$298,000: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service Funded International Development Specifically for “Underrepresented Communities.”

The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service funded a $298,000 program focused on promoting agricultural capacity building and international development specifically for underrepresented communities in target countries. The Biden administration’s equity executive orders directed agencies to incorporate equity criteria into all programs including international development, resulting in USDA embedding “underrepresented communities” targeting language into programs that previously focused on agricultural capacity and food security without demographic segmentation.

The underlying USDA FAS agricultural development mission — building agricultural capacity, opening food trade, promoting food security in developing countries — is legitimate and has bipartisan support. The specific “underrepresented communities” targeting criteria, layered onto existing programs under Biden’s equity EOs, is what DOGE flagged. DOGE terminated it under EO 14169 (foreign aid review) and EO 14173 (ending DEI criteria in federal programs).