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Today, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16) joined Representative Alma Adams and 37 other members in sending a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins opposing her decision to terminate the Regional Food Business Center (RFBC) program at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and urging her to immediately reverse this decision and reinstate this valuable program.

“Regional Food Business Centers serve as the cornerstone of local and regional supply chains and have proven to be both highly successful and impactful, even within the program’s first year,” write the members. “RFBCs have consistently helped farmers get more of their products to market and strengthened the overall resilience of regional food systems.” 

They continue, “However, earlier this year, following President Trump’s Executive Order 14151 of January 20, 2025, USDA abruptly halted funding for RFBCs. The sudden pause has had immediate and damaging consequences. The loss of funding has disrupted vital partnerships and threatened local and regional supply chains, undermining the food and economic security of communities across the country. Eliminating the program entirely would not only erase the progress made but severely impede a future pathway forward and slow the continuation of this essential work to build resilient food systems in these communities.”

“It was unexpected to see this program eliminated, especially after your department’s release of the Farmers First agenda, which underscores the critical role of small family farms and the barriers they face in accessing markets and infrastructure,” they add. 

The members then urge the Secretary to respond to the following questions by August 31, 2025:

1. Before eliminating the RFBC program, did USDA engage with affected stakeholders to understand how the program benefited their communities and what impact its termination would have on local and regional supply chains? What outreach methods were used to gather stakeholder input?
2. Were potential program modifications considered instead of full termination? If so, what were these potential modifications?
3. Did USDA consider Business Builder Implementation Plans that were already submitted, and in some cases approved, before terminating the entirety of four agreements?
4. Did USDA communicate a change in agency priorities with the agreement holders to allow an opportunity for them to submit an agreement modification before termination?
5. Before eliminating the RFBC program, did USDA engage with the agreement holders to ascertain any identified or planned long-term funding beyond the contract period?
6. Did USDA assess how terminating the program would affect local and regional supply chains, food security, or economic development? Were any forecasting or predictive models used to evaluate those effects? If so, please provide all information, analyses, data, documentation, and supporting materials. If not, what methods – if any – were used to anticipate the potential consequences of the program’s termination?
7. How will USDA continue supporting the eight RFBCs that have the option to continue managing existing Business Builder subawards, ensuring the continuation of technical assistance and capacity-building support to the awardees?
8. What measures will USDA take to ensure that terminating the RFBC program does not exacerbate existing disparities in access to technical assistance and business development resources for small and mid-sized producers, especially those in remote, Tribal, or underserved communities?
9. In your press release announcing the termination of this program, you stated “[a]ny remaining [RFBC] funds will be repurposed to better support American agriculture.” Are there any specific programs to which the remaining RFBC funds have already been, or plan to be, dedicated? If so, do those programs specifically aid small- and mid-sized farms and farm businesses in rural, Tribal, and underserved areas similar to the RFBC program?

In 2023, Congresswoman Escobar hosted then USDA Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Jenny Moffitt as she visited El Paso to discuss the USDA’s role in supporting a sustainable, equitable, and resilient food system. Under Secretary Moffitt was able to visit the Sparks colonia and meet with key partners and collaborators of the Rio Grande Colonias Regional Food Business Center at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center.

As the letter from the Democratic member notes, Texas A&M AgriLife is one of the twelve organizations that were selected to establish an RFBC and have since all developed critical market and business development support to more than 5,000 farms and businesses nationwide. 

The full text of the letter can be found here.