President Donald Trump proposed a 19 percent funding cut for the Agriculture Department on Friday and included a call for Congress to slash some bipartisan programs the administration deemed “woke radical left projects.”
The White House’s fiscal 2027 budget request proposes that Congress give USDA $20.8 billion in discretionary budget authority for the upcoming fiscal year, a $4.9 billion cut from the previous year’s enacted level.
Agricultural research funding for land grant universities, an international hunger-reduction aid program and a grant opportunity that pays to improve public service buildings in rural communities are among the USDA programs targeted by the proposed White House budget cuts.
Congressional appropriators have previously bucked Trump’s suggestions to cut USDA’s budget and focused on protecting funding for bipartisan programs. Last year, Congress rebuked Trump’s proposed $7 billion cut and instead funded the department at a similar level to the previous year as part of a November spending package negotiated to end the government shutdown.
