By Bob Bragg
Last week, the Trump Administration announced a $12 billion dollar aid program for farmers to help them weather the economic storm caused by Trump’s tariff policies. These bridge payments are intended in part to aid farmers until historic investments from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act kick in by October 2026. Of the $12 billion provided, up to $11 billion will be used for the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program, which provides “broad relief to United States row crop farmers who produce Barley, Chickpeas, Corn, Cotton, Lentils, Oats, Peanuts, Peas, Rice, Sorghum, Soybeans, Wheat, Canola, Crambe, Flax, Mustard, Rapeseed, Safflower, Sesame, and Sunflower. This assistance hopefully will help address “market disruptions, elevated input costs, persistent inflation, and market losses from foreign competitors engaging in unfair trade practices that impede exports. The FBA Program applies simple, proportional support to producers using a uniform formula to cover a portion of modeled losses during the 2025 crop year. This national loss average is based on FSA reported planted acres, Economic Research Service cost of production estimates, World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates yields and prices and economic modeling.”
But the ink was hardly dry on the announcement before Republican senators from farm states called for additional aid. While farmers producing corn, soybeans and other commodity crops will share about $11 billion maybe by the end of February. During an interview with Agri-Pulse, Kansas Senator Jerry Moran stated “that in the absence of the ability to export what we produce, particularly when we, in many instances, have bumper crops, Congress very well may need to issue more funding.