{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://delauro.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/delauro-bishop-request-gao-investigate-trade-war-relief-farmers", "DeLauro, Bishop Request GAO Investigate Trade-War Relief for Farmers", "2026-09-08", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "House", "CT", "Rosa L. DeLauro", "D000216", "delauro.house.gov", "delauro", "https://delauro.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) and Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (GA-02) requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigate how the Department of Agriculture (USDA) is handing out over $12 billion in trade-war relief through the Farmer Bridge Assistance and Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers programs.\n\nA 2021 GAO report found that a similar agricultural tariff relief program \u2013 administered under President Trump\u2019s first term \u2013 disproportionately favored the largest agribusinesses and foreign-owned conglomerates.\n\n\u201cLast year, many members of Congress wrote to President Trump and USDA urging this Administration to ensure any agriculture trade relief program included guardrails and mechanisms to direct funding to producers who truly needed relief rather than simply enriching the largest agribusinesses or foreign-owned conglomerates, and to provide transparency into the process for establishing and executing the program,\u201d the lawmakers wrote. \u201cWhile USDA has provided some insight into their method for calculating payment rates and the geographic distribution of payments, many of our key recommendations aimed at increasing transparency, protecting taxpayer dollars, and ensuring relief gets where its most needed remain unfulfilled for both programs. Therefore, we ask GAO to conduct a review of the FBA and ASCF programs\u2026\u201d\n\nThe full letter can be found here and below.\n\nCosigners include Representatives Becca Balint, Christopher Deluzio, Shomari Figures, Hank Johnson Jr., John Larson, Bennie Thompson, and Jill Tokuda.\n\nMs. Orice Williams Brown\n\nActing Comptroller General of the United States\n\nU.S. Government Accountability Office\n\n441 G Street, NW\n\nWashington, DC 20548\n\nDear Ms. Williams Brown:\n\nWe are writing to request that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct a review of the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s (USDA) Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) and Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers (ASCF) programs. These programs are expected to distribute over $12 billion to American farmers to provide relief from the consequences of President Trump\u2019s reckless tariffs and trade wars, yet USDA has not been sufficiently transparent and only has provided limited information about these payments and their recipients. Congress must be able to conduct proper oversight of these funds, and the American people deserve a fulsome understanding of how USDA is spending their hard-earned tax dollars.\n\nEach year, USDA distributes billions of dollars to agricultural producers, from small family farms to large corporations and trusts. According to USDA\u2019s Economic Research Service, small operations tend to produce a larger share of commodities not covered by government payment programs, which are generally geared towards larger-scale row crop producers (e.g., corn and soybeans).[1]\n\nOver the past 19 months, President Trump\u2019s trade policy has jeopardized the livelihood of producers, particularly small farms and specialty crop producers, as a result of higher input costs due to tariffs and closed-off export markets. In December 2025, the Administration announced the FBA as a relief program for producers impacted by the president\u2019s own trade wars. Through the FBA, USDA will provide up to $11 billion to row crop producers.[2] In February 2026, USDA announced the availability of $1 billion through the Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers (ASCF) Program for specialty crops, sugar, and commodities not included in FBA.[3] When payment rates were announced in May, that number increased to $1.625 billion.\n\nLast year, many members of Congress wrote to President Trump and USDA urging this Administration to ensure any agriculture trade relief program included guardrails and mechanisms to direct funding to producers who truly needed relief rather than simply enriching the largest agribusinesses or foreign-owned conglomerates, and to provide transparency into the process for establishing and executing the program. While USDA has provided some insight into their method for calculating payment rates and the geographic distribution of payments, many of our key recommendations aimed at increasing transparency, protecting taxpayer dollars, and ensuring relief gets where its most needed remain unfulfilled for both programs.\n\nTherefore, we ask GAO to conduct a review of the FBA and ASCF programs to address the following questions:\n\nTo what extent did USDA incorporate lessons learned from the Market Facilitation Program (MFP), including recommendations from multiple GAO reports, regarding the process for setting up and executing the FBA and ASCF?\n\nThe 2021 GAO report on the MFP\u2014a similar agricultural tariff relief program launched during President Trump\u2019s first term\u2014noted that UDSA\u2019s methodology overestimated the harm of tariffs to 14 out of 29 commodity crops, resulting in disproportionate payments within and across crops and geographic regions that, by and large, went to the biggest players in the agriculture industry. GAO also pointed out that USDA developed the MFP with little transparency, preventing the Department from receiving outside input on how to improve its methodology.\n\nTo what extent did USDA implement \u201cGrow American\u201d requirements (e.g., those outlined in the Buy American Agriculture Act) as part of the FBA and ASCF to ensure taxpayer dollars go to supporting American farmers and not disproportionately to large agribusinesses or indirectly to foreign-owned conglomerates?\n\nWhat factors did USDA consider in determining the amount available, payment rates, and maximum payment limitations for the FBA and ASCF programs?\n\nWhat was the distribution of payments under FBA and ASCF by type of producer (crop type, size of farm, and annual farm income)? By payment size categorized by tranches of $25,000 up to maximum payment amount (e.g., $0-25,000, $25,001-$50,000, etc.)?\n\nWhat proportion of recipients had a net farm income for 2023 of less than $250,000, as recorded in the data in the Economic Research Service publication \u2018\u2018Farm Income and Wealth Statistics\u2019\u2019 as of December 3, 2024 (with such information being collected at the time of application for aid?\n\nWhat steps did USDA take to ensure that proper payment amounts went out to eligible producers through the FBA and ASCF programs?\n\nWhat challenges did USDA face in administering the FBA and ASCF programs and what actions has USDA taken to address these challenges?\n\nThank you for your assistance in this matter.", 1, "2026-09-09T09:27:09Z", "2026-09-09T09:29:04Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://delauro.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/delauro-bishop-request-gao-investigate-trade-war-relief-farmers"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.375595038756728, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}