Trump’s Federal Funding Cuts Could Make Farmers Foot Bills

The illegal federal funding cuts ordered by the Trump Administration continue to expand. It’s now been revealed that Trump is stiffing the farmers as well.

Among the freezes on payments that Trump ordered during his flurry of first-week executive orders and agency directives, he instructed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to stop making payments under programs authorized in the Inflation Reduction Act, including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Rural Energy for America Program.

Giving Farmers Debt

Under those programs, farmers paid up-front for the costs of installing conservation and renewable energy projects (like fencing, wells, new crops, and solar systems) under contracts with the USDA guaranteeing that they would be reimbursed for those costs. Now these farmers who acted in good faith are being left holding the debts without the guaranteed payments. Other programs halted by USDA include scientific research grants in agriculture and producing climate-smart crops.

In a letter to USDA, Democratic members of the House Agriculture Committee said, “To be clear, the people impacted by this funding freeze are hardworking, rural Americans and small businesses. These grant recipients operate on thin margins and were relying on these funds to continue critical research, operate their business, and support farmers. Pulling the rug out from these recipients runs counter to the mission of the USDA and will quickly and significantly cripple economic development in rural America, with a ripple effect that hurts businesses and jobs that indirectly benefit from federal investment. Reneging on USDA’s funding commitments and arbitrarily stopping grant funding without consideration of the impacts to the hardworking American citizens is reckless.” 

Secretary of Agriculture

The damage being done to rural Americans by these reckless actions underscores why the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) and others opposed Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Agriculture. Last week, Brooke Rollins was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the next Secretary of Agriculture.

“Across the nation, farmers and ranchers are already facing the devastating impacts of climate change as droughts, floods, heat waves, and storms jeopardize their livelihoods,” said LCV Healthy Communities Program Director Madeleine Foote. Newly confirmed Secretary Rollins “repeatedly denied the climate crisis and refused to acknowledge the science behind climate change,” continued Foote. “The Trump administration is already hurting farmers by cutting programs they rely on to feed our communities, and the Senate’s decision to confirm Rollins to lead USDA is just another strike against them. We urge Mrs. Rollins to prioritize the needs of our farmers in her new role to ensure they can continue to feed our families and serve as stewards of the land, now and for generations to come.”