The Trump administration has already missed a self-imposed deadline this week to announce its plan to help US soybean farmers. The gridlock on Capitol Hill means that the delays are likely to continue.
The shutdown is furloughing administration staffers needed to finalize and implement the farmer aid that had been promised to be unveiled on Tuesday, as well as putting on ice any additional money that lawmakers may need to provide.
For now, no new timing is imminent for an announcement, with a Department of Agriculture spokesperson telling Yahoo Finance on Wednesday that the agency “will continue to assess the farm economy and explore the need for further assistance.”
“However, there is nothing new to share at this time.”
The limbo also comes as farmers are saying the varied dollar amounts being publicly floated won’t be enough, even when the money eventually comes through.
American Soybean Association president Caleb Ragland recently appeared on Yahoo Finance and noted that proposed ideas for $10 billion to $14 billion in aid are akin to “putting a Band-Aid on an open wound.”
“We are bleeding economically,” he added, saying eventual relief will come “by not having tariffs that are in place,” referring to both President Trump’s tariffs and the countermeasures from foreign nations.
Soybeans being harvested in Warren Indiana in September. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) ·ASSOCIATED PRESS
Farmers are caught between foreign countermeasures with significant effects (Chinese purchases of US soybeans have fallen from $12.6 billion last year to $0 currently) and a large harvest that is now underway and may be impossible to sell at a profit.
Ragland’s group estimates that soybean farmers are facing losses of $109 per acre this fall.
Farmer Blake Hurst, former president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, added in his own comments that Trump’s tariff plans have, in his view, been “a complete bust.”
More important to Hurst than a bailout is that he wants Trump to “drop the tariffs and resume normal trade relations.”
Read more: What Trump’s tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet
For the moment, any aid is part of the partisan fighting in Washington.
White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai recently posted, “Help is on the way for American farmers — just not from the Democrats who shut our government down and threw a wrench in our ability to deliver for the American people.”
A message likewise greets visitors to the US Department of Agriculture website, blaming “Radical Left” Democrats for the shutdown and adding that Trump “wants to keep the government open and support those who feed, fuel, and clothe the American people.”
Both Desai and the USDA spokesperson declined to address whether contingency plans might be forthcoming to get any money out before the shutdown ends or whether new legislation from Congress would be needed.
The USDA spokesperson did tout current measures in place to help farmers, including lower taxes implemented in the recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“Currently, the farm economy is in a difficult situation, and President Trump is utilizing all the tools available to ensure farmers have what they need to continue their farming operations,” the spokesperson said.
President Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on Oct. 7. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ·ASSOCIATED PRESS
The delay also comes as the shape of the eventual bailout plan remains in flux, with multiple reports that a $10 billion to $14 billion plan could be in the offing.
A recent Politico report outlined a plan for a $12 billion to $13 billion bailout by reallocating funds from internal USDA accounts.
But the shutdown is throwing a wrench into even those plans, with the report noting that delays are expected because USDA officials are furloughed.
Read more: How the government shutdown affects your student loans, Social Security, and more
It also comes as questions continue about how much Trump may ultimately be able to do short of asking a slow-moving Congress to approve new money.
In his first term, Trump offered a series of bailouts to tariff-impacted farmers and was largely able to do so by tapping existing administration sources.
The scale of that unilateral action may not be possible this time around. The USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation fund was used last time to provide $28 billion in farm aid.
But that fund is apparently running low, and lawmakers have reportedly said there is just $4 billion left. Alternative funding methods may be possible without going to Congress, but those remain unclear, as Trump himself has often touted using tariff revenues to pay farmers.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in recent days that she is in regular consultation with both the president and Congress about getting the money needed, but without specifying an amount or a timeline.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins speaks to reporters at the White House on Sept. 30. (Reuters/Ken Cedeno) ·REUTERS / Reuters
And previous timelines have fallen by the wayside.
Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promised during a CNBC interview that a substantial package for farmers would be unveiled on Tuesday, a deadline that has now come and gone.
National Black Farmers Association founder and president John Boyd Jr. recently said that the delay comes during one of the worst times in history for farmers and that the moment has already seen “the administration slow to react.”
In Boyd’s view, Trump and his team are also making matters worse by entertaining a $20 billion currency swap to aid Argentina, even during the shutdown, to prop up the troubled — but very Trump-friendly — administration of President Javier Milei.
That nation and its own soybean production have recently emerged to help fill the gap for Chinese purchases and further undercut American farmers.
Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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