USDA budget proposal trims research, prompts questions about food-aid and nutrition programs

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture that the administration's fiscal year 2026 discretionary budget identifies priorities and trims spending on some research programs and other initiatives.

“None of that will be compromised,” Rollins said of core research priorities while describing targeted reductions; she later told senators the Agricultural Research Service budget would fall from about $2.1 billion to about $1.9 billion in the proposal, a decline she described as focused on “outdated facilities.”

Ranking Member Senator Jean Shaheen said the top-line proposal “falls well short of the president's purported commitments to farmers and rural communities,” warning that cuts to research, rural development and nutrition programs would…