WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced that USDA will release the first portion of funding that was paused due to the review of funding in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced late Thursday that USDA is releasing approximately $20 million in conservation contracts — specifically contracts for the Environmental Quality Incentive Program, the Conservation Stewardship Program, and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program. Those represent a small share of the dollars from contracts that ranchers and farmers have signed in the past two years, as the Biden administration boosted conservation funding tied to climate-smart agriculture.
The Trump administration has not provided details on how or when it will release more than $30 billion in economic and disaster aid passed by Congress in December. The $10 billion set aside for economic aid is expected to go out to ranchers and farmers by mid-March
According to Rollins, USDA funding was suspended because some of the funding went to programs that had nothing to do with agriculture. She blamed the Biden administration for “rushing out hundreds of millions of dollars of Inflation Reduction Act funding that was supposed to be distributed over eight years.
“This is the first portion of released funding, and additional announcements are forthcoming as USDA continues to review IRA funding to ensure that we honor our sacred obligation to American taxpayers—and to ensure that programs are focused on supporting farmers and ranchers, not DEIA programs or far-left climate programs,” said Rollins.
