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February 24, 2025

Delayed federal funding for Maine farmers has finally been released

By Tina Fischer

Days after Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Commissioner Amanda Beal last week urged the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to act “swiftly” to release critical funding to farmers, the USDA announced that the federal agency was beginning to ease the funding freeze.

Amanda Beal
COURTESY / Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
Amanda Beal

On Monday, the USDA announced it was sending out the first round of monies that had been withheld as part of the Trump administration's review of funding included in the Inflation Reduction Act. The funding delay is having impacts beyond the agricultural sector, in Maine and nationwide.

Beal had warned in a Feb. 18 letter to newly appointed USDA secretary Brooke Rollins, that further holdups, “could have significant economic consequences for Maine's agricultural sector, which operates on tight margins and depends on timely financial support to sustain operations."

Rollins said Monday that the agency will honor contracts that had been made to farmers. 

The USDA released $20 million in contracts for the environmental quality incentive program, the conservation stewardship program and the agricultural conservation easement program.

Beal had said that tens of millions of dollars were being withheld from nonprofits and service providers, noting, "We also have concerns about the fate of other federal funds that pass through our department that have a direct impact on farmers ... All of this adds up to significant concern for the economic impact that continuing to withhold federal funds will have on our agriculture sector as a whole."

Rollins wrote in her announcement, "We will honor our commitments to American farmers and ranchers, and we will ensure they have the support they need to be the most competitive in the world.” 

 

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