Trump and $12 billion
Donald J. Trump announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture will make $12 billion available in one time bridge payments to American farmers in response to temporary trade market disruptions and increased production costs.
These bridge payments are intended in part to aid farmers until historic investments from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including reference prices which are set to increase between 10-21% for major covered commodities such as soybeans, corn, and wheat, reach eligible farmers on Oct. 1, 2026.
Of the $12 billion provided, up to $11 billion will be used for the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program, which provides broad relief to United States row crop farmers who produce barley, chickpeas, corn, cotton, lentils, oats, peanuts, peas, rice, sorghum, soybeans, wheat, canola, crambe, flax, mustard, rapeseed, safflower, sesame, and sunflower.
FBA will help address market disruptions, elevated input costs, persistent inflation, and market losses from foreign competitors engaging in unfair trade practices that impede exports. The FBA program applies simple, proportional support to producers using a uniform formula to cover a portion of modeled losses during the 2025 crop year. This national loss average is based on FSA reported planted acres, Economic Research Service cost of production estimates, World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates yields and prices and economic modeling.
Farmers who qualify for the FBA program can expect payments to be released by Feb. 28, 2026. Eligible farmers should ensure their 2025 acreage reporting is factual and accurate by 5 p.m. ET on Dec. 19.
