Latest news with #EQIP
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Grant funds promised to New Mexico farmers and ranchers caught up in federal funding freeze
Feb. 20—SANTA FE — Millions in already approved grant funding meant to pay for soil health and water conservation projects in New Mexico has been in limbo, creating an impossible dilemma for some farmers. Although the money was already approved by Congress and signed off by the last presidential administration, and in some cases grant contracts had already been signed with recipients, President Donald Trump's administration froze payments for some Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) grants. A Trump executive order to freeze federal grants so they can be reviewed to ensure they align ideologically with the president's agenda has been temporarily paused by federal courts. But Trump also signed an executive order pausing all funding provided through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. "(Trump) does not have the legal right to not spend that money now," said Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M., during a news conference drawing attention to the funding freeze Thursday morning. Thursday afternoon, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that some frozen Inflation Reduction Act funds would be released and that the U.S. Department of Agriculture would honor contracts that were made directly with farmers. That includes releasing $20 million for EQIP, the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, according to the announcement. "After careful review, it is clear that some (Inflation Reduction Act) funding went to programs that had nothing to do with agriculture — that is why we are still reviewing — whereas other funding was directed to farmers and ranchers who have since made investments in these programs," Rollins said in a statement. EQIP is a longstanding federal program to incentivize farmers to care for natural resources — like water and air — by reimbursing them for projects that benefit those natural resources. The program is typically a cost share where farmers pay for some of the expenses, said Paula Garcia, executive director of the New Mexico Acequia Association. Under the Biden administration, producers in New Mexico received $133.4 million through EQIP, Leger Fernández said, with $22 million specifically coming from the Inflation Reduction Act. Robert Lopez, a third-generation Tucumcari farmer who grows corn and cotton, was trying to decide Thursday morning if he should complete his three-phase EQIP grant. The first two phases are finished. Those included removing a crumbling concrete water ditch and replacing it with new pipe and a new concrete ditch to ensure less water evaporates or leaks out. Phase three, seeding a field with grass to protect the soil from erosion, will cost $85,000. "I'm at a loss. ... I know that I've signed a contract with the federal government, and then if I don't honor the contract, well, then I'm in breach," Lopez said. But he worried that if he spent tens of thousands to finish the project, the federal government might not honor its side of the bargain and reimburse him, or could reimburse him after a long delay that he cannot afford. Still, Lopez considered himself lucky, because the project was broken up into three phases. "It still leaves my farm operational. What's left ... it's part of the conservation part of it, so it doesn't really affect my farming part of it. But other guys aren't as lucky. They've entered into these contracts with the entire sprinkler. So now they've already ordered the sprinkler, paid for it, and now they don't know if they'll get reimbursed," Lopez said. Garcia was concerned for the many acequia users throughout the state who regularly apply for EQIP grants. The nonprofit Acequia Association helped over 200 farmers apply for the grants over the last decade, she said. The nonprofit itself is being strained financially by federal funding freezes. Garcia expected the organization to add four staff positions this year, because it was able to secure three federal grants. But with grant funding disrupted, the nonprofit will instead be working hard not to shrink. The Acequia Association is waiting for a $65,000 reimbursement from the USDA for work it already did through a cooperative agreement to repair acequias after fire and flood damage in Lincoln and Rio Arriba counties. Garcia believes that funding may be on hold because the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency effort has interpreted the acequia repairs, which targeted underserved rural communities, as a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program. Federal agencies were ordered to pause any potential DEI programs for review via a Trump executive order. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think that a billionaire would be calling the shots on the work that we're doing for the people in our communities and in our state," Garcia said, referring to Musk, who has been given broad authority by Trump to downsize the federal government. Trump's attempts to erode Congress' constitutionally held power to dictate federal spending makes Leger Fernández worry that no already approved federal funds are safe from disruptions, including billions meant to help northern New Mexico communities recover from the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire, which was started by the U.S. Forest Service. "The Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire money is separately appropriated, sitting in a separate pot. My hope is they're not going to touch it," Leger Fernández said. "But at this point in time, because they are acting unconstitutional in a manner that is illegal, we can't guarantee what they will do."
