Trump administration plans to distribute farmer aid amid shutdown

The administration of President Donald Trump is planning to distribute billions in aid for farmers and reopen some activities of the U.S. Department of Agriculture amid the ongoing federal shutdown, the agency said on Tuesday. 

The administration was expected in early October to announce an aid package to bail out farmers hurt by trade disputes and big harvests, but Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins later said it would be delayed until after the end of the shutdown. 

"Thursday, USDA will resume Farm Service Agency core operations, including critical services for farm loan processing, ARC/PLC (commodity) payments, and other programs," said Rollins in a post on X.

The administration plans to open all FSA offices, which will enable farmers to get and cash payment checks, Rollins said in an interview on Fox Business. 

Rollins said on X that the aid would total more than $3 billion. 

The Wall Street Journal previously reported the aid would be released and the amount.

The money for the aid will come from the Commodity Credit Corporation, a financing mechanism at the USDA that the first Trump administration used to give farmers more than $23 billion in trade aid, according to the Wall Street Journal report. 

The USDA did not respond to a request for information on which types of farmers would receive aid.