Trump requests 19 percent cut to USDA

 

By TAMMIE SLOUP
FarmWeek 

President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2027 budget includes a nearly 20 percent cut to USDA.

The blueprint, which the White House sent to Congress on April 3, requests $20.8 billion in discretionary budget authority for USDA, which is a $4.9 billion decrease from the 2026 enacted level.

Trump also is urging Congress to pass a $1.5 trillion defense budget alongside major cuts to domestic projects.

The USDA cuts target research, rural business grants, ag marketing, foreign aid programs and rural community facilities loans, while Trump outlines investments in USDA’s reorganization plan and forest and wildfire management.

“The president’s budget focuses on the needs of American farmers and ranchers, which is predominantly to get the federal government out of their business while supporting the great American food supply,” the budget proposal states.

Proposed cuts include:

• The National Institute of Food and Agriculture Formula Grants would lose $510 million.
• The Rural Business Service would see an $82 million reduction. The service aims to create job opportunities and offers financial assistance, technical support and resources to help rural businesses expand, become more competitive and promote community development.
• The Agricultural Marketing Service would lose $61 million under the proposal.
• The McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program, which helps support education, child development and food security in low-income, food-deficit countries around the globe and purchases U.S. agricultural commodities from American farmers to support school feeding and maternal and child nutrition projects, would see a $240 million cut.
• The Food for Peace program, which has been transitioning to be under USDA’s jurisdiction, would be defunded. However, the farm bill proposal passed out of the House Ag Committee includes language to codify the Food for Peace move to USDA and authorizes $1.2 billion annually for the program.
• Community facilities grant earmarks would be slashed by $659 million under the plan.

Trump last year proposed a $7 billion cut to USDA but Congress instead funded the department at a similar level to the previous year as part of a November spending package negotiated to end the government shutdown.

The president’s budget is a non-binding proposal for outlining the administration’s priorities. Congress often uses the budget as a starting point. Through the appropriations process, Congress frequently deviates from this request, setting its own spending levels through 12 separate bills based on a Congressional Budget Resolution rather than the executive proposal.

This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.