The end of January marks the third week of the state legislative session. The House remains unorganized, the Senate is soon to leave its power-sharing agreement following a tie-breaking special election, and efforts to freeze a broad swath of federal funding have placed new uncertainty on efforts to establish the next two-year budget. As always—and even among uncertainty—MFU’s legislative team has maintained a strong presence at the capitol working to inform the lawmakers decisions and ensure they’re responsive to the needs of family farmers.

In particular, we’ve been working hard to plan our annual Lobby Day on Feb. 4 starting at 10 a.m. at our office. While schedules could change amid a particularly fluid session, we’re slated to meet with top administration officials, legislative leadership, and have individual meetings scheduled with lawmakers from across the state. It’s not too late to sign up for Lobby Day or to encourage others to join us. Let us know you’re planning to join by filling out this short form: bit.ly/MFULobby25.

We’ll use our 2025 Legislative Priorities one-pager for conversations with lawmakers. You can find it at mfu.org/legislation. This builds on newly approved policy and Special Orders of Business passed at MFU’s annual convention as they relate to the state legislature.

If you can’t join us for Lobby Day, one way you can support our efforts is to take a moment to send an email to your state elected officials—you can find their contact information here: https://www.gis.lcc.mn.gov/iMaps/districts/. Mention that you’re a member of MFU, but can’t make it to the Capitol today, share one or two priorities you think deserve their consideration, and consider inviting them to our legislative reception at 4:30 p.m. that evening at Farmers Kitchen and Bar, 750 S 2nd St., Suite 100, Minneapolis. All are welcome!

We’re looking forward to an effective Lobby Day that builds on relationships and helps us form new ones.

That said, it’s not clear that the House will be organized by next Tuesday. As shared in the last update, House DFLers are staying away from the Capitol in order to deny the quorum necessary to begin session in that body. At issue is both a power sharing agreement that would allow shared power when the body likely returns to a tie in early March and the seating of Rep. Brad Tabke, DFL-Shakopee, who a court determined won his election.

House Republicans had previously contended that they had the quorum necessary to start session with 67 votes, given that there was one vacant seat. However, the Minnesota Supreme Court intervened, siding with House DFLers and Secretary of State Steve Simon to say that the number necessary for quorum is 68 votes, rendering moot the organizing actions and hearings previously undertaken by House Republicans.

There’s of course more to say about the twists and turns, but no one seems to dispute how this session will necessarily end. And that’s with bipartisan votes to pass a new two-year budget for state government. There just might be a few more twists and turns to get there.

An early step in the budget setting process, the governor released his budget request early, on Jan. 16. While not as detailed as legislative language the extensive document provides the administration’s position on spending going into budget negotiations.

The governor released these recommendations with a strong message about fiscal restraint and managing the projected structural imbalance long term. In all, this meant cutting around $5 billion from state general fund spending, taking the overall budget from $70.7 billion to $65.9.

For agriculture, the good news is that ‘base’ spending on ag programs was largely unchanged and there wouldn’t be cuts to core staffing or services. However, the agriculture budget was not immune to belt-tightening proposed across government.

• First, the one program the governor did propose cutting is the Green Fertilizer Grant program MFU worked hard to establish and just celebrated at our Green Ammonia Summit in December—from $7 million to $4 million.
• Second, many programs in the agriculture budget are funded on a biennium to biennium basis and many others were established with one time spending last biennium (when we had a significant one-time surplus). Under this proposal, all one time spending would not be renewed, effectively discontinuing programs including these MFU has worked hard to establish or support, including:
  • Meat cutting grants to establish K12 education programs
  • Meat processing workforce hiring incentives
  • Noxious weed grants \Grants for farmers’ market hubs
  • State support for The Good Acre LEAFF Program
  • Farm Safety grants
  • Wolf-livestock conflict prevention grants
  • State support for the Minnesota Livestock Breeders Association
  • State support for the Center for Rural Policy and Development

In all, under the governor’s proposal state spending on agriculture would be down upwards of $30 million from the last biennium. Of course, budget pressures are real and necessary to address in order to avoid more challenges in the future. Furthermore, this recommendation is just that—a recommendation. The governor will also amend this come news of a new budget forecast in late February.

