USDA Budget Cuts: FY2027 Proposal, Layoffs, and Food Aid

The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget would cut USDA funding by $4.9 billion, a 19 percent reduction in discretionary spending that brings the department to $20.8 billion, down from $25.7 billion in FY2026.1The White House. Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 20272Farm Policy News. Trump Budget Would Cut USDA Funding by $4.9 Billion The proposal, released April 3, 2026, targets agricultural research, international food aid, rural development, and Forest Service operations, and it would zero out funding for more than a dozen individual programs. It arrives after a year in which the USDA already lost more than 21,600 employees, and it now sits in front of a Congress that rejected many of the same cuts a year earlier.

What the FY2027 Budget Would Cut

The administration frames the department as a “bloated” bureaucracy and describes many of its programs as inconsistent with an “America First agricultural policy.”3Civil Eats. Trump Budget Request Cuts Nearly $5 Billion From USDA The largest single reductions in the request:

The Farm Service Agency, the office most farmers interact with directly, would continue at reduced staffing, with a target of 6,009 full-time equivalent positions, more than 25 percent below levels from two years earlier.2Farm Policy News. Trump Budget Would Cut USDA Funding by $4.9 Billion The budget also proposes using money from the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program to cover Natural Resources Conservation Service staff costs rather than delivering those funds to farmers doing conservation work.

Programs Zeroed Out

According to analysis by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, the proposal would eliminate discretionary funding entirely for more than a dozen programs, including:

  • Conservation Technical Assistance
  • The Farming Opportunities Training and Outreach Program, which includes the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program and outreach for socially disadvantaged and veteran farmers
  • The Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production
  • The Local Agriculture Market Program, covering Farmers Market Promotion and Value Added Producer Grants
  • The Healthy Food Financing Initiative
  • The Rural Energy for America Program
  • Rural Business Development Grants
  • The Organic Transitions Research, Education, and Extension Program
  • The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program6National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. FY2027 USDA Budget Proposal Is a Historic Setback for Farmers and Rural Communities5Argus Media. White House Proposes Cuts to USDA Budget

International Food Aid

Two eliminations carry the largest humanitarian weight. The budget zeros out Food for Peace, formally P.L. 480 Title II grants, funded at $1.2 billion in FY2026, and the McGovern-Dole Food for Education program, funded at $240 million.7USDA. FY2027 FAS Explanatory Notes2Farm Policy News. Trump Budget Would Cut USDA Funding by $4.9 Billion The administration argues the aid often takes months to arrive at high cost and disrupts local markets, noting that in 2023 only $37 million of the $197 million awarded under McGovern-Dole went to purchasing U.S. commodities; the rest went to shipping, distribution, and technical assistance.1The White House. Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2027

Congress protected both programs in the FY2026 spending deal. The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition called the proposed cuts “out of step with broad bipartisan consensus.”8U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. Proposed Cuts to Diplomacy and International Assistance Out of Step With Broad Bipartisan Consensus

SNAP and WIC

The proposal includes $147.5 billion in total mandatory and discretionary funding across the USDA’s 16 domestic nutrition programs.9USDA. FY2027 Food and Nutrition Service Explanatory Notes For SNAP, the president’s budget requests $101.2 billion in mandatory funding, down from $107.5 billion in FY2026. The House Appropriations Committee bill matches that lower figure; the Food Research and Action Center attributes the drop to policy changes enacted under the budget reconciliation law.10Food Research and Action Center. Agriculture Appropriations Bill

WIC would receive $8 billion, including a $500 million contingency reserve, to support an estimated 7.1 million participants.9USDA. FY2027 Food and Nutrition Service Explanatory Notes The budget would roll back the fruit and vegetable cash value benefit to pre-2024 levels: $10 per month for children and $13 for pregnant and postpartum women, down from current levels of $26 and as high as $52 respectively.11Food Research and Action Center. FRAC Analysis of President Trump’s FY27 Budget The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities warned that the House appropriations bill, which cuts WIC funding by $200 million compared to FY2026, risks forcing the program to turn away eligible families for the first time in three decades and would reduce fruit and vegetable benefits for roughly 5.4 million toddlers, preschoolers, and pregnant and postpartum participants.12Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. House Agriculture Bill Underfunds WIC, Cuts Fruit and Vegetable Benefit

Forest Service and Wildfire Response

The proposal moves wildland firefighting out of the USDA. Forest Service wildland fire management functions and funding would transfer to a new U.S. Wildland Fire Service inside the Department of the Interior, with a combined request of $6.91 billion.13Department of the Interior. FY2027 U.S. Wildland Fire Service Budget The Forest Service’s own wildland fire management and suppression reserve accounts would be zeroed out.14USDA. FY2027 Forest Service Budget Explanatory Notes

What remains of the Forest Service would receive $2.14 billion, with the National Forest System dropping from $1.86 billion to $1.42 billion. The proposal eliminates all funding for Forest and Rangeland Research ($309 million in FY2026) and for State, Private, and Tribal Forestry ($311 million).14USDA. FY2027 Forest Service Budget Explanatory Notes State Fire Assistance and Volunteer Fire Assistance, which together received $97 million in FY2026, would be replaced by a single Rural Fire Assistance grant program funded at $2.8 million, a 97 percent cut.15Office of Senator Padilla. Padilla Slams Proposed USFS Budget Request

The Forest Service also announced plans to close 57 of its 77 research stations across 31 states and consolidate them into a single organization based in Fort Collins, Colorado.16Stateline. Forest Service Plan to Close Research Stations Stokes Fear as Wildfire Season Approaches In California, six of eight facilities were identified for possible closure, including stations in Anderson, Fresno, Chico, Fort Bragg, Mt. Shasta, and Hat Creek.17U.S. Forest Service. Forest Service Reorganization The agency says research will continue and staff will be consolidated rather than eliminated. Former Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck called the research arm “one of the unsung heroes in forest management,” and Chandra Rosenthal of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said the consolidation would “dismantle” the agency’s capacity for evidence-based decisions.

