Proposed budget slashes USDA programs

Perdue and acting deputy secretary Mike Young talked to reporters, with Young addressing all questions related to the budget, which was put together by White House staff largely before Perdue took office a few weeks ago.

By the numbers

That proposal calls for a USDA budget for fiscal 2018 of about $18 billion, a drop from about $24 billion in the existing USDA budget. It would cut a number of programs and eliminate 5,263 USDA employees, or about 5.5 percent of the department’s total nationwide staff. The proposal also includes changes in the law which would lead to long-term cuts over the next 10 years.

The American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers Union, American Soybean Association and National Crop Insurance Services all were among the groups that quickly issued statements condemning large parts of the proposed budget.

For example, the proposal would cut crop insurance by $28.6 billion over 10 years by putting limits on the amount of money a farmer could receive and also on the size of the farm receiving that money.

Specifically, the proposed changes in legislation would limit the amount of crop insurance subsidy a farmer could receive to $40,000, which likely would lead to larger farmers getting less money on crop insurance or having to pay for a higher percentage of the coverage. The administration also proposes to limit crop insurance subsidies to farms with an adjusted gross income of $500,000 or less.

Conservation programs would also be cut. The Natural Resources Conservation Service budget would be reduced by about $83 million. The food stamp program — also known as SNAP — would be fully funded for the coming year, but changes are proposed that would lead to cuts in the following years.

Research spending would be cut by $425 million (out of a budget of about $2.5 billion). Of that, there would be a cut of $142 million from the USDA laboratory budget of about $1 billion, leading to the closing of 17 of the 90 USDA research labs nationwide, Young said.

In a dramatic move, the Trump administration proposed to eliminate several well-known international food aid programs, including the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, often referred to as an international “school lunch” program for children in poor nations. Former U.S. Senators George McGovern and Robert Dole were awarded the World Food Prize for their work in developing this program.

There is also no funding in the budget for the PL480 program, which is a conduit for much foreign food aid.

Negative response

Young said the elimination of much of the food aid budget “is keeping with the administration’s policies of America first.”

The response from farm organizations was overwhelmingly negative. While leaders from groups such as the Farm Bureau said they understand the need to balance the budget, they thinks cutting aid to farmers at a time when the farm economy is struggling is the wrong approach.

“The administration’s budget proposal fails to recognize agriculture’s current financial challenges or its historical contribution to deficit reduction,” American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall said in a statement.

American Soybean Association President Ron Moore, a farmer from Roseville, Ill., was blunt in the press release issued by his organization.

“By shredding our farm safety net, slashing critical agricultural research and conservation initiatives, and hobbling our access to foreign markets, this budget is a blueprint for how to make already difficult times in rural America even worse,” he said.

Moore said the cut to crop insurance would be a roughly 36 percent change.

“Thirty-six percent is the most extreme proposed cut to crop insurance I’ve seen in my 40 years on the farm,” Moore said.

Of course, farm leaders are quick to point out administration proposals of this type are not law, but simply the first step in the process. Congress is unlikely to approve this budget as is. Still, they expressed shock at the severity of the proposed cuts.