Proposed Cuts for USDA
By Chris Clayton, DTN Ag Policy Editor and Jerry Hagstrom, DTN Political Correspondent
OMAHA (DTN) -- The White House released President Donald Trump's budget proposal for fiscal-year 2021 on Monday, which proposes many of the same cuts the Trump administration has proposed for USDA and agricultural programs in past years.
Collectively, the budget plan calls for reducing spending on crop insurance and other farm programs by an average of roughly $4.3 billion a year, or $42.3 billion over ten years. The budget also calls for major changes to food-aid programs that would reduce those programs by $181 billion over ten years.
In discretionary spending at USDA, the budget calls for $2.18 billion in FY 2021, or a $1.9 billion decrease from 2020 spending levels.
On a grand level, the entire plan projects a budget deficit of $1.014 trillion in 2021 and projects deficits averaging $1 trillion through 2030. The plan calls for cuts in most domestic spending programs, but would boost spending for the Department of Homeland Security and NASA.
The White House released several details touting spending in rural America, such a $690 million in loans for rural broadband deployment and funding for rural utilities. The budget also calls for $600 million in the Agricultural and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) at USDA, a $175 million boost from 2020 levels.
Congress, which determines actual expenditures through appropriations bills, is expected to reject most of Trump's proposals, as it has in past years.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., a member of the Senate Budget Committee who is rarely critical of the president, said of the budget, "I applaud the administration for aiming to tackle the debt and deficit by addressing federal spending, but I do not support the disproportionate cuts to important agricultural programs."
Cramer added, "Our producers have struggled enough with extreme weather and unfair retaliatory actions amid trade disputes. The cuts proposed today would save little but inflict severe pain in American agriculture. Instead of reducing essential services as the administration proposes, I'll work in Congress to ensure we focus on eliminating waste, fraud, and bureaucratic inefficiency."