Ag Policy Blog

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week he expects the administration to make an announcement Tuesday about aid to farmers who have lost sales to China due to the conflicts between the Trump administration and China. The aid package could be as high as $15 billion...

A new Labor Department rule lowers the Adverse Effect Wage Rate methodology for H-2A workers. The wage changes in the interim final rule published in the Federal Register will save H-2A employers $2.46 billion per year.

Health and Human Services (HHS) last year cited that 17% of individuals buying insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace are rural residents, or about 4 million people overall. Rural residents benefit heavily from premium tax credits that were increased in...

USDA's Lapse of Funding Plan spells out what positions and obligations at various agencies will continue to operate and which agency activities will be halted. All told, USDA will furlough 42,256 employees out of 85,907 total employees across the department.

USDA has not provided details about its shutdown plans, but the department did highlight some work will cease on Wednesday because farm-bill authorization has expired.

On Meet the Press, the Senate majority leader reaffirmed that farmers will need an aid package before the end of the year. He also defended the president's tariff policies and blamed China for refusing to buy U.S. soybeans.

In a wide-ranging speech, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins laid out an agenda for supporting crop producers while teasing plans to rebuild the U.S. cattle herd. In an immediate announcement, Rollins said the final $2 billion under the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program will...

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) has launched a task force to look at ways to lower production costs to be more in line with today's commodity prices. The group also continues to press officials to expand year-round E15 though there has been no real movement in...

The decision to end the annual survey of household insecurity comes just months after President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the largest cuts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the program's history.

The value of agricultural trade was rising the U.S., Mexico and Canada under the USMCA for all three countries until this year, though statistics show USMCA also has been a major factor in increasing the U.S. agricultural trade deficit.

In Congress, the chairs of both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees in recent days have made comments about rallying support among lawmakers for an economic package.

The trade agreement details some commitments to buy U.S. agricultural products, including rice, soybeans and biofuels. Japan already buys on average nearly $13 billion in U.S, agricultural goods each year.

In a news release, the National Association of Farmer Elected Committees (NAFEC) reiterated that FSA offices are critically understaffed, yet USDA officials have publicly denied those concerns.

The official release of the latest MAHA report mirrored a leaked copy from last month that backs away from criticisms of pesticide use by farmers. The report does tout agricultural investments in precision spraying with drones and repeatedly champions soil health...

Stakeholders now have until Sept. 30 to send their comments or questions about USDA's reorganization plan to a department email address. Some commenters want USDA to publish official comments through the Federal Register.

Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Vaden spoke to farmers and visited companies on Tuesday at the Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois. He talked about the need to open markets and increase demand for farmers, but also suggested further aid may be necessary to...

In a column, Beth Ford, president and CEO of Land O'Lakes, spotlighted the continuing loss of farmers and implied that trend could get worse with the low prices that have plagued grain producers.

The Risk Management Agency has released some details about crop insurance changes under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Among the bigger changes are reduced premium subsidies for beginning farmers.

USDA's Farm Service Agency has published a notice in the Federal Register detailing a change to the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) that opens some additional acres under double cropping now eligible for the program.

Officials go back and forth between taking a hard stance against Chinese involvement in U.S. agriculture, but also recognizing that farmers have come to rely heavily on that market. That was reflected by speakers at the Midwest Agricultural Export Summit this week.