Farmers facing economic ruin after Trump backs away from grant 'guarantees': report

President Donald Trump's across-the-board suspension of federal payments is now hitting farmers directly in the pocketbook, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

The key problem is programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Rural Energy for America Program, initiatives managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and funded by former President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.

"Farmers who signed contracts with the Agriculture Department under those programs paid up front to build fencing, plant new crops and install renewable energy systems with guarantees that the federal government would issue grants and loan guarantees to cover at least part of their costs," the report stated.

With Trump's freeze in place, the report continued, these farmers are "on the hook."

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When Trump enacted the freeze on federal spending, his associates like Stephen Miller had promised that no program that actually dispenses money directly to people would be affected — a promise that immediately fell by the wayside as other such programs, like housing vouchers in urban areas, were impacted too.

Laura Beth Resnick, a flower farmer in Maryland, told The Post that she paid $73,000 for a solar panel installation with the understanding these USDA programs would cover half of it — and now faces financial oblivion. “I really don’t know what we would do,” she said. “It just feels like I can’t even really think about it.”

House Democrats have sounded the alarm, stating in a letter to the Department of Agriculture, “Pulling the rug out from these recipients runs counter to the mission of the USDA and will quickly and significantly cripple economic development in rural America.”

Last week, a federal district judge blocked Trump's freeze on distributing payments, prompting the administration to publicly rescind the policy — but for the time being, many programs' funds still appear to be in a state of limbo.

"Over the weekend, farmers reported that their funding remained frozen — another blow to farmers who are also facing threats of tariffs and freezes to foreign aid spending that involved food purchased from American producers," the report stated.