Ranking Member DeLauro Remarks at Fiscal Year 2026 U.S. Department of Agriculture Budget Hearing

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) delivered the following remarks at the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee’s fiscal year 2026 budget hearing for the U.S. Department of Agriculture:

Thank you, Chairman Harris and Ranking Member Bishop, for holding this important budget hearing.

I want to welcome our witness, Secretary Brooke Rollins, for appearing before the Agriculture-Rural Development-FDA subcommittee today, and I look forward to your testimony and the opportunity to have an exchange. 

We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis today that is directly hurting farmers. The Trump Administration has unlawfully frozen and impounded Congressionally-appropriated funds for agencies, programs, and services that assist American farmers. 

Understand that the power of the purse resides in the U.S. Congress. That is in the Constitution. While we might want to play fast and loose with the Constitution, we have to abide by what it says. That is who we are as a nation.

Let me tick off the programs that have been frozen or cancelled or cut in some way.

National Institute of Food and Agriculture, frozen.

Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement, terminated.

Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program, cancelled.

Environmental Quality Incentives Program, frozen.

Conservation Stewardship Program, frozen.

Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, frozen.

Regional Conservation Partnership Program, frozen.

Conservation Technical Assistance, frozen.

Technical Assistance to Underserved Farmers, Ranchers, Foresters, frozen.

Watershed Programs, frozen.

ReConnect Broadband Loan and Grant Program, frozen.

The Emergency Food Assistance Program, cancelled.

And I might add the Administration has indiscriminately fired thousands of civil servants who help administer these programs and ensure funding goes where it is intended.

The President is not laser focused on the cost-of-living crisis—he is actually making it worse. He promised to fight for the working-class and for farmers, but instead put Elon Musk and billionaires in charge of the government. This Administration is attacking farmers to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. 

The White House has halted over $600 million in funding promised to rural businesses and farmers through the Rural Energy for America Program and other vital programs. They stole from the farmers and rural businesses who took the deal the government offered them to invest in renewable energy—raising their energy costs, increasing economic stress, and in turn, they raised costs on the American people—in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. 

Likewise, when the Administration froze the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, they left farmers and producers who invested in conservation projects out to dry.

They cancelled over $1 billion in funding for programs that help schools and food banks purchase food directly from local farms, threatening the livelihood of farmers and the nourishment of children and families reliant on this assistance. 

By cutting these funds, the administration prioritized corporate interests over the hardworking farmers who need these supports to continue operating.

I have always been focused on the needs of small- and medium-sized farmers because they are the backbone of our country, and the backbone of my state of Connecticut. I would like to recognize one in the room today who traveled from Connecticut. 79 hours. Willie DellaCamera, a small specialty crop farmer from my district, experienced a severe storm last December. He did everything right and had insurance coverage, but was still left with over $200,000 in losses.

In response, with his help, we created and passed the Farm Recovery and Support Block Grant, a program tailored to the needs of small- and medium-sized farmers which removed the barrier of crop insurance requirements and allowed flexibility for States in response to extreme weather events. 

New England farmers depend on this grant, and I will work with you to make sure this support gets out as Congress intended. To date, Willie DellaCamera has not received one dime. Also here is another Connecticut farmer, Robert Chang, who was talking about the need for this $220 million program. And the gentleman sitting next to Willie was here in the 70s, when the farmers came down with tractors and made their case, and we say thank you for that, and if we have to have the tractors back here again, we will do it, and we will be with you.

Even though we received Trump’s concepts of a budget plan on Friday, we are now into May without a real budget from the White House—though I am eager to learn about why you have chosen to eliminate funding for the Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole programs, and gut funding for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program. 

Not only will this take food from the mouths of millions at home and abroad, including seniors, who face hunger and starvation—it will harm American farmers who will no longer see proceeds from producing this urgently needed food.

Thanks to the Administration’s lawless funding freeze and the dismantling of agencies without Congressional involvement, hundreds of thousands of pounds of food grown by American farmers has sat in warehouses or gone to waste. 

Local Food for Schools and Local Food Purchase Assistance were ended by USDA earlier this year, meaning not only did the Administration determine that feeding our children was not a priority—they decided the farmers who produce the food for these children were not a priority, either. 

Connecticut is expected to lose nearly $4 million in funding from these two programs alone—$4 million in support that goes directly to purchasing locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables. 

I understand the Administration is eager to pass tax breaks for billionaires, but doing so by stealing from hungry people and farmers is indefensible. 

Next, Republicans in Congress and the White House will target our safety net programs for hungry people, including children—WIC and SNAP, or food stamps—to pay for their billionaire tax break. 

Madam Secretary, this Administration’s abandonment of farmers is not creating efficiency, and you know that. It is not helping farmers nor consumers save money. 

In fact, the President’s trade war, which he has admitted puts farmers on the front lines, will cost taxpayers billions of dollars in bailouts to shield farmers from the consequences of the President’s agenda.

Farmers, and the American people, need immediate answers as to how you plan to fix the mess this Administration is creating for them.

Thank you for being here, I look forward to your testimony, and I yield back.

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