WASHINGTON, DC— The Trump Administration has announced $12 billion in one-time “bridge payments” to assist American farmers impacted by trade market disruptions and rising production costs, according to information released by the US Department of Agriculture.
The announcement, made Monday (December 8), states that President Donald J. Trump and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins, along with other federal and congressional leaders, unveiled the assistance as temporary relief while longer-term investments from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) are implemented. The release states that reference prices for covered commodities such as soybeans, corn, and wheat are expected to increase between 10% and 21%, with those changes reaching eligible farmers beginning October 1, 2026.
Up to $11 billion of the funds will be distributed through the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program. The program covers a wide range of row crops including corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, cotton, sorghum, barley, oats, and several oilseed and pulse crops. The department stated the program is designed to help offset market disruptions, higher input costs, and losses tied to what the release describes as unfair foreign trade practices. Payments will be calculated using a national formula based on planted acres, cost estimates, yield and price data, and economic modeling.
The release states that eligible farmers can expect payments by February 28, 2026, and that producers must ensure their 2025 acreage reports are accurate by 5 p.m. Eastern Time on December 19, 2025. Commodity-specific payment rates are expected to be released before the end of December. The program does not require crop insurance participation, though USDA encouraged producers to use new risk management tools included in the OBBBA.
The remaining $1 billion of the total funding is reserved for commodities not covered under the FBA program, including specialty crops and sugar, with further details still under development.
The USDA stated the funding is authorized through the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act and will be administered by the Farm Service Agency.
In a statement included in the release, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said, “Four years under the failed Biden Administration continues to leave the American farm economy reeling from record inflation, a depleted farm safety net, and delayed disaster assistance. The lack of new trade deals under the last Administration turned a trade surplus under Trump into a $50 billion trade deficit, causing our farmers to lose markets and feel acute pain from lower commodity prices. President Trump will not let our farmers be left behind, so he directed our team to build a bridge program to see quick relief while the President’s dozens of new trade deals and new market access take effect.”
She added, “The plan we are announcing today ensures American farmers can continue to plan for the next crop year. It is imperative we do what it takes to help our farmers, because if we cannot feed ourselves, we will no longer have a country. With this program serving as a bridge to the improvements President Trump and Republicans in Congress have made, it will allow farmers to leverage strengthened price protection risk management tools and the reliability of fair trade deals so they do not have to depend on large ad hoc assistance packages from the government.”
