White House Budget Looks to Cut Nearly $7 Billion from USDA

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Politico’s Grace Yarrow reported that “the Trump administration is requesting $23 billion for USDA for fiscal 2026, a cut of nearly $7 billion from the current year, according to budget documents released late Friday.”

“The proposal follows President Donald Trump’s release earlier this month of his ‘skinny budget,’ which outlined proposals for billions of dollars in cuts to food, forest and conservation programs and increased funding for the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ initiative,” Yarrow reported. “This more detailed release signals the spending priorities of the White House, which may not be fully embraced by Congress.”

E&E News Marc Heller reported that “presidential budget requests typically don’t go very far in Congress, where lawmakers are less likely to embrace the most far-reaching spending reductions. But the Trump request reflects the administration’s priorities and offers some hints about planned agency reorganizations.”

Budget Details

“If Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and the Trump administration get their way, USDA would deeply reduce nearly all of the department’s major initiatives, from the Risk Management Agency to Rural Development to the Forest Service to the Office of Civil Rights,” Yarrow reported. “The budget request seeks to eliminate programs like the Source Water Protection Program, Dairy Business Innovation initiatives, direct loans for rural single-family housing, conservation technical assistance and the Rural Business-Cooperative Service.”

“The request aims to reduce the Farm Service Agency, which supports farm loans, conservation and disaster assistance, by $372 million. It would shrink the Natural Resources Conservation Service from $916 million to $112 million,” Yarrow reported. “The Forest Service would decrease from $16.8 billion last year to $4 billion, as Rollins looks to transfer wildland fire management appropriations to Interior to create a new U.S. Wildland Fire Service. USDA’s research arm would also take a budget hit.”

Agri-Pulse’s Rebekah Alvey, Philip Brasher, Noah Wicks, and Lydia Johnson reported that the budget request says that “USDA is at a pivotal moment where we can safeguard our country from fiscal ruin. Lower federal spending combined with the largest tax cuts in the history of our country, strong deregulatory actions, and tariff and trade realignment will set the stage for the next generation of American greatness.”

“The USDA budget summary lacks detail on proposed or existing staff levels but does project significant decreases in salaries and expenses at some agencies,” Alvey, Brasher, Wicks and Johnson reported. “Farm Service Agency salary and expense costs would drop from $1.5 billion to under $1.2 billion.”

Nutrition Programs Would Lose Some Funds

Yarrow reported that “the sweeping cuts would extend to other key areas. The budget request calls for cutting its SNAP funding allocation by more than half, along with child nutrition programs, as GOP lawmakers are looking to slash SNAP spending by up to $300 billion.”

Alvey, Brasher, Wicks and Johnson reported that “the budget request includes a reduction to the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program (WIC) that advocates say will lead to a significant cut to monthly benefits. The National WIC Association estimates monthly benefits for breastfeeding mothers would drop from $54 to $13 and young children’s benefits would drop from $27 to $10.”

“The budget would also roll back on the WIC fruit and vegetable benefit, which the group said goes against the administration’s goals to make the country healthier,” Alvey, Brasher, Wicks and Johnson reported. “‘This budget doesn’t just break promises; it takes healthy food off of children’s plates,’ said Georgia Machell, president and CEO of the National WIC Association in a statement.”