Community Facilities Grant Earmarks

(Community Facilities Grants)

Department of Agriculture

Proposed Cut

$659M

% Reduction

100.0%

Action Type

elimination

Who Is Served

Rural communities needing hospitals, fire stations, schools, ambulances

Summary

The USDA's Community Facilities program helps rural towns pay for essential public buildings and equipment, such as hospitals, fire stations, schools, and ambulances, through low-interest loans and grants. The FY2027 budget proposes eliminating $659 million in congressionally directed 'earmark' grants for this program a 100% cut to that funding stream so communities would instead have to compete for needs-based loans or find state and local money for these projects.

Who Is Affected

The cut hits specific rural communities across the country that had earmarked Community Facilities grants written into the budget for named local projects, such as a New York fire district's request for a mutual-aid bunk-in program and dozens of similar hospital, school, and public-safety projects nationwide. According to the USDA's own FY2027 budget documents, this $659 million was funding for congressionally directed spending that grew from just $5 million in FY2025 to $659 million in the FY2026 enacted budget before this proposal would eliminate it entirely.

What this cut would actually mean

If this cut takes effect, the specific hospitals, fire stations, ambulances, and schools that had earmarked grant money set aside for them would lose that guaranteed funding and would instead have to apply competitively for USDA's general needs-based loan program, according to the USDA's FY2027 budget summary. Because loans must be repaid, unlike grants, poorer rural communities that can't take on debt may delay, shrink, or cancel building or replacing critical facilities like ambulance fleets or fire stations, and some projects could lose funding altogether if they don't win a competitive loan award or can't find state or local replacement money. The administration has made a similar earmark-elimination proposal before, having proposed cutting $721 million from these same grants in its FY2026 budget, though Congress restored and even expanded the funding that year.

Sources

United States Department of Agriculture FY 2027 Budget Summary — USDA's own budget document confirms the $659 million cut eliminates congressionally earmarked Community Facilities grants, shifting communities to compete for low-interest, needs-based loans instead.
USDA Budget Proposal Signals Shift Away From Food Aid, Rural Development - DTN Progressive Farmer — Reports that the administration calls the earmarks a 'pork-barrel spending program' and notes it proposed a similar $721 million cut to these grants in the FY2026 budget.
Agriculture and Related Agencies: FY2026 Appropriations - Congressional Research Service — CRS report showing Community Facilities earmark funding rose from $5 million in FY2025 to $659 million in the FY2026 enacted budget, the exact amount now proposed for elimination.
President Trump Releases FY27 Budget Request - National Association of Development Organizations — Confirms the FY2027 budget eliminates $659 million in Community Facilities Grant Earmarks as part of a broader $4.9 billion, 19-percent cut to USDA's discretionary budget.
White House Releases Budget Request for FY 2027: Analysis for Counties - National Association of Counties — Explains that the $659 million cut eliminates Congressionally Directed Spending for rural community development projects through the Community Facilities Grant Program, affecting hospitals, schools, and public safety facilities.
FY2027 Community Project Funding Submissions - Representative Morelle — Example of a specific local earmark request (a New York fire district mutual-aid project) submitted for Community Facilities funding, illustrating the kind of project that would lose earmark funding under this proposal.