Administration Wants USDA To Cut 30% Of Its Budget In 2026

POLITICO reports: Washington, DC -- 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. This more detailed release signals the spending priorities of the White House, which may not be fully embraced by Congress. The 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. 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. 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. And more: 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. And the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children would receive nearly $300 million less than it did last year. Read more on the budget plans from our Jordan Wolman here.