Federal action

Amid state budget challenges, the federal government threw what could prove to be a large wrench into budget conversations with President Trump’s effort to freeze a wide swath of government funding.

In short, President Trump’s Office of Management and Budget issued a memo to all federal agencies directing them to “temporarily pause” all grants, loans, and other financial assistance programs that could conflict with the wide swath of executive orders the president signed in his first days in office. This led to significant concern and confusion for a broad array of local and state officials who rely on federal funding to provide services—and often on a reimbursement basis. In a press conference Tuesday, Gov. Walz said that just for Minnesota this could endanger as much as $1.8 billion in federal funding each month, calling the move “unprecedented” and “illegal.” State officials said this in everything from SNAP, to MNCare, to school meals, to highway maintenance.

In agriculture, just for example, many state programs are matched on the federal level. Our state inspection program for meat processors is half funded by the federal Government.

In an effort to add clarity, the Trump administration released a list of over 2,600 programs subject to this freeze, including an extensive list of over 400 USDA programs. The Trump administration has said in a statement that funds for farmers would not be paused, but they haven’t provided specific programs from this list that are exempted. USDA programs from this list that are sure to effect folks Minnesota include:

• • Agriculture Risk Coverage Program $274 million
  • Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program $24 million
  • Commodity Supplemental Food Program $389 million
  • Community Facilities Loans and Grants $1.1 billion
  • Conservation Reserve Program $1.9 billion
  • Conservation Stewardship Program $1.4 billion
  • Crop Insurance $21.3 billion
  • Dairy Margin Coverage $36 million
  • Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network Competitive Grants Program $10 million
  • Farm to School Grant Program $14 million
  • Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program $184 million
  • Livestock Indemnity Program, 2014 Farm Bill $93 million
  • Meat and Poultry Intermediary Lending Program
  • Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program
  • New Empowering Rural America (New ERA) Program $2.0 billion
  • Regional Conservation Partnership Program $296 million
  • Regional Food Business Centers $30 million
  • Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, Farm Bill $73 million
  • Spot Market Hog Pandemic Program $83,000
  • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program $94.3 billion (The White House budget office said that SNAP food benefits would continue without pause.)
  • WIC Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children $7.8 bil. (Offices that provide nutrition assistance to poor mothers and young children asked the Trump administration for clarity on whether the program was funded Tuesday. Because providers are paid quarterly, they do not know whether their funding is at risk.)

A federal judge temporarily blocked the freeze until Monday when a formal ruling can be issued. And the Whitehouse rescinded the memo—before clarifying that the executive orders should still be interpreted as freezing federal funding. But it’s nonetheless causing significant confusion—including among the federal employees charged with implementing the programs.

If you rely on any of these programs or others listed, please do take 2 minutes to fill out this short form or send us a quick email! This will help us best inform our Congressional delegation and others about the impact of this move.

Agricultre ranking members Klobuchar (D-MN) and Craig (D-MN02) were quick to respond, pushing back on this order.

“At a time when rural America is already dealing with the uncertainty of proposed tariffs, workforce issues, input costs, and the recent spread of avian flu, the last thing our rural constituents need right now is more chaos and confusion,” said Senator Klobuchar in a statement. “This proposed freeze could affect everything from rural hospitals to farm loans to crop insurance and biofuels to animal disease prevention to conservation and nutrition programs.”

“I am hearing questions and concerns from across the farm bill coalition,” said Rep. Angie Craig. “People want to know if farm loans will be disrupted, nutrition programs will be shortchanged or loans for renewable energy projects in rural communities will dry up. At best, this memo has caused unnecessary panic among farm families and the communities they feed. At worst, its directives may destroy jobs throughout farm country and worsen food insecurity in homes across America.”

Congressman Pete Stauber (R-MN08) weighed in with support for the freeze writing on X that:

“We are 36 trillion dollars in debt, largely because of wasteful spending in Washington on things we don’t want and can’t afford. Rest assured, this pause on federal funding will be lifted on worthy projects, many of which I fought for in the Northland. This is good governance and what the American people voted for!”

As always, if you have questions, thoughts, or concerns about MFU’s legislative work, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Stu at (320) 232-3047 (C) or stu@mfu.org.