(Fairly) Good FY 2026 News from Agriculture Appropriations Committee

During the week ending June 6, 2025, the House Agriculture Appropriations Committee released their initial markup of the FY 2026 Budget. The markup summary proposes $1.654 billion for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), which is $24.6 million below the FY25 enacted level. By contrast, the President’s Budget proposed over $600 million in cuts to NIFA, including a cut to Smith-Lever 3 (b&c) of $150 million. The proposed House markup cuts break down as approximately $18 million from the Research and Education account, roughly $6 million from the Extension account, and approximately $1 million from the Integrated Account. At this time, it is unclear which line items from the Extension account will see cuts.

Ag Council on Government Affairs Called to Action on SNAP-Ed and RFA Regarding FY2025 Reconciliation, CARET Soon to Receive the Call

During the week ending June 6, 2025, the APLU Agriculture Council on Government Affairs received a call to action that stated plainly:

Please consider engaging with your Senate offices and educating agriculture staff, particularly those on the Senate Agriculture Committee, on the important (the SNAP-Ed and Research Facilities Act) programs (as appropriate and based on your institution’s participation/needs).

The distributed SNAP-Ed background and talking points, as distributed by APLU’s Marcus Glassman, were as follows:

• For Chairman Boozman to pull the SNAP-Ed elimination in the Senate reconciliation package he must hear from other Republican senators that they want it saved.
• While we wait to see if the proposed elimination of SNAP-Ed would comply with Senate rules (Byrd), we ask you to weigh in with your Senate offices to educate them about SNAP-Ed and the impact the program has in your state, including:
• How does SNAP-Ed operate in your state—are there state-specific goals, priorities, and programming?
• How many constituents does the program reach?
• How many counties/parishes?
• How many programs/services does the program provide?
• How much money per year comes to your state for SNAP-Ed?
• How many jobs does the program support?
• Signature outcomes/impacts/statistics/partners from your state’s program.

NOTE: Your SNAP-Ed Administrators should have compiled most, if not all, of this information.

SNAP-Ed Ask/Talking points for Senate staff:

• We understand the difficult choices being made right now. However, consideration of the Farm Bill is the best time to weigh the future of nutrition education and how to amplify impact.
• Changes can be made, but it should be a thoughtful conversation and not something that will halt progress just when we need it most.
• In a time when SNAP recipients are going to be asked to do more with less—stretching every dollar is critical and SNAP-ED ensures recipients have access and understanding of how to do that.
• SNAP-ED is not perfect, changes can be made, but SNAP-ED is also successful given it receives only one half of one percent of SNAP funds going to states. 

NOTE: While LGUs receive a significant portion of SNAP-Ed funding, numerous other organizations also receive funding. Currently, APLU is working with the Association of SNAP Nutrition Education Administrators (ASNNA) on joint messaging and will share additional talking points when finalized.

CARET members should receive similar communications in the coming days.  

Extension Foundation Announces Appointment of Adam Hughes to Lead National Health and Well-Being Coordination Efforts. 

The Extension Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Adam Hughes, MPH, to provide national-level managerial support for Cooperative Extension’s health and well-being initiatives. In this role, Hughes will support the implementation of the five high-level recommendations from Cooperative Extension’s National Framework for Health and Well-Being, approved by the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) in 2021. Learn more here.

Make America Healthy Again Issues Report: MAKING OUR CHILDREN HEALTHY AGAIN

On May 22, the Trump Administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission released its long-anticipated assessment report on Making Our Children Healthy Again. Earlier this year, President Trump signed an Executive Order establishing the MAHA Commission, comprised of leaders from key federal health, agricultural, and economic agencies to reduce the burden of chronic disease among U.S. youth. The report offers the first glimpse into the Administration’s health priorities, highlighting specific concerns such as increased rates of childhood chronic illness and cancer incidence, the severity of the youth mental health crisis, the prevalence of childhood allergies and autoimmune disorders, and higher rates of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, like autism spectrum disorders. The report points to four main causes of this phenomenon:

• Ultra-processed foods,
• Exposure to environmental chemicals,
• Pervasive use of technology, and
• The “overmedication of our children.”

Notably, the report highlights that the Commission will continue working to develop an official strategy to build upon these recommendations by August 2025


More Detail on the President's 2026 Budget Request

The White House released more details on the FY 2026 budget request. The NIFA portion begins on page 78. Of greatest interest to the Cooperative Extension world are the following reductions:

• Smith-Lever 3(b&c) - FY 2026 proposal $175 million, down from $325 million
• 1890s Extension - FY 2026 proposal $62 million, down from $72 million
• Expanded Food and Nutrition Program - FY 2026 proposal $48 million, down from $70 million

The proposal does not appear to fund the Hatch program at all, significantly reduces McIntire Stennis Forestry Research, and has numerous other reductions. Initial analysis by Lewis-Burke casts doubt that Congress will go along with these types of cuts, but advocacy efforts should be made to preserve the capacity programs. 

New ASAP Requirement

NIFA grantees using the Automated Standard Application for Payments (ASAP) system should be aware of a new requirement. Effective May 19, 2025, the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service requires recipient organizations to include a justification for each payment. This field is mandatory and will be part of the first step in the payment request process. The requirement aims to improve transparency and accountability in the federal payment process.

