By Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The administration of President Donald Trump will soon announce details of payments to farmers hurt by low crop prices and trade disputes, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Wednesday.
U.S. farmers have been saddled this year with record harvests and lost billions of dollars in soybean sales to China when the nation turned to South American suppliers this fall during stalled trade talks.
The administration had been expected to announce a farm bailout totaling as much as $15 billion in October. Rollins previously said the 43-day federal government shutdown delayed the rollout.
“There’s no doubt that the farm economy for a lot of reasons is really, really struggling right now,” Rollins said on NewsNation on Wednesday, adding that resumed soybean purchases from China and other agricultural trade deals have improved conditions.
“We’ll soon be announcing a potential bridge payment for those who are still facing losses,” Rollins said.
Stephen Vaden, the USDA’s deputy secretary, told reporters in a call on Monday that the agency is in the process of calculating how recent trade deals with countries including Pakistan and Japan could affect the farmer payments.
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that details of the payments will be announced in early December, citing an interview with Rollins. The USDA did not immediately respond to questions about the timing.
During Trump’s first term, he paid farmers more than $23 billion for trade-related losses. Farmers have predominantly supported Trump in elections.
MORE FOOD STAMP CHANGES COMING
Rollins also said on NewsNation that the USDA will be making an announcement about “structural changes” to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, the week after Thanksgiving.
Rollins has said all SNAP recipients will need to reapply to the program to ensure the benefits are going to eligible recipients as part of an agency effort to address fraud in the program.
The country’s nearly 42 million SNAP recipients are already required by federal law to regularly recertify their eligibility with state agencies, typically every 6 to 12 months.
During the shutdown, SNAP benefits lapsed for the first time ever, forcing recipients to make sacrifices like forgoing medication to afford groceries.
A USDA spokesperson said that since February 2025, the agency has made 127 arrests for SNAP fraud, which resulted in 63 convictions and more than $16.5 million in fines and fees. The agency did not provide further details of the arrests or charges.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
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