The Trump administration is looking to reduce the Agriculture Department’s role in farmland conservation and rural development, leaving more of those responsibilities to states and private industry.
The administration’s budget outline for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 would slash funding for conservation technical assistance, rural broadband and other agriculture-related priorities that have enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress.
While the administration’s budget outline — a so-called skinny budget that’s typical in a brand new administration — is only a wish list, it’s arriving in a Republican-led Congress that’s been largely deferential to President Donald Trump.
Appropriations for the programs in question will ultimately fall to lawmakers.
