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President Donald J. Trump alongside U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman (AR), Senator Deb Fischer (NE), Senator John Hoeven (ND), Representative Austin Scott (GA), and farmers from Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas today announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will make $12 billion available in one time bridge payments to American farmers in response to temporary trade market disruptions and increased production costs that are still impacting farmers following four years of disastrous Biden Administration policies that resulted in record high input prices and zero new trade deals. These bridge payments are intended in part to aid farmers until historic investments from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), including reference prices which are set to increase between 10-21% for major covered commodities such as soybeans, corn, and wheat and will reach eligible farmers on October 1, 2026.<\/p>\n
Of the $12 billion provided, up to $11 billion will be used for the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program, which provides broad relief to United States row crop farmers who produce Barley, Chickpeas, Corn, Cotton, Lentils, Oats, Peanuts, Peas, Rice, Sorghum, Soybeans, Wheat, Canola, Crambe, Flax, Mustard, Rapeseed, Safflower, Sesame, and Sunflower. FBA will help address market disruptions, elevated input costs, persistent inflation, and market losses from foreign competitors engaging in unfair trade practices that impede exports. The FBA Program applies simple, proportional support to producers using a uniform formula to cover a portion of modeled losses during the 2025 crop year. This national loss average is based on FSA reported planted acres, Economic Research Service cost of production estimates, World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates yields and prices and economic modeling.<\/p>\n
Farmers who qualify for the FBA Program can expect payments to be released by February 28, 2026. Eligible farmers should ensure their 2025 acreage reporting is factual and accurate by 5pm ET on December 19, 2025. Commodity-specific payment rates will be released by the end of the month. Crop insurance linkage will not be required for the FBA Program; however, USDA strongly urges producers to take advantage of the new OBBBA risk management tools to best protect against price risk and volatility in the future.<\/p>\n
The remaining $1 billion of the $12 billion in bridge payments will be reserved for commodities not covered in the FBA Program such as specialty crops and sugar, for example, though details including timelines for those payments are still under development and require additional understanding of market impacts and economic needs.<\/p>\n
The $12 billion in farmer bridge payments, including those provided through the FBA Program, are authorized under the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Charter Act and will be administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA).<\/p>\n
To submit questions, justification for USDA farmer bridge aid, or to request a meeting on farmer bridge aid, producers can reach out to\u00a0farmerbridge@usda.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFour years under the failed Biden Administration continues to leave the American farm economy reeling from record inflation, a depleted farm safety net, and delayed disaster assistance. The lack of new trade deals under the last Administration turned a trade surplus under Trump into a $50 billion trade deficit, causing our farmers to lose markets and feel acute pain from lower commodity prices. President Trump will not let our farmers be left behind, so he directed our team to build a bridge program to see quick relief while the President\u2019s dozens of new trade deals and new market access take effect,\u201d\u00a0said Secretary Brooke Rollins<\/strong>. \u201cThe plan we are announcing today ensures American farmers can continue to plan for the next crop year. It is imperative we do what it takes to help our farmers, because if we cannot feed ourselves, we will no longer have a country. With this program serving as a bridge to the improvements President Trump and Republicans in Congress have made, it will allow farmers to leverage strengthened price protection risk management tools and the reliability of fair trade deals so they do not have to depend on large ad hoc assistance packages from the government.\u201d<\/p>\n Additional Farmer First Actions Taken by the Trump Administration<\/strong><\/p>\n In addition to $12 billion in bridge payments announced today, the Trump Administration has been working around the clock since January 20th to put American farmers first after inheriting one of the worst farm economies the country has experienced in decades. The following actions have been taken to date and together show historic investments and bold and unrelenting dedication to helping our nation\u2019s farmers thrive again.<\/p>\n Over $30 Billion in Ad Hoc Assistance Delivered to Farmers Since January 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (<\/strong>ECAP<\/strong><\/a>)<\/strong>\u00a0is helping farmers recover from the economic hardships of 2024. This program distributed more than $9.3 billion to over 560,000 farmers for soy, corn, sorghum, and other row crops.<\/p>\n Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (<\/strong>MASC<\/strong><\/a>)<\/strong>\u00a0is helping specialty crop producers recover from rising input costs and other market disruptions stemming from the Biden Administration. This program distributed over 1.8 billion in assistance to over 52,000 producers.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (<\/strong>SDRP<\/strong><\/a>)<\/strong>\u00a0is helping producers recover from severe weather events in 2023 and 2024. This program has distributed nearly $6 billion to over 388,000 farmers with up to an additional $9 billion to be distributed over the next four months.<\/p>\n Over $2.5 billion via\u00a0block grants<\/strong>\u00a0delivered to states and sugar beet and cane processors via block grants to cover losses from 2023 and 2024 that were left uncovered by existing USDA programs.<\/p>\n Trump Supported OBBBA Farmer Wins<\/strong><\/p>\n With the signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill in July, President Trump has made crop insurance more workable and affordable for American farmers and ranchers. Crop insurance is an essential risk management tool that allows American farmers and ranchers endure weather and market volatility. The bill increases crop insurance premium support for beginning farmers and ranchers by expanding the definition from five to 10 years of experience, enabling more producers to qualify for assistance over a longer period. These improvements will result in over $400 million in savings every year for America\u2019s farmers on insurance premiums.