USDA Won’t Shut Down in January Even if the Rest of the Government Does

The compromise reached last week to reopen the government did more than just that. It also provided full-year funding for nearly all of USDA.

“With the exception of the Forest Service, all of our farm facing programs: FSA, Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Risk Management Agency, what have you, we’ve got full year appropriations,” explains U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Vaden, who spoke with us by phone Friday. “That means, as far as our farm community is concerned, whatever happens in January, and I certainly hope there’s not another government shutdown, but if there is, it’s not going to affect our farm facing programs. We have full year appropriations. We will march on completely unaffected.”

During the shutdown, farmers were initially unable to conduct any business at their local FSA office.

“All of our FSA offices, our county offices, are returning to normal operations,” says Vaden. “As you know, we reopened them on a partial basis during the shutdown, allowing us to perform certain vital actions we were legally allowed to do for farmers. Now they’re open for everything.”

Vaden encourages farmers to call ahead and even schedule an appointment if you can at your local FSA office if you need to conduct business in the coming days.

Farm Bill programs were extended as part of the compromise. Vaden says he’s looking forward to Farm Bill 2.0 discussions in 2026 to modernize the Farm Bill.

Speaking of 2026, Vaden says producers should be most excited about provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to kick in. In one such provision, Vaden says producers will no longer have to gamble with their election of ARC or PLC.

“The law says for next year, we’re going to calculate it for every producer under both and whichever one the producer would have ended up better on you get it. That’s a huge difference for farm country. That’s going to mean billions of more dollars in farmers’ pockets, in support payments, and all of that is thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It’s automatic. Producers don’t need to worry about the election. And don’t forget the increased reference prices that come along with it. We’ve needed that for years.”

Hear the full HAT interview below from Friday, November 14 with Vaden.