Food aid funding fury By GRACE YARROW 10/27/2025 10:00 AM EDT |
Q U I C K F I X
— Funding for major anti-hunger programs is set to run out this week, adding to shutdown tensions on Capitol Hill.
— The Trump administration is facing a beef policy dilemma, with the needs of ranchers pitted against one of the president’s top campaign promises.
— Senate GOP’s appropriations hopes are being held up by an unlikely suspect: hemp.
IT’S MONDAY, OCT. 27. Welcome to Morning Agriculture. I’m your host, Grace Yarrow. Send your Halloween costume plan (bonus points if it’s ag-related!) to gyarrow@politico.com. Don’t forget to follow us at @Morning_Ag for more from your favorite ag team.
DRIVING THE DAY
FUNDING CLIFF: Funding for the country’s top nutrition programs is set to run out by the end of the week.
The Trump administration said in a memo that it can’t tap backup funds to keep those programs operating,imperiling benefits for tens of millions of people just before the holiday season, when hunger rates and need forfood aid typically spike.
The looming funding cliff is adding to partisan fights on Capitol Hill and pressure to reopen the government orpass a nutrition program funding patch. But it’s not clear what lawmakers can do to avert pausing theSupplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other programs on Nov. 1. SNAP wasn’t immediately hit by theshutdown, which started Oct. 1, because benefits for the month had already been allocated.
Without any federal intervention, the start of November will be the first time SNAP benefits have ever lapsedbecause of a shutdown.
What USDA is saying: The Food and Nutrition Service website now displays a banner blaming Democrats forfailing to fund SNAP.
“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program,” it said. “Bottom line, the wellhas run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection pointfor Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilationprocedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive criticalnutrition assistance.”
What Dems are saying: Meanwhile, congressional Democrats and anti-hunger advocates are still calling onUSDA to use backup funds to keep the SNAP program afloat, arguing the federal government legally must usecontingency funds to provide funding.
Democrats are citing federal law illustrating that the fund, which holds roughly $5 billion, receives congressionalappropriations with the intention that the money will keep nutrition programs going if needed. USDA’s since-deleted shutdown contingency plan originally included plans to use the contingency fund to keep providingSNAP benefits if a shutdown threatened the program.
The top Democrats on the House Agriculture and Appropriations committees — Reps. Angie Craig (D-Minn.)and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), respectively — lambasted the determination Friday, saying, “Congress alreadyprovided billions of dollars to fund SNAP in November.”
“This is perhaps the most cruel and unlawful offense the Trump administration has perpetrated yet — freezingfunding already enacted into law to feed hungry Americans while he shovels tens of billions of dollars out thedoor to Argentina and into his ballroom,” they said in a statement.
Sharon Parrott, a former OMB official who is now president of the left-leaning Center on Budget and PolicyPriorities, also argued that the administration is legally required to dip into the backup reserves to fund SNAP.
“It could have, and should have, taken steps weeks ago to be ready to use these funds,” Parrott said in astatement. “Instead, it may choose not to use them in an effort to gain political advantage.”
Personnel changes: Two Trump appointees who oversaw the delivery of food aid are stepping down just asthose programs are running out of money, as yours truly scooped Sunday.
James Miller, administrator of USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services, has “decided to pursue a new opportunity”at the Department of Health and Human Services, according to internal communications obtained byPOLITICO. Babs Hough, a senior policy adviser who worked under Miller, is also leaving the department for arole at HHS, according to two people familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity to share privatedetails.
Until USDA names a replacement, Deputy Undersecretary of Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services PatrickPenn will serve as acting administrator of FNS, according to the internal message sent Thursday.
AT THE WHITE HOUSE
LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL? Farmers and commodity groups are closely watching President DonaldTrump’s trip to Asia as administration officials promise progress on securing new markets for U.S. ag exports.
In separate Sunday interviews on NBC, CBS and ABC, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said trade negotiationswith China have been very productive. The talks were in anticipation of Trump’s planned meeting with ChinesePresident Xi Jinping this week.
“I believe when the announcement of the deal with China is made public, that our soybean farmers will feel verygood about what’s going on, both for this season and the coming seasons, for several years,” Bessent said onABC.
Read more from our David Cohen here.
