The costs states face in co-funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are comparable to the roughly $15 billion spent on transportation in fiscal 2025, the National Association of State Budget Officers tells Senate and House Agriculture committee leaders.
The estimated upcoming SNAP costs required under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act equal 1.25% of state general fund expenditures, NASBO said in a June 9 letter to lawmakers obtained by Agri-Pulse.
States and territories are committed to administering SNAP accurately and making “significant investments” to improve performance ahead of the benefit cost-sharing requirements based on payment error rates (PER), the group said.
NASBO surveyed 43 states and one territory on their investments to comply with the law and improve error rates, including “technology updates that take significant time to implement effectively,” according to the organization representing chief financial advisers to U.S. governors.
The survey, for example, says California in 2025-26 appropriated $54.9 million to lower its error rate, while Mississippi expects to spend about $27 million over the next five years.
“Since nearly all states are legally required to balance their budgets, states and territories must carefully prioritize spending demands,” the group said. “As a result, investments needed to improve PER performance are competing directly with increased administrative costs and new SNAP benefit cost-share requirements, in addition to other priorities including education, public safety, and economic development.”
USDA food safety leader defends New World screwworm preparedness efforts
USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety Mindy Brashears says 7,000 inspectors with the Food Safety Inspection Service are “leading the animal health charge” in the fight against New World screwworm, and the parasitic pest does not pose a threat to the food supply.
“We knew that it would eventually get to the U.S., but we slowed it down substantially,” Brashears told Agri-Pulse Newsmakers, pointing to USDA’s investments in research, added containment‑identification staff, and expanded sterile‑fly production capacity in Texas and Panama.
“New World screwworm only really only thrives on healthy, living tissue, so you're not going to find it in poultry, meat or anything that you find in the supermarket,” Brashears said.
Big picture: 5,300 grants and programs, including U.S.-funded animal disease projects dedicated to monitoring New World screwworm in Central America were slashed when the Trump administration dismantled the U.S. Agency of International Development.
Tune into Newsmakers today to hear more from Brashears, as well as from Western Growers President and CEO Dave Puglia about priorities in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement review. Plus, Phillip Kauffman, head of the Texas A&M University Entomology Department, and Ron Phillips, senior vice president of policy at the Animal Health Institute, discuss the New World screwworm response.
Democrats press Rollins to step up fight against New World screwworm
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and 20 other Democrats say the Trump administration needs to step up its fight against New World screwworm.
“We are aware that the USDA has engaged in preliminary efforts to contain this outbreak, including enhanced surveillance, sterile fly releases, coordination with animal health officials in Texas and New Mexico, and the confirmation that the U.S. food supply remains safe,” the senators wrote in a June 11 letter to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. These are “critical first steps, but the evolving situation demands additional actions.”
The USDA so far has devoted $1.3 billion to its fight against screwworm, a potentially fatal pest for cattle and other animals, according to Rollins.
Democrats urge USDA to:
Expand production of sterile flies used to fight the outbreak.
Explore authorities under the Defense Production Act.
Boost outreach and funding for states vulnerable to long-term infestation.
Use direct hiring powers to expand the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Groups seek new local purchasing option for USDA Foods program
A group of more than 450 groups, school districts, food distributors and nutrition organizations are asking lawmakers to allow money from a farm bill food entitlement program to be used to buy local foods.
In a letter to House and Senate leaders, the groups request a new local food purchasing option within the USDA Foods program, which allows schools per-meal entitlement funding for commodity food products. They say that current pathways are built around “large-scale procurement that small and mid-sized farmers simply cannot access due to high volume requirements and complex federal contracting practices.”
The letter says a new pathway would create stable markets for small and mid-sized farms and increase scratch cooking in school meals.
“The potential for economic impact is significant,” they say, citing estimates that if schools in Arkansas alone diverted 5% of entitlement funds to a local food purchase option, it would "direct $766,000 to local family farms, generating an estimated $1.3 million in additional economic impact.”
Groups on the letter include the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, the National Organic Coalition, and the National Young Farmers Coalition, among others.
House lawmakers call for USTR to consider Mexican trade barriers in USMCA review
A bipartisan group of 17 House lawmakers on Thursday called on the Trump administration to use an upcoming review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement to ease what they describe as duplicative Mexican inspections of U.S. grain exports.
In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Secretary Rollins, the lawmakers said Mexican authorities stop U.S. grain trains at the border and reinspect them under a zero-tolerance standard for soil. They said “reinspection delays trains, increases transportation costs, and often triggers fumigation orders that can cost shippers up to $70,000 per train.”
"Rail carriers may send cars back empty rather than risk delays, and grain companies must purchase additional train capacity to keep supply chains running,” they wrote. "These are onerous and duplicative procedures — not science-based protections."
Bill reintroduced to authorize grants for community college ag programs
A bill that would authorize grants for community college agriculture and natural resources programs has been reintroduced in the Senate.
The bill was passed as part of the House farm bill, and if signed into law, would authorize $20 million annually from 2027 to 2031 towards capacity-building grants. It also includes programs for agricultural industry jobs like agribusiness. The bill prioritizes giving grants to programs with agricultural experiential learning.
The Community College Agriculture Advancement Act would amend the National Agricultural Research, Extension and Teaching Policy Act from 1977. It was reintroduced by Sens. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., Deb Fischer, R-Neb., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Jon Husted, R-Ohio.
Final word
“While we understand more than anyone the pressure of a full-on activist campaign, it is disheartening to see our country’s leadership cave to that pressure." — National Pork Producers Council President Rob Brenneman, an Iowa pork producer, commenting on Sen. Roger Marshall's withdrawal of support for a GOP-backed bill that would nullify animal welfare laws including California’s Prop 12.
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