Trump Budget Would Cut USDA Funding by $4.9 Billion

Progressive Farmer’s Chris Clayton reported that “President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for USDA again calls for making a nearly 20% cut to discretionary programs the administration doesn’t support.”

“The top line for the president’s budget released (this past) Friday is a $1.5 trillion request for Defense spending, while proposing to cut about $660 billion in non-military spending across the federal government,” Clayton reported. “For USDA, the budget requests $20.8 billion in discretionary budget authority for FY 2027, a $4.9 billion or 19% decline from 2026.”

“The 92-page top-line budget plan released by the White House focuses as much on what the Trump administration opposes rather than what the administration supports,” Clayton reported. “The proposal mentions ‘rural’ 12 times across all departments and agencies, but mentions ‘woke’ 34 times and ‘New Green Scam’ 21 times. Diversity, equity and inclusion ‘DEI’ are also mentioned 26 times while ‘transgender’ is mentioned 16 times.”

“In the executive summary of the USDA budget, the Trump administration calls the department ‘a bloated Washington, D.C., bureaucracy with multiple management layers and many extraneous programs that are irrelevant to supporting an America First agricultural policy,'” according to Clayton’s reporting. “The budget states it eliminates programs ‘such as radical transgender and Green New Scam ideologies.'”

E&E News’ Grace Yarrow reported, however, that the President’s budget is just a proposal and “Congressional appropriators have previously bucked Trump’s suggestions to cut USDA’s budget and focused on protecting funding for bipartisan programs. Last year, Congress rebuked Trump’s proposed $7 billion cut and 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.”

Ag Research Funding, International Food Aid Targeted for Cuts

Bloomberg Government’s Skye Witley reported that “the budget proposal would ax the Food for Peace program, which USDA operates on behalf of the now-shuttered US Agency for International Development, for ‘wasting taxpayer dollars.’ Trump also wants to do away with the McGovern-Dole Food for Education program, a second federal initiative to ship food aid abroad. The request asks Congress to rescind $1.2 billion and $240 million allocated to the respective programs.”

“Lawmakers proposed making USDA the permanent operator of Food for Peace in a House-drafted farm bill that advanced to the floor March 4,” Witley reported. “Congress has ignored Trump’s repeated requests to kill both programs, supported by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle because they allot billions of dollars to purchase crops from US farmers.”

Agri-Pulse’s Steve Davies, Oliver Ward, Kim Chipman, Sarah Gonzalez, and Noah Wicks reported that “one agency targeted in USDA is the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, whose approximately $1.07 billion budget would be cut by $510 million.”

“‘The budget significantly reduces formula grants that act as pre-determined earmarks for university pet projects,’ the request says,” according to Agri-Pulse’s reporting. “‘USDA research will instead be competitively awarded to projects in the national interest, as opposed to the woke radical left projects these grants previously funded.'”

Budget Reflects Recent and Continued Staffing Cuts

Clayton reported that “the budget shows USDA cuts in staffing for agencies such as the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) among others.”

“FSA employed 8,135 people in FY 2025, but that number declined to 7,320 people in FY 2026. The FY 2027 budget calls for 6,009 full-time equivalent staff positions. That’s a cut of more than 25% of staff over two years,” Clayton reported. “At NRCS, staff have dropped from 11,542 people in FY 2025 to 9,241 staff in FY 2026 with an equal number of staff for FY 2027. That’s an overall decline of 2,301 positions.”

Budget Requests Funds for USDA Reorganization

Witley reported that “despite broad cuts, Trump is requesting $50 million to implement the department’s reorganization, slated for completion by the end of 2026. The changes are pitched as a way to increase efficiency and ‘eliminate unnecessary bureaucratic layers.’ Critics have warned the relocation effort could hobble the department’s ability to oversee food safety or issue farm loans and crop insurance.”

Clayton reported that “along with reorganization funding, USDA will beef up its Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Coordination from $1.7 million in spending to $15.3 million. The Office would go from four full-time staff to 38 staff.”

Agri-Pulse reported that “the administration also proposes increasing the budget for trade enforcement efforts, as it did last year. It is seeking an additional $110 million for Commerce’s International Trade Administration, with $100 million going to efforts to stand up a ‘United States Investment Accelerator.'”