The farm bill, the president’s tariffs, and government restructuring dominated a House Ag hearing on the “Economic Crisis in Farm Country.”
The hearing fell on the same day President Trump signed a new executive order directing agencies to work with Elon Musk’s efficiency teams to cut their workforce and sharply limit new hiring.
USDA has nearly 100-thousand staff in 29 agencies at 4,500 locations here and abroad. The order followed others impacting farmers. Top House Ag Democrat Angie Craig.
“Consider grant dollars to farmers appropriated by Congress and already under contract with USDA have been frozen. Trade deals with our largest trading partners and largest export markets have been threatened. Food grown in America is rotting in a warehouse in Texas.”
Further complicating producers’ bottom lines as USAID is shuttered and half a billion dollars in food aid stalled. John Newton is head of the Ag research firm Terrain.
“Since 2022 and excluding government payments, U.S. inflation-adjusted net farm income has fallen by $43 billion, or 26 percent, to $138 billion in 2025. We are witnesses to historic volatility in the farm economy.”
That’s forcing tough talks with bankers and ever-tougher loan terms. Farmer and director of the Illinois Corn Growers and Illinois Corn Marketing Board Rodney Weinzierl urged a new farm bill, not more ad hoc payments to farmers.
“An Illinois farmer’s first priority is to derive profit from the market, not from the government. To that end, we consistently invest in and advocate for the U.S. government to invest in the development of three major markets—livestock, ethanol, and exports. Last year’s House committee farm bill included an increase in funding for foreign market development and the Market Access Program.”
But the fate of a new farm bill could be up to the budget committees, now tasked with finding billions in savings to fund the president’s priorities of border security, energy dominance, and extending his 2017 tax cuts.
-NAFB