President Donald Trump says he’s still open to redistributing tariff profits to the public through a tariff “rebate.” That’s an idea that Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley has proposed.
“A lot of people … would like to see us do sort of a dividend to the people of our country,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday. “It's something I’d consider… I want to pay off debt, but there's a possibility I do a dividend.”
Trump had initially floated the idea ahead of his Scotland visit at the end of last month. Shortly after, Hawley introduced a Senate bill that would deliver $600 rebates to Americans. But the bill already has some opposition from the Senate’s fiscal conservatives, Semafor reported, and the idea is sure to find plenty more in the House Freedom Caucus.
Why it matters: During Trump’s first term, more than 90% of the tariff receipts went to farmers to offset export losses, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. This came in the form of $28 billion to offset lost exports, plus $33 billion during the pandemic in 2020.
Senate makes progress on FY26 appropriations
The Senate has agreed on a bipartisan, fiscal 2026 spending bill for USDA and FDA. That’s something of a milestone, given how few appropriations bills the Senate has moved in recent years, and how polarized the Senate has become.
But the new fiscal year starts in less than two months and lawmakers still have a long way to go to finish their FY26 bills. That’s going to be an especially tall order given White House plans to cancel more congressionally authorized spending, a prospect that has angered Democrats.
The FY26 Agriculture appropriations bill, which the Senate approved 87-9 on Friday, would provide $27.1 billion for discretionary spending accounts at USDA and FDA, up from $26.3 billion for FY25.
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The totals don’t include funding for mandatory programs, which include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, school meals, crop insurance and commodity programs.
Great American Farmers Market
Lindberg gets confirmed
Before breaking for its August recess, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Luke Lindberg to be USDA’s undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs.
Lindberg, whose nomination was approved 77-18, served as chief of staff of the Export-Import Bank during the first Trump administration. Since then, he has been a senior fellow with the Trump-aligned America Fist Policy Institute co-founded by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and is president and CEO of South Dakota Trade, which assists businesses in that state with trade issues.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is Lindberg’s father-in-law.
Take note: The Senate on Friday confirmed Brian Nesvik as the new director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, 54-43. Nesvik previously served as director of Wyoming’s Game and Fish Department.
Trump fires head of Bureau of Labor Statistics
Trump took swift action Friday after a disappointing jobs report: He fired the messenger, Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistic
Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins and Kelly Loeffler, administrator of the Small Business Administration, were among the crowds at the opening day of USDA’s Great American Farmers Market on the National Mall. Vendors included produce stands from Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, as well as sellers of shelf-stable products from Kansas, Wyoming, Utah, Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Illinois and Kentucky (Agri-Pulse photos: Allie Herring)s.
The president alleged BLS had made mistakes in previous reports that then needed to be corrected and had overstated jobs growth during the Biden administration in an attempt to aid Kamala Harris’s campaign.
“We need accurate Jobs Numbers,” Trump said on Truth Social, his social media platform. “I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.”
BLS routinely goes back and adjusts numbers from previous monthly reports based on new data, Trump’s former statistics chief said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“The commissioner doesn’t do anything to collect the numbers,” he said.
“The commissioner doesn’t see the numbers until Wednesday before they’re published,” he added. “By the time the commissioner sees the numbers, they’re all prepared.”
In addition to job numbers, BLS also prepares the Consumer Price Index, which tracks the cost of groceries.
Klobuchar, Hoeven revive effort to boost rural exports
Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn, and Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., have reintroduced legislation to spur rural exports to foreign markets.
The “Promoting Rural Exports Act” would create a new National Rural Export Center with up to nine regional centers across the country to share research and analysis to benefit rural exports. The proposal is modelled on an existing rural export center in Fargo.
“The Fargo-based center developed a successful model that is being replicated across the country,” Hoeven said in a statement published Friday. “Our legislation would ensure they continue to lead the way in expanding rural export opportunities and establish better coordination across similar efforts at the Department of Commerce.”
Livestock groups urge speedy start to new sterile fly facility
Some 178 state and national livestock groups on Friday asked Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to “immediately secure” full federal funding for the planned construction of a domestic sterile New World Screwworm fly production facility in Texas to prevent future outbreaks.
In a letter, the groups warned that producers across the nation are growing increasingly concerned about potential outbreaks as the screwworm moves north through Mexico. If the pest were to reach the U.S., the groups suggest national livestock losses could exceed $4.3 billion annually, with total economic damages surpassing $10.6 billion.
"Losses to the nation’s wildlife and livestock are not hypothetical,” the letter warns. "They are real, and they are preventable."
Groups that signed on include the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
Final word
“Studies show that the BLS is doing a better job now than they did 20 and 30 years ago…. I don’t think there’s any grounds at all for this firing.” – Bill Beach, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics during the first Trump administration.
Oliver Ward and Noah Wicks contributed to today’s Daybreak.
