USDA cancels ‘Biden-era climate slush fund,’ reprioritizes existing funding to farmers

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced April 14 the cancellation of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities.

“Following a thorough line-by-line review of each of these Biden-era partnerships, it became clear that the majority of these projects had sky-high administration fees, which, in many instances, provided less than half of the federal funding directly to farmers,” USDA stated.

Select projects may continue, according to the department, if it is demonstrated that a significant amount of the federal funds awarded will go to farmers.

“We continue to support farmers and encourage partners to ensure their projects are farmer-focused or reapply to continue work that is aligned with the priorities of this administration,” USDA stated.

With this action, USDA said it is cutting bureaucratic red tape, streamlining reporting, lowering the paperwork burden on producers and putting farmers first.

“Additionally, we have reformed and overhauled the Biden-era Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative into the Advancing Markets for Producers initiative, and the USDA has identified changes to align the initiative with current Trump administration priorities,” the department stated.

USDA will review existing grant agreements based on three farmer-first policy priorities:

• A minimum of 65 percent of federal funds must go to producers.

• Grant recipients must have enrolled at least one producer as of Dec. 31, 2024.

• Grant recipients must have made a payment to at least one producer as of Dec. 31, 2024.

“The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative was largely built to advance the green new scam at the benefit of NGOs, not American farmers,” Rollins said. “The concerns of farmers took a backseat during the Biden administration. During my short time as secretary, I have heard directly from our farmers that many of the USDA partnerships are overburdened by red tape, have ambiguous goals and require complex reporting that push farmers onto the sidelines. We are correcting these mistakes and redirecting our efforts to set our farmers up for an unprecedented era of prosperity.”

USDA said it will contact current partners individually to provide information about their future participation.

USDA added that it will honor all eligible expenses incurred prior to April 13.

This reform effort will utilize existing funding, with no new funding made available for these partnerships.