Wendy Wilton told the committee that the Farmer Bridge Assistance program is designed to be rapid and streamlined: USDA will use crop reports to calculate a price‑per‑acre payment for eligible commodities and aims to begin issuing payments in February. "Some of our programs... if someone submitted a crop report, which was due by December 19 for this program... the only thing the producer has to do is receive that application, sign it, bring it to us, and then we're gonna get paid," Wilton said.

Wilton described the larger legislative package as a "mini farm bill" that includes several program expansions. She said Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) coverage was increased from 5 million to 6 million pounds and that ARC‑PLC had 30 million base acres added nationwide, changes she said will have meaningful effects for some Vermont producers.

Wilton also described agency leadership goals and technology plans: she said FSA administrator Bill Bean is working on a platform to allow precision‑agriculture data — for example, planting records from smart tractors — to feed into USDA systems so producers could complete crop reporting on a phone at the end of a planting day. She framed these efforts as aimed at streamlining program access and reducing paperwork.

On labor and nutrition inquiries, Wilton said H‑2A reforms and school‑milk policy are matters for Congress and USDA leadership to pursue; she said she was "glad" Secretary Rollins had raised H‑2A as a national priority and that questions about whole milk in schools may link to school‑lunch funding changes championed by members of Congress.

Wilton said the FSA is coordinating with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture and other partners on implementation of block‑grant funds for small states so funds and program pieces can be combined to maximize relief for producers.