The Workforce Losses Already in Place

The FY2027 request lands on top of a workforce that has already shrunk sharply. The USDA lost more than 21,600 employees in 2025, roughly a 22 percent reduction, making it one of the three hardest-hit federal agencies alongside Defense and Treasury.18Federal News Network. How Staffing Cuts in 2025 Transformed the Federal Workforce A separate accounting put the loss at more than 24,000, or 27 percent, between September 2024 and December 2025.19Nebraska Public Media. USDA Lost 24,000 Workers Under Trump, Hurting Critical Resources for Farmers Most of the departures happened between February and April 2025, driven by the Department of Government Efficiency initiative and its Deferred Resignation Program, and formalized in Executive Order 14210, which directed agencies to hire no more than one new employee for every four who left.20Federal Register. Implementing the President’s DOGE Workforce Optimization Initiative

Farmer-facing offices felt it first. The Farm Service Agency lost 21 percent of its federal staff and 8 percent of its county staff, including 614 County Program Analysts and 122 County Executive Directors, the people who walk producers through forms, loans, and sign-ups.21National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. USDA Staffing Crisis: Losses Reduce Local Presence in Communities Nationwide By the end of 2025, 42 FSA offices had zero county staff, and 127 counties had lost all FSA federal employees.22National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. USDA Staffing Crisis: Nationwide Losses Kansas alone lost about 25 percent of its FSA staff, producing backlogs in loan and disaster relief processing.19Nebraska Public Media. USDA Lost 24,000 Workers Under Trump, Hurting Critical Resources for Farmers

The Natural Resources Conservation Service lost 21 percent of its national staff, roughly 2,400 people, reducing technical assistance for conservation work. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service was cut 21 percent in Texas, thinning disease surveillance at a time of concern about pests and avian influenza. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture lost 25 percent of its staff, pausing grant funding for university extension and research.19Nebraska Public Media. USDA Lost 24,000 Workers Under Trump, Hurting Critical Resources for Farmers Courts pushed back on some of the mass firings: in March 2025, a federal judge in the Northern District of California ruled in AFGE v. OPM that the USDA’s mid-February termination of probationary employees was unlawful and ordered them reinstated with back pay.23USDA. USDA Status of Workforce Litigation The overall workforce trajectory kept moving downward anyway.

Food Safety Impact

The Food Safety and Inspection Service lost about 775 employees, roughly 9 percent of its staff. The FY2027 budget includes a modest $518,000 increase for FSIS, but the agency is not expected to recover those positions.24Investigate Midwest. After USDA Cuts, Complaints Over Food Safety Spike Complaints about the safety of meat, poultry, and egg products rose nearly 40 percent in the year after the cuts, from 1,443 to 2,016. The USDA also dissolved the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods and the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection, and shelved Salmonella standards for raw poultry that had been in development for years.

Where the Cuts Stand in Congress

A presidential budget is a request, not a spending law. Congress enacted the full-year FY2026 Agriculture Appropriations Act on November 12, 2025, providing $26.6 billion in discretionary appropriations, an increase of $335 million over FY2025.25Congressional Research Service. FY2026 Agriculture Appropriations That deal, passed to end a 43-day government shutdown, rejected many of the administration’s proposed FY2026 cuts and canceled planned USDA layoffs through January 2026.26Rural Home. USDA Housing Funding FY26

The House Appropriations Committee approved its FY2027 Agriculture bill on April 29, 2026, on a 35-25 vote.27National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. Inside the House’s FY27 Agriculture Spending Bill Senator Amy Klobuchar, ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the president’s proposal “falls far short of what rural Americans need.”28Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. Klobuchar Statement on the President’s 2027 USDA Budget Mike Lavender, policy director at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, called the proposal “a historic setback” and said it “would double down on the damage and radically reduce USDA’s ability to serve farmers” amid “rising farm bankruptcies and unprecedented instability in American agriculture.”6National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. FY2027 USDA Budget Proposal Is a Historic Setback for Farmers and Rural Communities

The financial picture on the farm side helps explain the intensity of the reaction. Farm bankruptcies rose 46 percent year-over-year in 2025, the highest level since 2020, and the country ended 2025 with 15,000 fewer farms than a year earlier.29Politico. Trump Trade War: Farmers Warning Signs In a Purdue University survey, 44 percent of farmers said their operations were worse off in February 2026 than a year earlier. Whether the administration’s proposed USDA reductions stand, get pared back, or get rejected outright will be settled in the appropriations process now underway in both chambers.