The Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing Tuesday on President Trump’s nominations of Luke Lindberg to be agriculture undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs and Devon Westhill to be agriculture assistant secretary for civil rights.

Lindberg is the son-in-law of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., but Thune did not introduce him at the hearing and Thune’s name was never mentioned.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., introduced Lindberg and noted that Lindberg is Vermont native. But after moving to South Dakota, he recognized the need for an international trade organization and formed South Dakota Trade, of which he is president and CEO, Rounds said. In that position, Lindberg has led trade missions around the world.

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior fellow at the America First Policy Institute, which was founded by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

Lindberg holds degrees from the University of Maryland and served as chief of staff at the U.S. Import-Export Bank in the first Trump administration.

In his testimony, Lindberg said that, if confirmed, he will write the U.S. agricultural trade deficit of $49 billion on a board in his office and invite farm leaders to tell him how to reduce it.

Lindberg, whose job will be to promote U.S. agricultural exports and manage the Foreign Agricultural Service, said the ag trade deficit, “which is the worst in American history, is driven by a number of factors, but principally by the lack of an America First trade agenda that prioritizes market access for our farmers and ranchers.”

Lindberg testified that “75% of the seafood, over half of the fruit, and 35% of the vegetables we consume in America are imported. Our ethanol producers are no longer competitive in Brazil because of Brazilian import tariffs. Our hog farmers cannot export pork to Brazil, India, Nigeria, Jamaica, Namibia or Thailand. Mexico has enjoyed a 557% increase in specialty crop imports into the United States in just the last decade. Canada has rigged the USMCA agreement terms against our dairy and wheat farmers. The European Union is responsible for roughly half of our overall trade deficit, $23.6 billion, and yet it routinely shuts out our products at the altar of non-scientific based claims. There is too much to say about China in this set of opening remarks, but a stark comment that stuck out to me came from representatives of American corn farmers who said that ‘U.S. corn growers cannot rely on China as an export market.'”

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., told Lindberg that the USDA market development programs are “vital” to exports.

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., told Lindberg that “your experiences are perfect,” but that Trump’s tariffs “are catastrophic for the farmers.”

Other Democrats also expressed concern about the tariffs and staff cuts at USDA. Lindberg said he could not comment on administration personnel policy but that the FAS “has done an excellent job.”

Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Hoeven, R-N.D., told Lindberg that the sugar program is important and that farmers need an increase in the reference prices that trigger farm subsidies as well as “affordable” crop insurance. Hoeven also said the Commodity Credit Corporation is an important tool in aiding farmers.

Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., asked Lindberg: “What can do you do to make sure farmers are not caught in the crossfire” from the tariffs?

Lindberg replied that Trump has already started to work on that issue and that he will take a “strategic and targeted approach.”

Welch asked, “How are you going to deal with tariff policies? You have no control over tariffs.”

Lindberg replied that he believes Trump has shown an ability to do trade deals and that the president’s policy will be a boon to farmers.

Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., told Lindberg he believes Trump has “manufactured a trade war” that will send U.S. allies toward China. Georgia farmers, Warnock said, need both imported fertilizer and international markets for their products.

In his opening testimony, Westhill said he was “born a poor black child and raised in the South alongside my two siblings by our single mother,” but that he has “learned that in America the mere connection with race, color, or ethnicity, or one’s starting point in life will not permanently carry an individual forward unless he has individual worth nor finally hold an individual back if he possesses intrinsic, individual merit.”

Under questioning from Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Westhill agreed USDA has engaged in discrimination. Westhill also told Warnock he will support programs for the 1890s educational institutions.

Westhill, who served as deputy assistant secretary for civil rights in the first Trump administration, noted that “should the Senate confirm me as assistant secretary for civil rights at USDA, you may be surprised to learn, it will be only the first time since the Obama administration that a Senate-confirmed leader will have headed that office.”