USDA Delivers Thousands of Bridge Payments In a Matter of Days

In an afternoon general session, adjusted to fit USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins’ schedule, the agency leader welcomed a record crowd of 12,000 to her home state of Texas as she stares down one of the most challenging moments in farming history. Farmers are facing high input costs, trade uncertainty and surging grain production.

“Between 2020 and last year when I spoke at this incredible event, fuel costs had increased 33%, seed costs had increased 19%, fertilizer prices had gone up 48%, labor up 44% and interest expenses up 71%,” said Rollins.

The frustration in the room was palpable following a year in 2025 where strong production was again unable to overcome swelling costs and expenses. Farmers here are now looking harder to Washington for answers as another season of negative margins stares them in the face.

“We’re seven years out from this last farm bill and all of this information that we’re trying to work with is so outdated, our costs are so different, we have to get something done,” said Jed Bower, the current president of the National Corn Growers Association and an Ohio farmer. “They have forgotten about rural America.”

Help is on the way

USDA did roll out an $11 billion rescue program called the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program as a way to help tide farmers over until safety net pricing adjustments kick in this fall. Those weren’t passed in a new Farm Bill but instead included in the One Big Beautiful Bill signed last year. Sign-ups for Bridge payments are currently underway with FSA even allowing Commodity Classic attendees to finalize their applications on the tradeshow floor. Some of those payments are already in farmers’ hands as Rollins told farmers help is on the way.

“I will not declare victory, we still have so much work to do, but I will declare that we have made great progress on the promises that were made,” said Rollins. “Since [the last time I was here] we have had 15 new trade deals and/or frameworks for US agriculture in key markets like the European Union, UK, Japan, Mexico and Southeast Asia.”

The secretary also pointing China’s return to the market and pending presidential meeting scheduled for later this month. Economists are forecasting the agricultural trade deficit to fall from $41.5 billion in 2025 to $35 billion this year. That shift is happening around a strong export year in 2025 for things like ethanol where exports were up 11%, dairy exports were up 15% and corn exports ending the year 29% higher.

Separately from trade, Rollins noting a litany of deregulation happening across agencies. In a post on X.com, the secretary listed a number of changes already underway. Rollins writing that to date the administration has cut 129 regulations for every new one, resulting in $211.8 billion in net cost savings. She says accomplishments in USDA deregulation agenda include:

• Reversing the EPA endangerment finding impacting vehicle emissions standards
• Raising poultry line speeds → ~16% lower chicken prices
• Rescinding the Roadless Rule → opens 59M acres for timber
• Cutting USDA NEPA regs by 66% (streamlining 7 rules into 1)
• Reforming H-2A AEWR → saves farmers >$2B/year in labor costs
• Clarifying WOTUS per recent Supreme Court ruling
• Modernizing Forest Service oil/gas & minerals leasing rules

USDA systems get an upgrade

While the world focuses on precision agriculture and technology adoption, the systems helping support American farmers has been embarrassingly slow to evolve.

“A GAO audit found that barely 15% of previous upgrades were delivered,” said Rollins. “We have been left with ancient technical architecture with 500 different custom-built systems and databases managed by over 1,000 different contractors that cost the taxpayer over $1 billion.”

The secretary announcing the ‘One Farmer, One File’ initiative as a way to streamline the data collection and services from USDA.

“This creates a single, streamlined record that follows you, the farmer, no matter where you go in USDA system,” explained Rollins. “When this initiative concludes, producers will be able to access their USDA data in a single, modern, secure system built to today’s cybersecurity standards.”

(USDA (X.com))

Rollins says it’s part of the administration’s broader vision of revamping how Americans interact with the government’s digital front door. She also made it clear that these new tools are optional.

“What does this mean? Do I have to do everything on a computer? No, these FSA offices will stay open. You will always have someone to walk into and sit down with to help with paper applications and traditional acreage reporting,” said Rollins. “This is not a mandate to digitize. We are not telling you we’re moving everything to your phone or your computer at home, but instead it is an expansion of options for our farmers.”

This is the first phase of a multi-year initiative. The Farmer Bridge Assistance Program is the very first program running fully on this new platform.

“After 72 hours we had over 30,000 applications go through the application process at login.gov” said Richard Fordyce, USDA undersecretary for farm production and conservation. “When the producer sees the form on their virtual device and hit sign here, that immediately goes to the county office. It’s then signed and certified and sent for payment, immediately.”

“The results have been stunning,” said Rollins. “In just the past few days, we have seen 50 times more producers sign up online than ECAP did over its entire five-month sign-up period last year. Adoption is up over 5,000% and several billion dollars have already been obligated. Many of you told me you’ve already had the check hit your bank account faster than any program ever before in the history of USDA.”

Rollins called it a new standard for the delivery of services. She says the IT and system upgrades are scheduled to be completed within the next 2 years.

Focus on 2026

Rollins laid out her priorities for the new year as farmers at Commodity Classic look for answers to the difficult balance sheet decisions awaiting their return to the farm. The top 5 boiled down to this:

1. Continue to deregulate
2. Strike new trade deals
3. Lower the cost of inputs
4. Expand markets at home with biofuels
5. Strengthen the farm safety net by passing a new Farm Bill

That will be easier said than done as each step comes with its own set of challenges. Rollins will be navigating closing Washington D.C. offices and moving staff to new regional hubs which she hopes to have done by the start of school next fall. Throw in global political uncertainty, stubborn inflation and stiff competition from Brazil, and the challenges are big.

“I want every American to understand that if we are not able to reverse the trend, the farm economy, the increase in inputs, the fewer markets around the world, protection from lawfare, if we’re not able to reverse that trend, then we not only will lose the greatest industry in American history, but we will also lose our country,” said Rollins. “There is no freedom unless we are able to feed and fuel ourselves.”