Overview
- The White House announced the Farmer Bridge Assistance program, channeling about $11 billion to single payments for row-crop farmers and reserving roughly $1 billion for other and specialty crops.
- President Trump rolled out the package at a White House roundtable with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, lawmakers, and farmers from soybean, corn, rice, wheat, cotton, sorghum, cattle and potato sectors.
- Officials said the aid will use tariff revenue and Commodity Credit Corporation authority, allowing disbursements without new congressional appropriations and administration by the USDA’s Farm Service Agency.
- Implementation details are being finalized, with reporting indicating an average AGI eligibility cap near $900,000, acreage reporting due Dec. 19, payment rates expected by late December, and payouts targeted by February 2026.
- China has resumed buying U.S. soybeans since an October Trump–Xi agreement but purchases total roughly 2.25–2.8 million tons so far, short of the administration’s 12 million-ton goal, as farm groups and Democrats question the bailout’s effectiveness.