Trump Administration Unveils $12 Billion in Aid for Farmers Facing Market Disruptions

On Dec. 8, 2025, President Donald J. Trump, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman (AR), Sen. Deb Fischer (NE), Sen. John Hoeven (ND), Rep. Austin Scott (GA), and farmers from Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is allocating $12 billion in one-time bridge payments to assist farmers who are struggling with trade market disruptions and higher output costs.

This is intended to help producers until the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA) program expands in 2026. Secretary Brooke Rollins highlighted the importance of supporting farmers by saying, “The plan we are announcing today ensures American farmers can continue to plan for the next crop year. It is imperative we do what it takes to help our farmers, because if we cannot feed ourselves, we will no longer have a country.”

Eleven billion dollars of the $12 billion provided will be used for the Farmer Bridge Assistance program (FBA). The FBA is intended to provide relief to United States row crop farmers who produce barley, chickpeas, corn, cotton, lentils, oats, peanuts, peas, rice, sorghum, soybeans, wheat, canola, crambe, flax, mustard, rapeseed, safflower, sesame, and sunflower crops. This program is designed to offset market disruptions, higher input costs, inflation, and lost export markets. Payments will be based on a uniform national formula, which considers planted acreage, USDA cost of production estimates, World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) yields and prices, and economic modeling.

The farmer bridge payments are authorized under the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Charter Act and will be administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA).

Payments are expected to be released by Feb. 28, 2026, to farmers who qualify for the FBA program. The USDA notes that eligible farmers should make sure their 2025 acreage reporting is accurate by 5 p.m. on Dec. 19, 2025. Crop insurance is not required, although the USDA encourages using OBBA risk management tools.

One billion dollars of the $12 billion will be reserved for commodities not covered by FBA, such as specialty crops and sugar. Details and timelines for this are still being developed.

To submit questions, justification for USDA farmer bridge aid, or to request a meeting on farmer bridge aid, producers can reach out to [email protected].