A representative for U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) told a group of Brookhaven and McComb Rotarians Thursday that she sees positive change ahead under the Trump administration.

Hyde-Smith was scheduled to speak at the weekly meeting of the Brookhaven Rotary Club, but missed to be with her 87-year-old mother who was undergoing emergency gallbladder surgery in Jackson.

Anna Thames, her field representative, who is also from Brookhaven, read a text from the senator in her place.

“Things are going incredibly well in Washington, D.C.,” Hyde-Smith wrote. “I’m very excited about things we are getting done. I’m so impressed with the cabinet members I’ve had the privilege to work with. Good things are happening.”

The meeting was also attended by members of the McComb Rotary and Brookhaven Servitium clubs.

In the text Thames read, Hyde-Smith related the change-over in administrations to cleaning out a closet. “You have to pull everything out and create a mess before sorting and organizing begins. The end result is refreshing and certainly beneficial,” she said.

Thames used Hyde-Smith’s notes to share that agenda she planned to present to the clubs. Hyde-Smith, who sits on the Agricultural Committee for the Senate, planned to share updates for farmers.

She has been working on the 2025 Farm Bill that will go into effect Oct. 1.

“The outlook for US agriculture is a little grim right now, to say the least,” Thames said. 

Hyde-Smith helped craft the 2018 Farm Bill, which included provisions she authored pertaining to rural economic development, better crop insurance for flood-prone regions, Chronic Wasting Disease research, and forest health. The senator wants the 2025 Farm Bill to update the nation’s policies to meet current challenges to agriculture.

Thames said farmers are likely to be facing another challenging year in 2025 like they’ve had in ’23 and ’24.

However, Hyde-Smith anticipates the USDA will announce opening applications for the $10B supplemental and market loss assistance that was provided by Congress in December, Thames said. Congress provided this assistance to agricultural producers for disaster relief and row crop producers who suffered market related losses as well, Thames explained.

“Senator Hyde-Smith worked really hard to secure this funding and she hopes that it will keep our farmers afloat to operate for years to come,” she said.

Thames said that when speaking to Hyde-Smith about the current atmosphere in DC, the senator said, “We’re in a dust storm right now, but the dust is going to settle and we’ll be better on the other side of it.”

Thames said Hyde-Smith is excited to be working in this Congress and has a close relationship with President Trump and works well with him.

Hyde-Smith won a six-year term in November 2020, following her April 2018 appointment to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by long-time U.S. Senator Thad Cochran and subsequent November 2018 special election victory to complete his term.

In the 119th Congress, Hyde-Smith serves on a number of key Senate committees, including the Committee on Appropriations, the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and the Committee on Rules and Administration. 

Prior to becoming a U.S. Senator for Mississippi, Hyde-Smith served as the Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce, elected in 2011 and reelected in 2015.

Hyde-Smith and her husband Mike reside in Brookhaven where the fifth-generation farming family raises beef cattle and are partners in a local stockyard auction market in Brookhaven.

Story by Donna Campbell