Skip to content
RollCall logo

Staff

Olivia M. Bridges

The Latest From Olivia M. Bridges
Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., leaves the Capitol Hill Club after a meeting of the House Republican Conference on Sept. 18, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

House farm bill action delayed until February

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted January 7, 2026 at 2:19pm
A worker stocks Angus beef top-sirloin filets in the meat section of a grocery store in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 25.

Lawmakers push to reimburse food stamp benefits lost to theft

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted December 26, 2025 at 7:00am
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., speaks during a news conference in the Capitol on Sept. 17, 2024.

House clears whole milk for school menus

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted December 15, 2025 at 6:06pm
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., conduct a news conference in the Capitol on Oct. 31.

Rollins says USDA will withhold food stamp funds from blue states

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted December 3, 2025 at 4:18pm
Michael Selig, the nominee to be chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, at his appearance Wednesday before the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Senate Agriculture advances Selig to lead CFTC

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted November 20, 2025 at 3:07pm
Michael Selig, the nominee to be chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, waits to testify during his confirmation hearing in the Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday.

Senate Agriculture plans Thursday vote on CFTC nominee

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted November 19, 2025 at 6:14pm
A worker stocks Angus beef top-sirloin filets in the meat section of a grocery store in Washington.

US drops reciprocal tariff on Argentine beef, plans to boost quota

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted November 13, 2025 at 7:32pm
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has twice been ordered by a federal court to tap funds for food stamps that her department had said couldn't be used for the purpose. The administration on Friday appealed the latest order, but the department also said it would pay the benefits. Rollins appears here with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., at a news conference on Oct. 31.

Supreme Court stays lower court orders for USDA to pay November SNAP benefits

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted November 7, 2025 at 7:15pm, Updated at 10:08pm
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday the USDA would help states pay reduced food stamp benefits even as the president was saying they wouldn't be paid until the shutdown ends.

Spokesperson contradicts Trump comment on food stamps

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted November 4, 2025 at 1:18pm, Updated at 2:06pm
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins greets a girl who sold her a flower at a vendor at the inaugural Great American Farmers Market on the National Mall on Aug. 4. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is behind her.

USDA says it can’t use contingency fund for food stamps

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted October 24, 2025 at 8:42pm
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins speaks to reporters at the White House on Thursday. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

USDA’s Rollins says food stamp funding to dry up in two weeks

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted October 16, 2025 at 6:16pm
The Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, the current headquarters of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is seen on July 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

HUD uses website to blame ‘radical left’ for looming government shutdown

By Olivia M. Bridges and Mark Schoeff Jr.
Posted September 30, 2025 at 3:36pm, Updated at 5:36pm
Silos at terminal 86 grain facility with the Space Needle in the background in Seattle. The U.S. agriculture trade deficit is expected to rise above $45 billion in 2025, according to the Agriculture Department.

Amid court review, Trump says tariff revenue can aid farmers

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted September 25, 2025 at 5:46pm, Updated September 29, 2025 at 10:40am
From left, ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., attend Thursday's Senate Appropriations Committee markup in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

First three fiscal 2026 appropriations bills pass Senate

By David Lerman and Olivia M. Bridges
Posted August 1, 2025 at 8:16pm
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins conducts a news conference to announce the National Farm Security Action Plan and “discuss actions being taken to protect American agriculture from foreign threats,” outside the USDA Whitten Building on July 8.

Agriculture Department to shift more than half of DC workforce to field

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted July 24, 2025 at 4:12pm
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins argues that California’s law has led to a “partial segmentation in the national pork market” resulting in higher consumer prices.

Republicans ready assault on California animal welfare law

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted July 23, 2025 at 3:53pm
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., right, and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., do TV interviews in the Capitol on Wednesday. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Vibe shift in House as Trump, GOP leaders begin to flip votes

By David Lerman, Sandhya Raman, Olivia M. Bridges, David Jordan and Lia DeGroot
Posted July 2, 2025 at 7:30pm
President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., talk with reporters after a House Republican Conference meeting on the budget reconciliation bill in the Capitol on May 20.

CBO sees lower deficits from tariffs, but with big caveats

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted June 4, 2025 at 2:57pm
“It’s going to take a lot more of these kinds of conversations, ultimately, to get to an understanding that 99 percent of the House Republican Conference can agree with,” Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., shown in February, said Tuesday.

