U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins poses for a photo with Oklahoma Agriculture Secretary Blaine Arthur, left, and Texas Agriculture Secretary Sid Miller, right.
Rodolfo Gonzalez | AP
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Monday called Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller “non-serious” after he criticized the USDA’s response to the growing threat of the flesh-eating New World screwworm.
Miller, who lost the March Republican primary for a fourth term despite winning President Donald Trump’s endorsement, has repeatedly criticized the USDA’s response after the parasitic insect was detected in Texas last week. He has argued that federal departments acted too slowly to contain the pest and ignored the response mechanisms they had put in place.
At a news conference Monday in Texas on the USDA’s response, Rollins was asked about Miller’s recent claim that cattlemen would not report any cases on their farms out of fear that the government would enforce quarantines.
“This is probably a very non-serious comment from a non-serious AG commissioner with only a few months left,” he said of Miller. “This is also a very dangerous suggestion.”
The rift between Rollins and Miller is effectively pitting the top agriculture leaders of the country and the state currently affected by the outbreak against each other. And it comes as the Trump administration is racing to control screwworm, which threatens to thin already weakened cattle herds and further drive up beef prices.
Rollins, himself a Texan, criticized Miller in an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” earlier Monday.
“What the Texas AG Commissioner is saying is very unfortunate, I’ve known him for a long time,” Rollins said. “He lost his primary to the incumbent just a few months ago, and he’s had a lot of crazy ideas in his mind for a long time.”
Underscoring the controversy is that Miller, a former rodeo cowboy who was once considered for Cabinet positions in the Trump administration, was endorsed by Trump just months before his primary defeat to Texas Gov. Nate Sheets, a Greg Abbott-backed candidate. Miller was once a longtime Trump surrogate Threat Going after the “RINOs” – shorthand for “Republicans in Name Only” – who “rigged the noose” in the 2024 elections, and his criticism is a rare rebuke of Trump’s administration from a close ally.
Endorsing Miller, Trump said he is a “MAGA warrior who has been with me from the beginning.”
Miller’s feud with the USDA over screwworm began shortly after the first cases were reported last Wednesday. in a long time statementHe said that Rollins and his department “moved very slowly and relied entirely on partial solutions that took years to fully implement.”
He urged the USDA to implement the Screwworm Adult Suppression System, or SWASS, which was Developed in 1970And mixes pesticides with sterile flies. The USDA is currently deploying sterile flies.
Miller appealed directly to Trump, asking him to “take direct control of this response” and “immediately deploy SWASS, and put every available federal resource into this threat before it becomes a full-blown agricultural disaster.”
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller takes a photo during an event to “Celebrate the Implementation of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans” at Health and Human Services headquarters in Washington, DC, on February 11, 2026.
Michael M. Santiago | getty images
The USDA is urging any cattle producer who discovers screwworm to report it immediately as it races to control the pest, which can be fatal to cattle if left untreated. This insect is spread through a fly that lays eggs in an open animal wound. The eggs hatch into larvae, which feed on the flesh of the affected animal.
If infection is detected early, it is treatable and this insect was eliminated from the United States in the 1960s. It does not represent a threat to food safety.
The USDA is currently implementing its screwworm playbook, as it was used in the past to eliminate the pest. This includes quarantine zones, increased trapping, surveillance and outreach. The USDA is also releasing sterile flies into the area, which mate with female flies and produce infertile eggs to eliminate the parasite.
USDA is racing to speed up production of sterile flies, with Rollins on CNBC saying the administration was working at “Trump speed” to address screwworm. This includes opening a new facility for the production of sterile flies and opening a new dispersal facility earlier this year.