<\/p>\n For the first time in over a decade the statutory reference prices for the farm safety net programs, ARC and PLC, were raised by 10-21% for major commodities such as corn, soybeans, and wheat. Thanks to OBBBA USDA is also expanding eligibility for these price support programs by adding more than 30 million new base acres to the program making them eligible for future PLC or ARC payments starting in crop year 2026.<\/p>\n OBBBA extended the marketing assistance loan programs through 2031 and updated loan rates for major commodities beginning in the 2026 crop year, providing stronger loan rates for crops like wheat, corn, cotton and soybeans.<\/p>\n The bill included historic investments to the domestic sugar programs and USDA made them available starting October 1, 2025. The loan rate for raw cane sugar has increased to an average 24 cents per pound for the 2025 \u2013 2031 crop years, with refined beet sugar rates increased to an average of 32.77 cents per pound.<\/p>\n OBBBA invested in USDA\u2019s major conservation programs, including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP). These funds will result in over $34B in conservation work on agricultural land over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n OBBBA provides $285 million a year for agricultural trade promotion and facilitation. This is in addition to the existing $234M per year of funding for MAP and FMD. These dollars are key to opening and expanding foreign markets.<\/p>\n OBBBA included many important tax provisions for farmers and ranchers. Some of the most impactful provisions for agriculture are the permanency of the 20% qualified business income deduction, full bonus depreciation and the $15 million per individual estate tax exemption, now also indexed for inflation. With the current land values, equipment costs and input prices, even modest-sized farms can easily exceed that threshold, meaning upon the owner\u2019s death, far more family operations would face massive tax bills than previously estimated. A permanent bonus depreciation means that farmers can continue to write off the entire cost of new equipment, land improvements, new barns and other capital upgrades in the year of purchase, rather than depreciating them over many years.<\/p>\n Oversight on Competition & Farmer Input Costs<\/strong><\/p>\n On September 26, 2025, the USDA and the Department of Justice signed a\u00a0Memorandum of Understanding<\/a>\u00a0(PDF, 1.3 MB) that represents a joint commitment by both agencies to protect American farmers and ranchers from the burdens imposed by high and volatile input costs\u2014such as feed, fertilizer, fuel, seed, equipment, and other essential goods\u2014while ensuring competitive supply chains, lower consumer prices, and the resilience of U.S. agriculture and the food supply.<\/p>\n On December 6, 2025, President Trump signed an\u00a0Executive Order<\/a>\u00a0to stop price fixing, anti-competitive behavior, and foreign influence that drives up prices and threatens the security of America\u2019s food supply. This EO recognizes that sectors including seed, fertilizer, and farm equipment may be vulnerable to anti-competitive manipulation that result in higher prices for farmers and seeks to take aggressive action in part by the establishment of Task Forces created to investigate price fixing and anti-competitive behavior, especially regarding foreign owned entities.<\/p>\n These actions combined reiterate the Trump Administration\u2019s commitment to scrutinizing competitive conditions in the agricultural marketplace, including antitrust enforcement that promotes free market competition.<\/p>\n Lowering Farm Labor Costs through Deregulatory Actions<\/strong><\/p>\n Farm labor costs alone increased 47% since 2020 largely due to the high cost of utilizing the H-2A program to secure seasonal labor under the Biden Administration who artificially inflated Adverse Effect Wage Rates set by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) using USDA\u2019s Farm Labor Survey which was never designed to be used for setting government-mandated wage rates and is duplicative of other DOL data sources. As such, USDA discontinued this survey while DOL issued a bold new interim final rule which decreased wage costs for H-2A agricultural employers resulting in initial savings of at least $2 billion. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a final rule, effective October 2, 2025, to streamline the filing process for certain temporary agricultural worker petitions. These actions combined are making farm labor more affordable and more accessible for American agriculture.<\/p>\n USDA is Prioritizing the Purchase of Healthy U.S. Grown Commodities to Feed Those Most in Need through Section 32 Buys<\/strong><\/p>\n This year alone, USDA has provided nearly $1 billion in Section 32 purchases, all which benefit the charitable feeding network.<\/p>\n On November 24, 2025, Secretary Rollins\u00a0announced a $30 million Section 32 buy<\/a>\u00a0of American grown oranges, grapefruit, and mandarins.<\/p>\n On August 6, 2025, Secretary Rollins\u00a0announced a $2 million Section 32 buy<\/a>\u00a0of invasive Chesapeake Bay blue catfish.<\/p>\n On August 1, 2025, Secretary Rollins\u00a0announced up to $230 million Section 32 buy<\/a>\u00a0of Alaska pollock, catfish, apples, beans and cranberries.<\/p>\n On May 23, 2025, Secretary Rollins\u00a0announced a $67 million Section 32 buy<\/a>\u00a0of American groundfish, pears, cherries, shrimp and beans.<\/p>\n USDA will continue to buy Section 32 commodity purchases to support American seafood, fruit, vegetable, and tree-nut producers for distribution to U.S. food banks, schools, and other outlets serving low-income individuals. These actions support President Trump\u2019s vision to Make America Healthy Again through U.S. local farmer grown, healthy, and nutritious commodities.<\/p>\n This is the most pro-biofuels Administration in history<\/strong><\/p>\n President Trump recognizes how important the Renewable Fuel Standard is for American corn and soybean farmers. EPA Administrator Zeldin delivered the boldest proposed Renewable Volume Obligations ever that will provide much certainty in the market for our producers while delivering lower prices at the pump for consumers. The RVO will give the markets the incentive to invest in American products for American consumers and to export around the world.<\/p>\n EPA\u2019s decision to allow the summer sale of E-15 constituted 2025 year-round E15 and continues to deliver immediate relief to consumers, give more choices at the pump, and drive demand for corn grown, processed, and used right here in America. America\u2019s national security depends on our energy security, and biofuels are a crucial asset that brings more jobs and helps farmers in rural America.<\/p>\n