{"id":138905,"date":"2025-03-17T05:26:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T05:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/agriculture\/usda-faces-lawsuit-and-congressional-action-over-funding-freeze-and-cancellations\/"},"modified":"2025-03-17T05:26:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T05:26:23","slug":"usda-faces-lawsuit-and-congressional-action-over-funding-freeze-and-cancellations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=138905","title":{"rendered":"USDA Faces Lawsuit and Congressional Action Over Funding Freeze and Cancellations"},"content":{"rendered":"


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With a broad pause on grant funding still in place across many USDA programs<\/a> and grant cancellations beginning to roll out<\/a>, the agency is now facing a lawsuit and pushback from Congress.<\/p>\n

Today, the environmental group Earthjustice sued the USDA<\/a> on behalf of five farms and three nonprofit organizations over the freezing of funds allocated through former President Biden\u2019s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). (A previous lawsuit<\/a> over frozen IRA funds targeted the Trump administration more broadly.) Researchers at the University of Illinois recently estimated<\/a> farmers stand to lose $12.5 billion if those funds are not delivered as promised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump administration\u2019s unlawful actions are hurting communities across the country. This is not government efficiency. It is thoughtless waste that inflicts unwarranted financial pain on small farmers and organizations trying to improve their communities,\u201d Hana Vizcarra, senior attorney at Earthjustice, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

At the same time, a group of Democrats in the Senate are sending a letter<\/a> to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins asking her to reinstate the two local food programs USDA canceled earlier this week, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, shared with Civil Eats a legislative amendment he\u2019s prepared that would order the USDA to honor its signed contracts with farmers. The amendment directs the USDA to immediately \u201cunfreeze funding for and implement all contracts entered into by the Secretary prior to the date of enactment of this Act\u201d and to pay past-due amounts on contracts as rapidly as possible. It also prohibits the cancellation of \u201cany signed contract with a farmer or an entity providing assistance to farmers, unless the farmer or entity has failed to comply with the terms and conditions of the contract.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n