House GOP drops some Medicaid cuts from reconciliation plan

By Jessie Hellmann, Sandhya Raman and Olivia M. Bridges
Posted May 6, 2025 at 10:47pm
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., led the effort to block the measure.

Senate rejects resolution to stop tariffs in tie vote

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted May 1, 2025 at 6:21am
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is seen in the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 13, 2024.

California sues to stop tariffs levied under economic emergency

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted April 16, 2025 at 5:16pm
House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., defended President Donald Trump's aggressive trade policy Wednesday just as he was abandoning it.

As Republicans defend trade agenda, Trump changes course

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted April 9, 2025 at 8:17pm
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer testifies during the Ways and Means Committee hearing Wednesday on the trade agenda.

Trump pauses reciprocal tariff on more than 75 countries, raises levy on China

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted April 9, 2025 at 2:27pm, Updated at 4:56pm
Sen. Susan Collins, one of four Republicans to back the resolution ending the national emergency on the northern border, arrives at Senate Republican lunch Wednesday. She cited the cost of tariffs on her home state of Maine.

Four Republicans help Democrats pass measure to end Canadian tariffs

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted April 2, 2025 at 7:45pm
Vehicles awaiting shipment are parked at a port Thursday in Yokohama, Japan. President Donald Trump announced his plan to impose a 25 percent tariff on imported automobiles.

Trump adds 25 percent tariff to car, light truck imports

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted March 27, 2025 at 10:44am
Alvaro Bedoya disclosed his firing from the FTC on the social platform X. "The president wants the FTC to be a lapdog for his golfing buddies," Bedoya said.

Trump fires Democratic FTC commissioners Slaughter, Bedoya

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted March 18, 2025 at 7:39pm
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, seen at her Senate confirmation hearing in January, said farmers need relief from the avian flu and consumers need affordable food. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

USDA $1B plan for bird flu, egg prices includes imports, ‘backyard chickens’

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted February 26, 2025 at 4:14pm
Jamieson Greer was confirmed Wednesday as the U.S. trade representative.

Senate confirms Greer to be the US trade representative

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted February 26, 2025 at 1:02pm
Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., became House Agriculture ranking member as the majority Republicans seek steep cuts to food stamps.

Craig, on defense over Democrats’ agriculture priorities, eyes Senate run

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted February 26, 2025 at 9:04am, Updated at 10:33am
Brooke Rollins was confirmed Thursday as Agriculture secretary.

Rollins confirmed as Agriculture secretary

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted February 13, 2025 at 12:21pm
Jamieson Greer, the nominee to be U.S. trade representative, testifies to the Senate Finance Committee last week.

Senate Finance advances Greer to be US trade representative

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted February 12, 2025 at 12:56pm, Updated at 2:11pm
Jamieson Greer, the nominee to be U.S. Trade Representative, testifies during his Senate Finance Committee hearing Thursday.

USTR pick Greer would open markets to offset tariff retaliation

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted February 6, 2025 at 3:08pm
Brooke L. Rollins, the nominee to be Agriculture secretary, testifies during her Senate Agriculture Committee confirmation hearing on Jan. 23.

Senate Agriculture advances Rollins to be Agriculture secretary

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted February 3, 2025 at 7:40pm
Howard Lutnick, nominee for secretary of Commerce, takes his seat for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Wednesday.

Commerce pick Lutnick defends tariffs, funding freeze

By Valerie Yurk and Olivia M. Bridges
Posted January 29, 2025 at 3:55pm
Brooke Rollins, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be Agriculture secretary, testifies to the Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday.

USDA pick Rollins to ‘follow and listen’ to farmers on deportations

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted January 23, 2025 at 4:13pm
Steelworkers attend a rally in support of the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel in Clairton, Pa., on Dec. 12.

Biden blocks Nippon purchase of US Steel

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted January 3, 2025 at 10:10am
Kelly Loeffler, a former Republican senator from Georgia, is President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the Small Business Administration.

Trump chooses former Sen. Kelly Loeffler for SBA

By Mark Schoeff Jr. and Olivia M. Bridges
Posted December 4, 2024 at 7:07pm
Brooke L. Rollins, the president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, has been tapped to be Agriculture secretary in the second Trump administration.

Trump’s USDA pick could focus on foreign investments in agricultural land

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted November 27, 2024 at 9:32am
Trucks wait in a queue Thursday to cross into the U.S. at the Otay commercial crossing port in Tijuana, Mexico.

Countries criticize Trump tariff plans, which could flout trade pacts

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted November 26, 2024 at 3:02pm
Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., is the second-most senior Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee.