Related reading: The United States announced finalized trade deals Sunday with Cambodia and Malaysia thatcontain provisions aimed against China, as well as progress with two other countries in the region: Thailand andVietnam.
The U.S.-Vietnam “framework” agreement announced Sunday provides few details, which farmers will be eagerto see, but also noted the two sides will continue to work in coming weeks to finalize the pact.
Our Doug Palmer has more here.
WHY IS EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT BEEF? The Trump administration is acutely aware of a loomingpolitical vulnerability: beef.
In just the last month, Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration with the high beef prices U.S. consumers areseeing in grocery stores, promising “a deal” to “bring the price down.”
The near-term solution to boost supply — which includes plans to purchase 80,000 metric tons of beef fromArgentina per year, quadruple the typical quota — has spurred intense backlash from farm-state Republicansand agriculture industry groups that say they have felt burned by several Trump administration policies in recentmonths.
Trump’s election was fueled, in part, by concerns over high costs, an issue the president often hammered on thecampaign trail as he promised food prices would fall if he returned to the White House.
Ten months in, he and his top aides are scrambling to keep that pledge, calculating that in the short term, it’sworth antagonizing ranchers, a loyal GOP constituency that benefits from elevated beef prices, if they can bringdown costs for consumers.
“The agricultural community is baffled by the president’s decision to focus on beef with everything else we’redealing with in agriculture right now,” said one agriculture industry lobbyist, granted anonymity to speakcandidly.
Read the full story from Myah Ward and your host here.
ON THE HILL
FIRST IN MA: Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led 19 other Senate Democrats,including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in asking the Trump administration to reconsider its bailout forArgentina amid stressful economic conditions for farmers.
“Instead of prioritizing U.S. farmers and rural communities, the Administration has doubled down on aidingArgentina when family farmers are running out of time and cannot continue to endure short-sightedinternational actions instead of long-term trade stability,” the senators wrote to Bessent.
As you’ll recall: The Treasury secretary’s announcement that the administration would bail out Argentina, tothe tune of $40 billion, came the same day that Argentina sold shiploads of soybeans to China — previously U.S.farmers’ top soybean export market.
That move, coupled with Trump’s promise to purchase more beef from Argentina, angered several farm groupallies who complained the president isn’t prioritizing U.S. producers.
CANNABIS 2025
WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE MINIBUS? Senate Republicans are looking to pressure Democrats into advancing apackage of some full-year spending bills that would include funding for USDA and the FDA.
But a monthslong fight over a regulatory “loophole” for hemp products is emerging as an impediment.
How we got here: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who successfully pushed to legalize hemp federally in the2018 farm bill, and Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who chairs the House Appropriations Ag-FDA subcommittee, arepushing Republican leaders to include new regulations on the burgeoning hemp industry.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has placed a hold on the minibus, and people familiar with behind-the-scenes talks sayhe is trying to use any leverage to keep a hemp crackdown out of the legislation, due to the number of hempproducers in his state.
“We’re doing our best to try to negotiate a compromise,” Paul told POLITICO in a brief interview. “But thenumbers that have been floated so far would completely eliminate the industry.”
MEANWHILE: State attorneys general are asking Congress to enact federal regulations that they say are neededto combat the growing dangers of “synthetic THC products” around the country.
In a letter obtained by MA, attorneys general from 39 U.S. states and territories asked Congress to step in tocombat what they call “Frankenstein THC products” and bad actors who have “nefariously misinterpreted”language included in the 2018 farm bill that federally legalized hemp.
MAHA MOMENT
MAHA’S LATEST DEMAND: USDA is facing new calls to make substantive changes to its programs as theTrump administration’s promise to Make America Healthy Again is largely leaving agriculture policy untouched.
A group of 115 farmers and advocacy organizations is pushing USDA to incorporate MAHA-inspired changes thatit says will better align the department with the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-led coalition at the core of Trump’s voterbase.
The group outlined its demands in a letter — obtained exclusively by POLITICO — sent to Agriculture SecretaryBrooke Rollins on Friday.
“We urge USDA to turn the MAHA vision into tangible results,” wrote the group, spearheaded by Farm Action,United We Eat and Moms Across America. It is also petitioning USDA to focus on the agenda it has laid out.