The Trump administration has taken the first steps to bring the Food for Peace assistance program under the Agriculture Department’s purview, say four people familiar with the situation. An interagency agreement signed last month allows USDA to take control of the program’s funding from the State Department and begin making awards in the coming weeks.

Administration officials notified congressional offices on Friday that late last month the Office of Management and Budget and USDA officials signed an interagency agreement to put Food for Peace funding under USDA control.

The department will have around $1.6 billion in fiscal 2025 and 2026 funding to award, a congressional aide tells Agri-Pulse. The FY26 USDA funding bill provides $1.2 billion for Food for Peace. The remainder of the $1.6 billion comes from unspent FY25 funding.

Administration officials also relayed to congressional offices that awards will prioritize commodities with a production surplus, like rice, wheat and sorghum.

Lawmakers have been eyeing moving the program to USDA from State – where it was rehoused following the shutter of the U.S. Agency for International Development in July.

The FY2026 agriculture appropriations bill signed into law in November directed the administration to prepare a report on the process for transferring the program, which statutorily, is still housed at USAID. That report is due in January.

Congress will still need to legislate to make the transfer permanent, however.

“USDA can go ahead and start operating the program because of the interagency agreement, but that's not a permanent fixture,” said Kim Cooper, vice president for government affairs at the North American Millers' Association (NAMA).

NAMA has endorsed moving the program to USDA and Cooper has been meeting with lawmakers to push for legislative action. 

“We are still working on codifying that language,” Cooper added.

A farm bill could serve as a legislative vehicle for such a provision, Cooper said. House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., told Agri-Pulse Friday that he is aiming to move a farm bill in February, but so far, no bill text has been published.

Cooper said lawmakers had been waiting for the interagency agreement before completing the bill text to ensure the legislation reflected the administration’s plans for Food for Peace.

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USDA officials are already looking into how they can improve the program. USDA Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Luke Lindberg led a roundtable on Wednesday with commodity groups, non-governmental organizations, food manufacturers and maritime shippers to gather feedback on how to streamline the program.

“USDA is obviously taking a keen interest in getting this thing up and running and doing so in the best manner possible,” Cooper said. “I’m extremely optimistic,” Cooper added.

She noted that one of the issues discussed at the listening session was whether USDA could do more forecasting to give industries and shippers opportunities to prepare for upcoming awards.

Cooper isn’t the only one buoyed by USDA’s early enthusiasm. Navyn Salem is the founder and CEO at Edesia Nutrition, which produces ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) used to treat acute malnutrition in children. She didn’t personally attend the listening session – another representative from the company went – but she told Agri-Pulse she thought it was “a great way” to kick off USDA’s management of the program.

 “We have lots of ideas for efficiencies – for strategies that can benefit everybody, from U.S. farmers to people who are in humanitarian crises, to American taxpayers,” Salem said. “We're excited.”

Some quarters on Capitol Hill have reservations, however. Last month, a group of more than 20 Democrats wrote to officials to warn against a transfer to USDA. They argued that such a move would weaken U.S. foreign policy tools, undermine congressional intent and could lead to worse outcomes for global hunger.

Salem said that she doesn’t have a preference for which department or agency is ultimately responsible for the program, but she hopes the program can regain some stability.

“Three agencies in one year is a lot to manage for a small business,” Salem said. “We remain flexible; we remain positive; and are happy to work with anyone who wants to really listen to ways to do things better and more efficiently.”

USDA did not respond to a request to comment. A State Department spokesperson said only that “Congress has introduced legislation to transfer it to the U.S. Department of Agriculture,” adding that the program is “currently a U.S. Department of State program.”

“As we do not comment on pending legislation, we have nothing further to share at this time,” the spokesperson said in an email. 

For more news, go to Agri-Pulse.com.