House Republicans Force Through Agriculture Funding Bill that Increases Costs, Jeopardizes the Health of Children and Families

WASHINGTON — Today, House Appropriations Committee Democrats joined together to oppose Republicans’ 2025 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies funding bill. This harmful bill increases costs for rural America and cuts funding for programs that support farmers and help hardworking people feed their families.

House Republicans’ Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration bill provides $25.9 billion in discretionary funding, a four percent cut below 2024. The legislation:

• Increases costs for Rural America by cutting critical investments in rural communities including direct loans to help hardworking Americans buy homes in rural areas, water and waste grants to help the poorest communities get safer water services, and energy savings programs that support rural small businesses. Republicans are also cutting funding that helps low- and very low-income rural homeowners repair or rehabilitate their homes.
• Threatens access to food for hardworking and vulnerable Americans by cutting, underfunding, or altering critical food assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, the Farmers Market Nutrition Program, and The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).
• Slashes Food for Peace to the lowest level since 2002 at a time when the Russian attack on Ukraine, conflicts on nearly every continent, and climate change are drastically endangering global food security.

“We should ensure that the USDA, FDA, CFTC, and other agencies have the resources needed to continue providing America with the highest quality, the safest, the most abundant, and the most affordable food and fiber, medicine and medical devices anywhere in the world. We should not hamstring their ability to do their jobs. Unfortunately, this bill forces the USDA to choose between federal workers helping to provide clean water, affordable housing, safe food and the communities who need them,” Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Sanford Bishop, Jr. (D-GA-02) said. “This bill is anemic at best and harmful at worst. We must work together in a bipartisan way to improve this bill and make the necessary investments to help America’s farmers, families, and rural communities. We cannot rob Peter to pay Paul. And we definitely cannot fund 21st century agriculture needs with 20th century funding levels.”

Congressman Bishop’s full remarks are here.

“House Republicans’ 2025 Agriculture funding bill increases costs on workers and families in America for basic necessities like water, energy, and housing. It increases the suffering of hungry people in the United States and across the globe by cutting, underfunding, or altering critical domestic food assistance programs and slashing Food for Peace by 40 percent, to the lowest level in over 20 years,” Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) said. “This bill makes it harder for small farmers to make ends meet while at the same time tipping the scale in favor of big corporations and protecting big tobacco. Instead of focusing on ways to help lower costs and help farmers and hardworking people, House Republicans are using this bill to jeopardize the health of children and communities across America and underfund the services and programs that American families and rural communities depend on.”

Congresswoman DeLauro’s full remarks are here.

A summary of House Republicans’ 2025 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies bill is here. A fact sheet of the bill is here.

The text of the bill, before the adoption of amendments in full Committee, is here. The bill report, before the adoption of amendments in full Committee, is here.

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