WIRED
20-02-2025
- Politics
- WIRED
USDA Layoffs Derail Projects Benefiting American Farmers
Feb 20, 2025 1:30 PM The blanket firing of Department of Agriculture scientists has thrown a host of climate science and crop projects into chaos. Photograph: Edwin Remsberg/ VWPics via AP Images The widespread layoff of Department of Agriculture scientists has thrown vital research into disarray, according to former and current employees of the agency. Scientists hit by the layoffs were working on projects to improve crops, defend against pests and disease, and understand the climate impact of farming practices. The layoffs also threaten to undermine billions of taxpayer dollars paid to farmers to support conservation practices, experts warn. The USDA layoffs are part of the Trump administration's mass firing of federal employees, mainly targeting people who are in their probationary periods ahead of gaining full-time status, which for USDA scientists can be up to three years. The agency has not released exact firing figures, but they are estimated to include many hundreds of staff at critical scientific subagencies and a reported 3,400 employees in the Forest Service. Employees were told of their firing in a blanket email sent on February 13 and seen by WIRED. 'The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest,' the email says. One laid-off employee described the weeks preceding the firing as 'chaos,' as the USDA paused (in response to orders from the Trump administration) and then unpaused (in response to a court order) work connected to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—the landmark 2022 law passed under President Joe Biden that set aside large amounts of federal money for climate policies. 'It was just pause, unpause, pause, unpause. After four or five business days of that, I'm thinking, I literally can't get anything done,' says the former employee, who worked on IRA-linked projects and asked to remain anonymous to protect them from retribution. The IRA provided the USDA with $300 million to help with the quantification of carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. This money was intended to support the $8.45 billion in farmer subsidies authorized in the IRA to be spent on the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)—a plan to encourage farmers to take up practices with potential environmental benefits, such as cover cropping and better waste storage. At least one contracted farming project funded by EQIP has been paused by the Trump administration, Reuters reports. The $300 million was supposed to be used to establish an agricultural greenhouse gas network that could monitor the effectiveness of the kinds of conservation practices funded by EQIP and other multibillion-dollar conservation programs, says Emily Bass, associate director of federal policy, food, and agriculture at the environmental research center the Breakthrough Institute. This work was being carried out in part by the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), two of the scientific sub-agencies hit heavily by the federal layoffs. Got a Tip? Are you a current or former government employee who wants to talk about what's happening? We'd like to hear from you. Using a nonwork phone or computer, contact the reporter securely on Signal at mattreynolds.45 'That's a ton of taxpayer dollars, and the quantification work of ARS and NRCS is an essential part of measuring those programs' actual impacts on emissions reductions,' says Bass. 'Stopping or hamstringing efforts midway is a huge waste of resources that have already been spent.' One current ARS scientist, who spoke to WIRED anonymously, as they were not authorized to talk to the press, claims that at their unit almost 40 percent of scientists have been fired along with multiple support staff. Many of their unit's projects are now in disarray, the scientist says, including work that has been planned out in five-year cycles and requires close monitoring of plant specimens. 'In the short term we can keep that material alive, but we can't necessarily do that indefinitely if we don't have anybody on that project.' In a press release, the USDA has said its plan is to 'optimize its workforce,' with this including 'relocating employees out of the National Capital region into our nation's heartland to allow our rural communities to flourish.' But ARS units are located across the US, each one specializing in crops that are important to local farmers as well as bringing jobs to the region. 'We've always been very popular in rural areas because the farmers and growers actually want what we're doing,' says the ARS scientist. The USDA did not respond to WIRED's request for comment. The hollowing-out of staff capacity will limit the USDA's ability to implement IRA policies, says Bass, but it is not clear that this was the sole intention of the cuts. 'This seems to be a sledgehammer to the workforce in a way that will just roll back the number of folks on payroll,' she says. The purge could also indirectly hit farmers in red states, who are the main beneficiaries of proposals such as EQIP. 'It was necessary research to preserve our agricultural lands and fight climate change,' says one ARS employee who was fired last week after serving more than two years of their three-year-long probation. 'Compared to the rest of the government, ARS is tiny,' they say. 'But we were able to get a lot done with relatively little money.' On her first full day in office, US secretary of agriculture Brooke Rollins told USDA staffers gathered at its headquarters in Washington that she supported the Department of Government Efficiency's attempt to optimize the USDA workforce. 'I welcome DOGE's efforts at USDA, because we know that its work makes us better, stronger, faster, and more efficient,' she told the gathering. But Bass warns that blanket firing of USDA employees is hardly a pathway toward a more efficient agency. 'This approach of wide-swath firings throws the USDA and affiliated agricultural research enterprise into a world of uncertainty,' she says. 'Projects that cannot be seen out to the end, cannot result in a peer-reviewed research paper or technical expertise being provided, are a waste of taxpayer dollars.'
