Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Cindy Hyde-Smith begins putting her statewide experience to work on a national level today as an adviser on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s agriculture policy committee.
Hyde-Smith, who spoke to The Dispatch after addressing Starkville Rotarians Monday, said her acceptance of the advisory role was announced Friday and work begins with a conference call this morning.
“(Former Texas Gov.) Rick Perry is on there, and so is Forrest Lucas, of Lucas Oil. It’s a very well-represented group,” she said.
A full list of the committee’s members was not immediately available Monday.
Hyde-Smith, who has endorsed Trump and recently urged Republicans to unite behind the GOP candidate, said officials are still working to schedule a Trump rally on Aug. 24 at the Mississippi Coliseum.
The event is “on hold for the moment,” she said, as organizers work through logistical issues.
Hyde-Smith updated Rotarians on a number of agriculture-related topics, including her lobbying efforts against a U.S. Senate resolution that could again allow a flood of foreign, uninspected catfish into the country.
Congress previously tasked the Department of Agriculture with handling inspections, but the May approval of Senate Joint Resolution 28, authored by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, nullified the 2015 rule.
The previous rule, Hyde-Smith said, put global exporters on the same footing as local producers and enforced equally the high standards Mississippi catfish farmers have to meet with their product.
“The first two shipments were from Vietnam and had two strong carcinogens in them. They were denied,” she said of when the rule was implemented. “There were two shipments on the way from China that got to the port. When they found out they were going to be inspected, they turned around and literally returned to China. That spoke really loudly to me.”
Hyde-Smith said she traveled to Washington D.C. to lobby House lawmakers against passing the measure after the Senate approved the McCain resolution 55-43, with two not voting, on May 25.
Both Mississippi Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker voted against the measure.
“I was so caught off guard by this,” she said. “I’m thinking, ‘Why is (McCain) undoing everything we’ve worked so hard to get done?'”
The bill is not expected to gain traction in the House once lawmakers return to D.C., Hyde-Smith said.
“Mississippi is No. 1 in the country in catfish production. Why would we give a foreign country that advantage? Plus, this is what we’re feeding our children. We want safe imports that face the same standards that … Mississippi farmers abide by,” she said. “I don’t think they’ll bring (the bill) out.”
Hyde-Smith was first elected agriculture commissioner in 2011 after representing District 39 in the Senate for 12 years.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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