Costa to challenge Scott as top House Agriculture Democrat

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted November 20, 2024 at 4:51pm, Updated at 5:42pm
Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who is retiring at the end of this Congress, said the farm bill text released Monday is "my vision."

Senate farm bill differs from House on CCC, food stamp benefits

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted November 18, 2024 at 4:59pm
President-elect Donald Trump's proposed tariffs are expected to bring similar retaliation from China that dealt a heavy blow to exports in 2018 and 2019.

Trump’s tariffs seen delivering a repeat blow to US farm exports

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted November 14, 2024 at 4:16pm
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., center, looks likely to become the top Democrat on Senate Agriculture next year, working with Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., right, now the ranking member. Chairwoman Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., left, is retiring.

Boozman, Klobuchar lined up to follow Stabenow on Agriculture

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted November 1, 2024 at 3:34pm
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., left, introduced the bill on Chinese garlic, and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., right, offered the bill on seafood.

Chinese garlic and seafood at US military bases? Republicans think that stinks

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted October 28, 2024 at 10:56am
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the energy project funding would help farmers expand their operations and cut energy costs.

USDA offers clean energy funding, including swing-state projects

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted October 21, 2024 at 4:44pm
Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, and his teammate, Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., center, serve up their concoction at Anheuser-Busch’s Congressional Brewing Competition at Nationals Park on Wednesday night.

Nunn, Budzinski offer a signature brew in beer contest

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted September 19, 2024 at 6:15am
House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., left, said the White House action mirrors committee legislation. Ranking member Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., said Congress still has to act on comprehensive legislation.

White House says Congress has to act on ‘de minimis’ tariffs

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted September 16, 2024 at 11:20am
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at the Farmfest agricultural forum in April 2023 in Morgan, Minn.

Harris’ VP pick Walz backed farmers during time in Congress

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted August 6, 2024 at 4:55pm
Jon Arizti Sanz works in a Massachusetts lab on May 14 testing milk purchased at area grocery stores for the presence of bird flu.

Health officials report more Colorado workers infected with bird flu

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted July 30, 2024 at 5:46pm
House Agriculture Chairman Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., is pushing to rein in food stamp costs and curb climate change funding.

Food stamps fight

By David Lerman and Olivia M. Bridges
Posted May 28, 2024 at 4:05pm
House Agriculture Chairman Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., left, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack speak before a committee hearing in March, 2023.

Vilsack says House proposal threatens farm bill coalition

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted May 22, 2024 at 12:46pm
House Agriculture Chairman Glenn "GT" Thompson, R-Pa., has scheduled the farm bill markup for Thursday.

Thompson’s animal welfare, whole milk priorities in farm bill

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted May 20, 2024 at 11:17am
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., speaks during a news conference after the senate luncheons in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, April 9, 2024.

House, Senate farm bill summaries show SNAP, climate division

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted May 1, 2024 at 1:41pm
The highly contagious bird flu virus can impact both domestic and wild birds and is deadly to poultry.

Lawmakers gather information after Texas bird flu case

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted April 4, 2024 at 2:52pm
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., stops to speak to reporters as she arrives for the last votes of the week in the Capitol on Jan. 12, 2024.

In Congress and courts, a push for better care for trans prisoners

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted February 21, 2024 at 6:30am
House Agriculture Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson isn't saying when he expects to bring a farm bill to the committee.

Lawmakers wrangle over rescissions from 2022 law for farm bill

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted February 7, 2024 at 5:30am
California Democratic Rep. Sara Jacobs is part of a congressional coalition hoping to overhaul current privacy laws to give consumers more agency over their personal data, including the right to delete their information.

Lawmakers look at data privacy in post-Dobbs world

By Olivia M. Bridges
Posted September 28, 2023 at 6:00am
Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., makes a statement prior to a closed-door Ways and Means Committee meeting to review additional evidence submitted by IRS whistleblowers regarding allegations of misdeeds by President Joe Biden and his family in the Longworth House Office Building on Wednesday.

Ways and Means votes to release more Hunter Biden documents

By Olivia M. Bridges and Laura Weiss
Posted September 27, 2023 at 5:42pm
Remote testimony can boost witness diversity, Democrats argue, but Republicans are rolling it back. Above, Ways and Means members prepare for a hybrid meeting in 2021.

As Republicans end remote testimony, Democrats worry about diversity

By Olivia M. Bridges and K. Sophie Will
Posted February 8, 2023 at 1:51pm