Treasury Fiscal Service has a presentation to learn more about this new feature and the steps needed to process payments. There is also a video illustrating the new feature and its functionality. Additionally, Fiscal Service will hold webinars to assist grantees with this new requirement.

If you are interested in attending an upcoming ASAP webinar, find more information on their website. Contact the Fiscal Service ASAP Production Support at (855) 868-0151 (option 2, option 3) or at asaphelpdesk@fiscal.treasury.gov if you have questions. You can also reach out to our Financial Management ASAP Team if you have questions at ASAPCustomerService@usda.gov.

Is your SNAP-ED Information Up-to-Date?

Legislation has been proposed in the House funding bill to eliminate the SNAP-Ed program. This cut would end SNAP-Ed programming at 58 LGUs across the system and negatively impact the 6.6 million people reached through SNAP-Ed delivered by land-grant universities. Sharing our outcomes and impacts in a visually appealing, concise manner, such as infographics or one-pagers is the best way to combat questions about the efficacy of the program. If your university has not shared your most recent SNAP-Ed data or impact report here, please send it to Lauren Sweeney at lauren.sweeney@sdstate.edu.

Save the Date: 4-H Council CEO Q&A and Spring 2025 Outlook

• National 4-H Council CEO Jill Bramble's next virtual Q&A with the 4-H system will be on May 27th from 3:30 -4:30 pm ET.
• After brief updates on Council’s priorities and operations, there will be time for Q&A with Jill and other Council leaders.
• Advanced registration is required. REGISTER HERE

Interested in Serving as a NIFA Peer Reviewer?

There are few things that as economical and professionally developmental than serving as a NIFA peer reviewer. If you are interested in serving on a peer-review panel, you can provide your contact information by visiting the NIFA Peer Reviewer System (PRS) and clicking the Panelist Recruitment link. You will be asked to provide your contact information and expertise.


Save the Date – September 15-18

The joint National Extension Directors and Administrators and agInnovation meeting will be held in St. Louis beginning with a late afternoon/evening reception on September 15 (travel day) and concluding with Western and Northeastern Regional Cooperative Extension meetings on September 18. Registration information will be available at a later date.

President Releases Abbreviated (skinny) FY 2026 Budget Request

Last week, President Trump released abbreviated highlights of the administration’s FY 2026 Federal budget. The budget request (also sometimes known as the skinny budget) calls for a $602 million decrease in National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) budget. The document describes the decrease as follows (see the bottom of page 31 in the linked document):

“The Budget eliminates wasteful, woke programming in NIFA, such as activities related to climate change, renewable energy, and promoting DEI in education that were prioritized under the Biden Administration. In addition, the Budget reduces funding for formula grants because they generally do not achieve the same results as competitive programs. Instead, the Budget focuses on the President’s goal of advancing the competitiveness of American agriculture through the merit-based Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. The Budget protects funding to youth and K-12 programs such as 4-H clubs, tribal colleges, and universities. This investment would help prepare future generations of farmers. It also ensures HBCUs are amply funded.”

The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities released a statement about the entire document, specifically mentioning the USDA/NIFA portion. Analysis from APLU’s consulting firm, Lewis-Burke, states that cuts of this magnitude and nature are unlikely to be upheld by the US Congress. The status of each individual NIFA line item is currently unknown.


ECOP Signs on to Letter in Support of SNAP-ED

Last week, the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) signed onto a letter in support of SNAP-Education (ED), which was addressed to the following important federal lawmakers:

• The Honorable John Boozman, Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
• The Honorable Any Klobuchar, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
• The Honorable Glen “GT” Thompson, Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture
• The Honorable Angie Craig, Ranking Member, House Committee on Agriculture

The letter shares information highlighting the critical role of the SNAP-ED program in advancing national food security and nutrition goals. It also discusses how the program helps individuals and families make more nutritious food choices, stretch limited food budgets, increase physical activity, and make healthy choices easier in the community.


NIFA Director Makes First Land-grant University Visit

Dr. Jaye Hamby’s first Land-grant University trip as NIFA Director was a bit of a homecoming when he visited Oklahoma State University (OSU) recently. Dr. Hamby completed his master’s and doctoral studies at OSU.

Dr. Hamby toured OSU agriculture research facilities and units, including the Food and Agricultural Products Center, a 96,000-square-foot facility that houses animal harvesting, food manufacturing, grain milling, sensory profiling, food microbiology and application laboratories for demonstration and prototype testing, as well as education and training capabilities. Additionally, Dr. Bee Chim guided him through the Soil, Water and Forage Laboratory (SWFAL), which handles more than 60,000 samples annually.

During his visit, Dr. Hamby was recognized as OSU’s 2025 Distinguished Alumni in Agricultural Education.


National 4-H Conference Photos Now Available on USDA Flickr

More than 300 images from the recent 2025 National 4-H Conference are available at USDA Flickr. If your state 4-H program sent delegates to the conference, check out the National 4-H Conference photo album to see if there are images of your delegation.