USA Today
11-02-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Grassley: Trump has 'taken an oath to follow the law,' will abide by federal court orders
Hear this story Iowa's senior U.S. senator says he believes President Donald Trump will follow federal judges' orders to release millions of dollars in federal loan and grant spending as well as pause buyouts of federal employees. Sen. Chuck Grassley's statement in a meeting with reporters Tuesday came a day after a federal judge said Trump's administration had violated a court order to lift a broad freeze on federal spending, and directed the government to immediately release any withheld funds. 'The administration is going to appeal a lot of these decisions, and they should,' said Grassley, a Republican, adding that if Trump loses his appeals and has 'exceeded the law, we have a president that has taken an oath to follow the law. And I assume he's going to do that.' Grassley: Farmers shouldn't worry about losing conservation funds Given the Rhode Island federal judge's action Monday requiring payments to restart, Grassley said he didn't think that farmers in Iowa and elsewhere who receive funds via federal programs 'have anything to worry about.' Trump has halted millions of dollars in payments pledged in programs created under former President Joe Biden, including $11 million owed to farmers in Iowa and 11 other Midwestern states for conservation practices they adopted last year as part of a five-year, $95 million climate smart agriculture initiative. Some farmers have reported that the Trump administration also has stopped payments from longstanding measures like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, referred to as EQIP, which help farmers adopt conservation practices and build infrastructure that improve soil health and water quality. 'Obviously, I don't think that that EQIP program is one of those programs' that should be cut, Grassley said. 'But somebody in the executive department might think it… ought to go. 'I don't think it's going to go. But I would emphasize that all government is going through review process' to ensure "it's needed and not wasting taxpayers' money," Grassley said. He said he believes the current review of spending by the U.S. Agency for International Development — which the administration is largely shutting down — is exposing spending that doesn't have 'anything to do with foreign aid.' USAID has come under intense criticism, including from Grassley's fellow U.S. senator from Iowa, Joni Ernst, who last week slammed the agency's $20 million support for a "Sesame Street" TV show in Iraq, among other initiatives. 'He wouldn't get away with that and shouldn't' Grassley said he doesn't buy into concern that Trump may simply defy the court rulings. 'He wouldn't get away with that and shouldn't,' Grassley said, adding that only one president —Andrew Jackson —did so. Jackson's defiance came in 1832, after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall found that Georgia's seizure of Cherokee land where gold had been found violated federal treaties. Grassley repeated a purported quote of Jackson —"If Marshall made the decision. Let Marshall enforce it" — as he and the state of Georgia carried on with removal of the Native Americans. 'I don't think this president would go that far, and if he did, I would disagree with his going that far,' Grassley said, adding that Trump, for example, can't dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, as he has said he wants to do, without the approval of Congress, which voted to create the agency. 'You can restructure, maybe within the Department of Education, but you aren't going to do away with it,' he said, adding that his office has received 400 to 500 calls about "the whole process." Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
USDA freezes farmer funding for some programs, conservation contracts
By P.J. Huffstutter and Leah Douglas CHICAGO/WASHINGTON DC (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture has frozen some funding for farmers as it goes through a sweeping review, despite assurances from the Trump administration that programs helping farmers would not be affected in the government overhaul. The impact has been immediate and wide-ranging, from cash assistance for ranchers to fix cattle watering systems to help for corn growers wanting to plant cover crops that curb wind erosion. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Some of the money that has been frozen is tied to environmental conservation programs that were funded by former President Joe Biden's signature climate law, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included about $19.5 billion for farm programs over 10 years. The White House said its January 27 proposal to freeze federal loans and grants would not affect programs for farmers. The administration rescinded its proposal and it has been temporarily blocked in court. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. The freeze adds more economic uncertainty for farmers already struggling after several consecutive years of incomes dragged down by low crop prices. It also comes as a surprise to a community that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in the past three presidential elections. His first term brought farmers record cash: about $217 billion in farm payments, including crop support, disaster and aid programs. Rob Larew, president of the National Farmers Union, told the Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday that the group was hearing from farmers across the country who were not receiving expected payments from USDA conservation programs. "Having USDA delayed with a lot of uncertainty about whether or not it will actually come through is adding to that economic pressure in the countryside," he said. Missouri cattle producer Skylar Holden posted a series of videos on TikTok this week, saying he had signed a contract with USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service for $240,000 for improved water lines, fences and a well. But USDA officials called him recently to tell him his contract with NRCS's Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP, was frozen, he said. It's not clear when the funds will be released, Holden said in his video. "I've already done a bunch of the work, already paid for the material and the labor, so I'm out all that cost," Holden said in one video, adding, "We are possibly going to lose our farm if NRCS doesn't hold up their contract with us." The program aims to help farmers maintain or improve production while conserving natural resources. A USDA spokesperson said all federal agencies have been asked for such program reviews. "The Department of Agriculture will be happy to provide a response to interested parties once Brooke Rollins is confirmed," and has analyzed them. Rollins, Trump's pick to run the farm agency, was advanced by the Senate Agriculture Committee this week but has not yet received a full Senate confirmation vote. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget has asked USDA for information on 409 programs, according to an OMB document reviewed by Reuters, including the names of political appointees that oversee each program and any funding obligations the programs have through March 15. USDA's funding pause extended to programs beyond those supported through Biden's signature climate law, according to a letter sent to USDA on Thursday by three Democratic Party lawmakers. "Pulling the rug out from these recipients runs counter to the mission of the USDA and will quickly and significantly cripple economic development in rural America," the letter said. One program targeted in the funding pause was the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities, where USDA said it is investing $3.1 billion to help farmers enroll in conservation programs. One project provided assistance to Midwestern farmers to grow organic grains, while another focused on bolstering potato farm operations in Idaho, Washington and Oregon. The funding for the contracts came from the Commodity Credit Corporation, a financing institution established during the Great Depression. (Reporting By P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago and Leah Douglas in Washington DC. Additional reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago. Editing by Emily Schmall and Sam Holmes)
