Agricultural groups continued to show outrage Wednesday over USDA grant funding that has been frozen by the President Trump’s administration as it continues its budgetary review of numerous federal agencies.
The Washington D.C.-based National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition issued its second sharply-worded news release in a week denouncing the freezes, some of which target conservation programs the administration promised last month would not be affected.
An Office of Management and Budget memo said any program that provides direct benefits to Americans is explicitly excluded from the pause and exempted from the review process. “Mandatory programs like Medicaid and SNAP will continue without pause. Funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell grants, Head Start, rental assistance, and other similar programs will not be paused,” the memo said.
NSAC said Wednesday it organized more than 130 farmers, ranchers and community advocates to hold meetings with key members of Congress – including House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders and agriculture appropriators - to call for urgent action on funding and the Farm Bill reauthorization.
NSAC said farmers and advocates from across the nation shared how continued uncertainty and confusion from USDA and Congress were impacting farms and communities.
“The new Congress must make it a top priority to immediately halt and rectify the ongoing federal funding freeze before there are irreversible and devastating impacts to farmers and communities,” said NASC Policy Director Mike Lavender.
“Farmers are delaying planting decisions and owed tens of thousands of dollars in contract payments for infrastructure the federal government agreed to support months ago. Organizations are laying off staff, canceling events and programs and halting critical community services for the hungry. This serves no one. It creates uncertainty, wastes money and destroys trust in the federal government.”
According to Reuters, one program targeted in the funding pause was the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities, where USDA said it is investing $3.1 billion in 141 projects to help farmers enroll in conservation programs.
The USDA released a statement Tuesday stating USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack had modified the longstanding SNAP obligation practice, alleging that Vilsack and Deputy Undersecretary Stacy Dean used a memo from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities as their guide to compromise the integrity of SNAP, said Kailee Buller, the USDA’s Chief of Staff. “The Trump Administration will immediately correct this egregious action, making certain material weaknesses like this do not happen again.”
POLITICO reported that eight GOP lawmakers said on Tuesday they aren’t worried about the impact of the pause of payments to farmers from conservation contracts and other programs, which haven’t resumed despite a court requiring that the money be spent as directed by Congress.
“It’s a temporary inconvenience for long-term improvement,” said House Agriculture Committee Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) who added that Senate confirmation of Brooke Rollins to lead USDA will help resolve the problems, POLITICO reported.
Rollins’ Senate confirmation hearing was to happen this week but has been pushed back numerous times. Her nomination was reported unanimously out of committee last week.
