In First Hearing as Ranking Member of Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture and FDA, Shaheen Co-Leads Review of Trump’s Agriculture Budget Request, Presses Secretary Rollins on How Administration Chaos has Hurt Farmers and Rural Communities
**Shaheen underscored how the unnecessary funding freeze and trade war imposed by the administration have caused uncertainty for America’s farmers and producers**
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies (Ag-FDA), today co-led her first hearing as the top Democrat on the subcommittee. In her questioning of Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, Shaheen highlighted how President Trump has sown chaos that has hurt farmers, producers and rural parts of the country and underscored how the President’s budget for Fiscal Year 2026 falls woefully short of what is needed to adequately support rural communities. Click here to watch the Senator’s opening remarks and here to watch her questions.
“The proposed budget toplines released last Friday fall well short of the President’s purported commitments to farmers and rural communities. I don’t believe we support farmers by gutting research that will boost yields and improve crop quality. And I don’t believe we put rural America on a path to thrive by slashing core rural development programs—from housing to water and waste infrastructure to energy assistance. And when grocery prices are too high, we don’t help families put food on the table by undercutting vital nutrition programs. Yet, that’s exactly what this skinny budget would do,” said Ranking Member Shaheen. “I hope that we will have the chance to move forward with bipartisan appropriations with a serious non-defense discretionary number that reflects the urgent needs that are facing families and communities in the Granite State and across the country – because there are plenty of places where we can work together to ensure that these programs deliver for producers and rural America.”
During the hearing, Shaheen raised a letter she and U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) sent to Secretary Rollins in March that emphasized the need to get critical disaster relief assistance to growers in New Hampshire and across the country, underscoring the importance of ensuring funding goes to small farms in states like New Hampshire that sorely need the assistance.
Shaheen pressed Secretary Rollins on the elimination of the Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole Food for Education programs in the FY26 budget request, which feed hungry people globally with U.S. farm commodities.
In March, Shaheen held two separate roundtable discussions with New Hampshire farmers and agricultural producers from across the state to discuss the impacts farms experienced as a result of President Trump’s freeze on tens of billions of dollars of federal funding at USDA. Farmers told Senator Shaheen that the uncertainty over whether or not crucial programs they rely on will be funded interrupts their ability to do their jobs. Later that month, Shaheen joined her Senate colleagues in pressing USDA to explain the reported cancellation of previously approved funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) for food banks and other emergency food providers.
Shaheen has long fought to support farmers in New Hampshire, including by successfully helping to secure disaster supplemental funding for farmers impacted by crop losses in 2023. Shaheen also has a strong record of working to improve crop insurance policies to support farmers in New Hampshire and leads legislation to reform the federal government’s crop insurance program. Senator Shaheen has supported more than 230 New Hampshire small businesses who have received over $25 million to lower energy bills and cut costs through USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program. She has consistently fought for increased funding and improved support for rural development programs, including rural water programs.
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