Hit hard by shutdown... No wellfare subsidies....

Farmers, a key GOP constituency, hit hard by shutdown

The closure of thousands of farm loan offices have top Republicans like Senate Majority Leader John Thune acknowledging the pain hitting their own constituents.

By Meredith Lee Hill and Jordain Carney

The government shutdown is already hurting a key GOP constituency: farmers.

Thousands of USDA’s Farm Service Agency offices that help producers across the country access loans and other services are completely shuttered and only available for “emergency scenarios.” Even top Republican lawmakers acknowledge the pain hitting their own constituents, despite assurances from President Donald Trump that Democrats will bear the brunt of the shutdown.

“FSA employees are important to the farmers that we all represent. Again, that’s an unnecessary consequence of the Schumer shutdown,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who represents an agriculture-heavy state, said in an interview Wednesday.

Those offices normally close during shutdown. But Trump officials had previously debated contingency options to keep at least some of them open since this year’s funding lapse would hit at an especially poor time for farmers who are already reeling from Trump’s tariff fallout and currently preparing for harvest season.

Ultimately, the Trump administration decided to close the offices, allowing one farm loan officer to be on call in most areas if the shutdown drags on longer than 10 days. Other select employees will be on call for natural disaster response.

Thune added that he believes the administration will “try as best they can” to minimize the consequences for farm country. However, the South Dakota Republican said: “They’re being put into a situation where they’re going to have to make decisions that are not good for some of the constituencies that people represent out there.”

Trump officials stress that crop insurance coverage will stay operational through the shutdown, which should help farmers. But the shuttered county FSA offices are where producers normally get assistance on that and other topics.

Republicans argue that Democrats are responsible for the closures given they blocked a clean, seven-week stopgap. But more than a dozen GOP lawmakers and aides have privately noted that the Trump administration is specifically protecting some of their biggest priorities from the shutdown fallout — including deportations and tariff negotiations — and that those protections didn’t extend to certain farm bill programs and farm services.

“I hope that they can find ways to keep the FSA offices open and certainly encourage that. But you know, the quickest way to end any conversation about that is to reopen the government,” Thune said.