Tariff Pause. No Movement on Federal Budget. USDA in the DOGE Crosshairs. And more--Some Rural News Updates.
Chaos reigns in Trump's DC. New agencies and political appointees are adding more bureaucracy and red tape. Lawsuits are growing like dandelions. The federal trainwreck is nothing but havoc for rural.
NOTE—Today’s edition of The Cocklebur provides a few updates on issues and policies that matter to rural people and rural communities.
1.) Trump Pauses Some Tariffs. . . But the Republican Trade War Continues. President Donald Trump paused his “Liberation Day Reciprocal Tariffs” yesterday (April 9, 2025) in response to outrage, confusion, some Republican pushback, and historic declines in financial markets. He announced his tariff pause, along with an updated 125% tariff on Chinese imports, via social media post. The White House has not yet provided information or detail to explain his Trade War Battle Plan. Trump implied that he will use the next 90 days to negotiate trade terms with countries on the reciprocal tariff list. There is no indication of how this will play out, nor is there any reason to trust a word that Trump or his spokespeople say about U.S. trade policy. It all can change on a President’s whims via social media, apparently. Such is life in the Trump era.
Still, the Trade War rages on. Here’s what we know (or at least think we know):
Chinese imports will now face an effective 125% tariff rate.
China will either stop purchasing or radically reduce purchases of U.S. goods, including mountains of soybeans and other agricultural products.
Mexico and Canada imports will still face a 25% tariff rate, though a lower 10% rate applies to energy, agriculture inputs, building materials, and more. Some exemptions are in effect due to the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement Trump negotiated during his first term.
25% tariffs will still be applied to imported trucks and automobiles.
25% tariffs will still be applied to imported steel and aluminum.
The 10% baseline tariff is still in place for all other imports.
2.) The House is Failing to Pass the Senate-endorsed Federal Budget. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) plan to conduct an up-or-down vote on the Senate-approved federal budget went off the rails yesterday. Many budget-hawk Freedom Caucus Republicans don’t think the Senate bill cuts domestic spending deep enough. That includes resources and services that rural Americans depend on like Medicaid, Medicare, nutrition assistance, government payments to farmers, managing federal lands, fighting wildfires, responding to disasters, funding infrastructure, and much much more.
All Democrats—or nearly all (looking at you, Jared Golden)—remain opposed to the package of cuts paired with $5.3 trillion in debt-exploding tax cuts that primarily benefit multi-millionaires and corporations. Speaker Johnson can only move the budget forward if he can convince all but three Republicans from voting against the Senate budget framework.
3.) USDA prepares for the Trump/Musk Slash-and-Selloff Treatment. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is facing job cuts, relocation of some employees, and sale of one of two DC-area headquarters buildings. This story was broken by Government Executive based on information from USDA executives. The headline pretty much says it all: “USDA to slash headquarters, other staff and relocate some to new 'hubs' around the country—Mass layoffs at the Agriculture Department coming within weeks, with Washington facing significant cuts but regional employees also seeing reductions.”
Government Executive reports that:
Some USDA officials have been told that staff rates will mirror the 2019 level. That would mean cutting the current level from 98,000 by around 10%.
Some eliminated positions will be in DC. Others will be in field office nationwide, many of whom were hired by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). NRCS workers help farmers apply for and implement conservation practices on privately-owned farms and forests all across the country.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins is likely to restructure and re-shape how USDA works. She is called for “consolidation” and removing “unnecessary layers of management” throughout the agency.
Targeting cuts in DC would likely cut workers who do much of the critical research and grant deployment functions at USDA.
As part of the restructure, USDA is considering offloading the U.S. Forest Service’s lead in fighting wildfire to another department or agency.
These job cuts could be accompanied by further budget cuts and contract cancellations by the Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
(NOTE—further information about previously announced USDA office closures is available from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s Michael Happ HERE. A map of the closures is pasted below.)
4.) Cuts to federal emergency assistance. Beyond USDA, Trump and Musk’s DOGE have targeted the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA staff and resources help rural people, rural businesses, and rural communities recover from disasters. The need for federal emergency response in the wake of tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, fires, or other weather disasters is clear. See: the vast destruction and damage caused by recent tornadoes and floods in Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Texas, and surrounding states.
Most immediate on-the-ground response is done by local people, of course, and there are certainly problems with the way FEMA operates. But most rural communities can’t afford the costs of getting roads or public infrastructure back up and running. They require outside funding to rebuild.
Rather than addressing FEMA challenges directly, the Trump Administration is cutting FEMA staff and canceling funding for disaster preparedness activities. More information on FEMA’s important and popular disaster preparedness funding is available from Headwaters Economics.
The Cocklebur covers rural policy and politics from a progressive point-of-view. Our work focuses on a tangled rural political reality of dishonest debate, economic and racial disparities, corporate power over our democracy, and disinformation peddled by conservative media outlets. We aim to use facts, data, and science to inform our point-of-view. We wear our complicated love/WTF relationship with rural America on our sleeve.
