By Jacob Bunge 

The Trump administration's nominee to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture told Senators on Thursday that the federal agency will need to function more efficiently to cope with a smaller budget proposed by the president.

Sonny Perdue said during his confirmation hearing that he had "some concern" about President Donald Trump's proposal to cut the USDA's discretionary budget by one-fifth, to its lowest level since 1988. But he said Georgia did "more with less" when he was Georgia's governor and that U.S. taxpayers should expect the USDA and other federal agencies to run efficiently, even while laying out a role for the agency to tackle issues from immigrant workers to rural internet availability and opioid addiction.

"I view this budget similar to when, as governor, I got a revenue estimate I didn't like," Mr. Perdue told members of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry during one of the final confirmation hearings for a cabinet nominee. "I didn't like it, but you manage to it."

The Trump administration last week proposed cutting the USDA's discretionary budget by about one-fifth to $17.9 billion. The budget proposal raised worries among some in the Farm Belt, a key bloc in propelling Mr. Trump to the White House that faces a fourth consecutive year of falling farm incomes. A series of bumper crops in the U.S. and overseas has pressured prices for farmers' crops, and contributed to supply gluts of commodities ranging from wheat to beef and butter. U.S. net farm income is projected to fall this year to about half the record $123 billion farmers earned in 2013.

Mr. Perdue, who served as Georgia's governor from 2003 to 2011, arrived at Thursday's hearing with his extended family taking up much of the first two rows of seats, and much of the farm industry behind him. Last month, a coalition of nearly 700 U.S. agriculture and food groups called on the Senate committee to speedily approve Mr. Perdue, who they said could be one of just a few agriculture secretaries to have worked in the farm sector.

After two and a half hours of questions, the Senate agriculture committee's most powerful members said they would back Mr. Perdue.

"This is a nominee who not only knows agriculture, but cares about it," said Sen. Pat Roberts (R., Kan.), who chairs the committee. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.), the committee's ranking Democratic member, said that private conversations with Mr. Perdue had satisfied her questions on potential conflicts of interest and his views on climate change, and that she planned to support him. A confirmation vote has yet to be scheduled.

If confirmed, Mr. Perdue would oversee the agency's nearly 100,000 employees who run around 300 different programs. The USDA researches fertilizer use, evaluates genetically engineered seeds, regulates meatpacking plants and manages national forests. It promotes U.S. agricultural exports and runs the $71 billion Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, previously known as the food stamp program.

Mr. Perdue said he could manage the USDA on fewer resources even as he pledged to continue many agency initiatives. He said he would maintain existing efforts to combat opioid addiction in rural areas, push to boost broadband internet access in the countryside as part of the Trump administration's planned infrastructure plan, and look for ways for the school lunch program to continue to feed some children during summer months.

He also told senators that he would advocate for food exports overseas and within the Trump administration, which has criticized trade pacts backed by many in the farm sector. Mr. Trump in January withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership on trade, which had been supported by many farm groups, and he also plans to revamp the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which the agricultural industry said underpinned a boom in exports to Canada and Mexico.

Mr. Perdue said he's already discussed with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and other administration officials the importance of trade to U.S. farmers and ranchers. "Food is noble to trade," he said, though he said that U.S. producers of wheat, cattle and milk could benefit from a NAFTA revamp.

The former Georgia governor signaled he would continue to push on USDA environmental efforts, such as reducing damage to the Chesapeake Bay from runoff of nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers -- efforts that some Democratic committee members said were jeopardized by Mr. Trump's budget proposal.

"American agricultural bounty comes directly from the land," he said.

Mr. Perdue said he would to find a way for dairy farmers to secure stable immigrant labor, a long-running headache for cow milkers across the country. While produce farmers and even those who raise goats and sheep can get visas for foreign workers, dairy farmers -- whose animals typically need milking every day -- cannot. Mr. Perdue said he would emphasize to the Trump administration the need for a year-round program for dairy farmers, noting his father was a dairy farmer.

Write to Jacob Bunge at jacob.bunge@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 23, 2017 15:06 ET (19:06 GMT)