USDA defends $12 billion subsidy amid farm economy challenges

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Reuters

February 20, 2026 4:05 PM EST Updated 11 hours ago


ARLINGTON, Virginia/CHICAGO, Feb 20 (Reuters) - As the U.S. Department of Agriculture prepares to dole out $12 billion in government subsidies next week, officials and economists at the agency's annual forum near Washington defended the assistance as a necessary measure to prevent more farmers from financial ruin.

The two-day meeting this week in Arlington, Virginia, focused on a challenging farm economy that could see further headwinds after the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday struck down Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs that he pursued under a law meant for use in national emergencies. The ruling handed a stinging defeat to the Republican president, with major implications for the global economy and potential ripple effects on the U.S. farm sector.

WHAT USDA IS DOING

The Farmer Bridge Assistance program is expected to distribute $11 billion in one-time payments to farmers. It's a per-acre rate for those who planted one of the 19 commodity crops identified as being eligible for the program. Another $1 billion is slated for specialty crop producers.

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said Friday that the agency will open the application process ahead of schedule on Monday.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/usda-defends-12-billion-subsidy-amid-farm-economy-challenges-2026-02-20/

[eringer]

1. Source of Funds

The convicted felon at his news conference yesterday after the Supreme Court ruling that his tariffs were illegal said that the farm aid was coming from these illegal funds.

[UpInArms]

2. The tariffs destroyed all the trade agreements

and those will never come back. There are no incentives to ever trade with the US again. China will just go somewhere else.

The farmers fucked themselves with this.

[paleotn]

3. Going to do this every year? Farming isn't a one year gig ya know.

Window dressing that simply prolongs the inevitable. The overseas markets that drove US industrial Ag are gone. Brazil and Argentina happily filled the void left by Shitler's stupidity and those markets aren't coming back any time soon. More economic wreckage.

[EuterpeThelo]

4. I'm pissed

that MY tax money keeps REPEATEDLY going to "bail out" idiots that voted against not only their own interests but whose vote helped to unleash the current dystopian hellscape in which we're all living.

Didn't they learn a THING during the first maladministration? Oh, I guess not, because we bailed them out back then too.

As others have pointed out, this isn't a temporary problem anymore. The rest of the world is moving on without us, and who can blame them?

But then the problem becomes, if farms fail, who produces all our food? Just ConAgra (ick?)

What a cluster they've helped to create. SMDH.

[Prairie Gates]

5. Moral hazard

Isn't that their favorite concept? They voted for risky economic policy that they thought would eventually benefit them, but they don't have to pay for it. Where are the usual neoliberal assholes prattling on about moral hazard?

[azureblue]

6. once again

somebody else has to pay for Pedo Don's screw ups.

Us

[Stargazer99]

7. I wonder how many big ag corps bought out the small farmer-get ready for price increases

control of the market means more expensive food

[Martin68]

8. Exactly the same as Trump's first term, and just as predictable. 1) Levy high tariffs on the countries that import the

largest quantities of American agricultural products, 2) American farmers and their powerful lobby (all of the Trump supporters) loudly complain, and 3) implement billions in subsidies for American agriculture.