working on President Trump's big, beautiful bill. On the AG portion --
Yes.
-- seems like there are concerns about how the cost sharing on SNAP is going to go. I wonder if you have any thoughts on that, if you can explain how you think that process should play out?
Well, I appreciate that. Obviously, the president has a vision that -- and really, and almost entirely aligned Republican party behind him in the House and the Senate. We so look forward to delivering on tax cuts and deregulation, all the pieces of the president's economic vision. Clearly, as Secretary of Agriculture, I am very focused on it. I'll be testifying tomorrow in the House, actually the Senate tomorrow, the House on Thursday, to talk about the agriculture piece of it. A lot of people don't understand that the USDA, almost 80 percent of our big budget is the SNAP food stamp program, to your point.
And only about 15 or 20 percent is actually farming and ranching. So a big part of this, for my opinion, is that realigning USDA, obviously ensuring that the best parts of the food stamp, the SNAP program stay in place, that we continue to feed those and provide that supplemental nutrition to those who need it the most, but also ensuring that we're prioritizing our farmers and ranchers as we're moving forward.
Can you just -- if I can follow up?
Yeah, sure. Go ahead.
What would you tell Americans who rely on SNAP?
Yeah.
Should they be expecting potential cuts to those services?
So I think it's really important also to understand that on SNAP and on food stamps in the last administration, we had a massive influx of dollars, almost a 35 to 40 percent increase of the SNAP program under the Biden administration. That didn't necessarily mean more money to families. It just meant a massive new layer of bureaucracy, of NGOs, etc.
So as we are realigning and reforming the SNAP program in partnership with our great friends, GT Thompson, John Boozman, others on the Hill, that ensuring that as we are looking at that the money goes to what it was intended, that is a supplemental nutrition program for American families that need it the most.
And that's what we're really focused on.
Mrs. Secretary, on tariffs, to farmers who say they are feeling the impacts right now and wondering how long this is going to go on, when trade deals will be announced, what can you tell them about the timing?
Well, what I have been saying to our great farmers and ranchers, but especially our row croppers who are very much affected by the ongoing negotiations, that relief is in sight, that deals are being negotiated right now, that when the president says he's got 100 countries who are coming to the table, he is absolutely right.
Next week, I'll be in England discussing these things. A few weeks after, I'll be in Italy. Then soon after that, Vietnam and Japan and India. And I'm reflective of a larger cabinet effort on behalf of this president to get out into the world, to expand the markets. And with a few exceptions, for the most part, our agriculture community, our farmers and ranchers have been extremely gracious, supportive, excited and encouraged even in this time of uncertainty.
And I know we've seen the market fluctuate, our soy and corn farmers, especially some of our hog farmers especially. But at the end of the day, what we're doing is we're realigning an entire world economy around American products and that will affect our farmers and ranchers more than any other -- I believe more than any other American producer and whatever they're producing.
And so I'm actually so excited and I'm so encouraged and the conversations that I have had, which I obviously can't talk about here, have been incredibly encouraging with our partners around the world. And so I'm just so grateful to President Trump. I'm so grateful to Secretary Bessent, Secretary Lutnick to Jamieson Greer, who've been leading these efforts.
I think that there are major breakthroughs that will be announced very, very soon. Thank you all so much. Great to see everybody.
Thank you.