U.S. Department of Agriculture
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is the federal executive department responsible for agriculture, food safety, rural development and the federal nutrition programmes, including SNAP. Entries naming it from 2025 onward record conditions attached to federal funding, the administration of nutrition benefits, and procurement decisions.
Also known as USDA
2026 Events (4)
Documents revealed federal agencies spent nearly $1M on Trump-image lobby banners; DOJ — which enforces the Hatch Act — led the spending
On July 24, 2026, documents published by E&E News/Politico and PBS showed that the U.S. Department of Justice spent nearly $1 million on large banners displaying President Trump's face in its Robert F. Kennedy Building headquarters, while the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, and the Interior installed similar Trump-image banners at their headquarters buildings. The DOJ is the federal agency responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal agencies from using government resources for partisan political purposes.
Justice Department sued Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota to compel five years of SNAP applicant data
On June 26, 2026, the Justice Department filed lawsuits against Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Minnesota seeking injunctions to force their state SNAP agencies to turn over five years of applicant data, after the four states refused the U.S. Department of Agriculture's demand citing recipient privacy. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said the states were obstructing efforts to detect benefit fraud, noting that twenty-eight other jurisdictions had complied. A federal court had already issued a preliminary injunction barring USDA from cutting SNAP funding from states over the same data refusal.
USDA said it would relocate Forest Service HQ and close 57 of 77 research facilities without required congressional approval
On April 16, 2026, U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said publicly that the agency would relocate its headquarters to Salt Lake City and close 57 of its 77 research facilities "with or without approval from Congress." USDA's Office of General Counsel had advised that appropriations-law provisions requiring 30-day advance approval from congressional committees before such reorganizations are unconstitutional "legislative vetoes" the department need not follow. The stance positioned the agency to carry out a major restructuring in defiance of statutory conditions Congress attached to its funding.
USDA suspended $129 million in Minnesota, Minneapolis award payments over fraud allegations
On January 9, 2026, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the suspension of more than $129 million in active and future federal award payments to Minnesota and Minneapolis, covering nonprofit funding tied to the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, the state's Housing Stabilization Services program, and daycare-center operating funds. In a letter to Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Rollins wrote that their "Administrations refuse to provide basic information or take common sense measures to stop fraud" and made continued and future payments contingent on the state supplying spending justification within 30 days. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison responded on the record: "I will not allow you to take from Minnesotans in need. I'll see you in court."
2025 Events (7)
USDA tied wildfire-prevention grants to unrelated DEI and immigration pledges, stalling fire-risk work
On December 31, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture under Secretary Brooke Rollins issued new terms requiring recipients of USDA grants and contracts -- including Forest Service wildfire-risk-reduction funding, Community Wildfire Defense Grants, and Good Neighbor Authority agreements -- to pledge compliance with unrelated administration policy demands on DEI, "gender ideology," and immigration enforcement. Democratic-led states including Washington, Oregon, Michigan, and Maryland were unable to sign the new agreements, stalling wildfire-prevention work; a 21-state coalition sued and won a preliminary injunction in June 2026, but $15 million in Spokane-area wildfire grants remained undelivered as of early August 2026, when wildfires forced the evacuation of 65,000 residents there.
Trump White House directed five agencies to condition Colorado funding on political alignment, then cut hundreds of millions
On December 15, 2025, a Trump White House deputy assistant emailed officials at the Departments of Energy, Transportation, Interior, and Agriculture and the Office of Management and Budget, directing them to identify actions "with respect to Colorado" to keep "grants and federal support...in line with administration priorities," hours before President Trump publicly called Colorado Gov. Jared Polis "weak and pathetic" over the imprisonment of former county clerk Tina Peters. In the days that followed, the Department of Energy canceled $615 million in Colorado funding, the Department of Transportation ended $109 million in grants, the Office of Management and Budget moved to close the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, and the Department of Agriculture ordered an accelerated food-assistance recertification review. The email became public on August 11, 2026 at a federal court hearing in Colorado's retaliation lawsuit against the administration, where a judge called it "extraordinary" and ordered the White House to produce more records, while the administration denied the actions were tied to Peters.
USDA cancelled 30-year Household Food Security Report; placed ERS researchers on leave for disclosing decision
The U.S. Department of Agriculture cancelled its annual Household Food Security Report — the federal government's primary 30-year measure of hunger and food insecurity — on September 22, 2025, and then placed approximately a dozen Economic Research Service economists, researchers, supervisors, and administrators on indefinite paid administrative leave, citing an "unauthorized disclosure." The employees placed on leave were among those present at meetings where the decision to cancel the report was discussed. The report had been used annually since 1995 by policymakers, academics, and advocates to evaluate federal nutrition programs including SNAP, WIC, and school meals.
Sen. Schiff report reveals USDA, Labor, and HHS departments spent over $55,000 in taxpayer funds on Trump tribute banners
On September 15, 2025, Sen. Adam Schiff released an oversight report revealing that the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Labor, and Health and Human Services had contracted to display large Trump-tribute banners on their Washington, D.C. headquarters, including an 88-foot HHS banner promoting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Make America Healthy Again" slogan. The three contracts totaled more than $55,000 in taxpayer funds, which Schiff's report said violated the federal appropriations-law ban on spending public money for "publicity or propaganda purposes."
USDA solicited donations up to $500K each from four firms with pending federal matters for Secretary Rollins's discretionary fund
A July 2, 2026 House Natural Resources Committee Democratic staff oversight report found that Chobani, Visa, John Deere, and Tractor Supply each contributed between $100,000 and $499,999 to a "Secretary's Priorities" fund controlled by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, routed through the congressionally chartered National Forest Foundation, to help stage the Great American Farmers Market held on the National Mall August 3–8, 2025. At the time of the donations each company had matters pending before the federal government: Visa was fighting a Justice Department antitrust suit, John Deere a Federal Trade Commission antitrust suit, and the market used commodities derived from SNAP and child-nutrition food-donation accounts. Planning agendas obtained by committee investigators showed Rollins's staff intended to solicit event donations from companies with business before the government.
Five federal agencies simultaneously stripped immigrant access to life-safety benefit programs, revoking 24 years of DOJ guidance
On July 10-11, 2025, five federal departments — Justice, Health and Human Services, Education, Agriculture, and Labor — simultaneously issued notices rescinding decades-old guidance that had protected immigrant access to federal benefit programs under the "necessary to protect life or safety" exception in the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. The DOJ withdrew its 2001 Attorney General interpretation identifying which programs qualified, effective August 15, 2025; HHS rescinded a 1998 policy keeping Head Start, community health clinics, and Title X accessible; the Department of Education revoked its 1997 guidance covering adult education and postsecondary programs. Multiple states sued immediately.
USDA withdrew Salmonella poultry rule after top inauguration donor's trade group lobbied against it
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service formally withdrew its proposed "Salmonella Framework for Raw Poultry Products" rule on April 25, 2025, days after the National Chicken Council publicly opposed it and after reporting revealed that member company Pilgrim's Pride had made a $5 million donation to the Trump-Vance inaugural committee, the single largest inauguration donation. The rule would have set the first enforceable Salmonella contamination limits in raw chicken and turkey and given FSIS authority to stop sale of contaminated poultry.