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Cotton farmer optimistic USDA payments will resume

A cotton farmer from Texas says she’s expecting the USDA to honor contracts for farmers participating in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

Alisha Schwertner told the House Ag Committee in a hearing on Tuesday “We have $100,000 of outstanding funds with projects, but we’ve never not been paid. I’m confident in President Trump, he said he’d take care of farmers and ranchers, and he’s held true to that promise in the past.”

Funding is frozen at the USDA for some programs included in the Inflation Reduction Act at the request of President Trump.

A U.S. Representative from Minnesota Angie Craig, ranking member of the House Ag Committee, says the status of payments is a conversation that should happen once Brooke Rollins, the nominee for U.S. Agriculture Secretary, is confirmed.