Rollins calls Texas ag official ‘absurd’ amid worm threat

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Monday called Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller “reckless” after he criticized the USDA’s response to the growing threat from the flesh-eating New World Screwworm.

Miller, who lost the Republican primary in March in a bid for a fourth term despite winning the endorsement of President Donald Trump, has repeatedly criticized the USDA’s response after the pests were discovered in Texas last week. He pointed out that the federal department has done very little to stop this pest and ignored the response he was pushing.

At a news conference Monday in Texas about the USDA’s response, Rollins was asked about Miller’s recent assertion that farmers won’t report crime on their farms out of fear that the government will quarantine people.

“That’s a ridiculous comment, possibly by an ag commissioner who doesn’t care about the next few months,” he said of Miller. “And it’s a very dangerous proposition.”

The disagreement between Rollins and Miller is pitting top agricultural leaders in the country and in the province affected by the disease. And it comes as the Trump administration races to contain the screwworm, which threatens to deplete an already weakened cattle herd and drive up beef prices.

Rollins, also a Texan, criticized Miller in an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” earlier Monday.

“It’s very unfortunate what the Texas commissioner said, I’ve known him for a long time,” said Rollins. “He lost his first team as a substitute a few months ago, and he’s had a lot of crazy ideas for a long time.”

Underscoring the controversy is the fact that Miller, a former rodeo cowboy who had been considered for Cabinet positions in the Trump administration, was endorsed by Trump just months before he lost his first post to Gov. Greg Abbott-endorsed candidate, Nate Sheets. Miller has been a longtime Trump operative, once threatening to go after “RINOs” — short for “Republican in name only” — who “slipped the rope” in the 2024 election, and his criticism is a rare rebuke of the Trump administration from allies.

Endorsing Miller, Trump said he is “a MAGA Warrior who has been with me from the beginning.”

Miller’s dispute with the USDA over screwworm began soon after the first case was discovered last Wednesday. In a lengthy statement, he said Rollins and his department have moved “slowly and relied only on a small solution that takes years to fully implement.”

He urged the USDA to implement the Screwworm Adult Suppression System, or SWASS, which was developed in the 1970s and includes insecticides and sterile flies. USDA currently uses sterile flies.

Miller appealed to Trump directly, asking him to “take direct control of this response” and “deploy SWASS immediately, and throw every available federal resource into this threat before it becomes a full-blown agricultural disaster.”

The USDA urges any cattle producer who finds screwworm to report it immediately, as it runs to contain the insects, which can kill cattle if left untreated. The parasites are spread by a fly that lays eggs in an open animal wound. The eggs hatch into larvae, which then feed on the flesh of the infected animal.

Infestations are treatable if caught early, and the pest was eradicated in the US in the 1960s. It does not represent a threat to food safety.

The USDA currently uses its own screwworm playbook, similar to the one used to exterminate the pest in the past. That includes detention facilities, increased surveillance, surveillance and access. The USDA also releases sterile flies, which mate with female flies and produce sterile eggs, to eradicate this pest.

The USDA is rushing to ramp up production of sterile flies, and Rollins on CNBC said the administration is working at “Trump’s pace” to deal with the worm. That includes establishing a new sterile fly production facility and opening a new dispersal facility earlier this year.