Rebecca Lin is a second year student at the Harvard Kennedy School and a guest contributor to this blog.
How programs become “orphan programs”
In the early hours of December 21, 2024, the American Relief Act of 2025 was signed into law. The act provided a one-year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill, which had already expired three months earlier. While some programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or federal crop insurance programs are permanently authorized or have mandatory spending to operate with a continuing baseline, others are not so lucky.
These programs without continuing baseline funding are known as “orphan programs.” Without a new Farm Bill, these orphan programs may lack sufficient resources to sustain activities. An earlier first extension of the 2018 Farm Bill provided $177 million of mandatory funding to 19 of the 21 orphan programs. However, the American Relief Act of 2025 did not provide any additional funding, effectively leaving these 21 orphan programs at risk of being unable to continue operations.
These 21 orphan programs span eight of the twelve titles within the Farm Bill, touching everything from nutrition to conservation to rural development. While these programs represent only 0.3% of the 2018 Farm Bill’s total mandatory spending, many deliver important services to local communities and farmers. A description of each orphan program is included below:
Overview of the 2025 “orphan programs”:
Title I – Commodities ($16 million of 2018 Farm Bill)
- Program Implementation supports the operation of Title I’s price and income support programs for producers of eligible commodities such as wheat, soy, corn, and others.
Title II – Conservation ($130 million)
- Feral Swine Eradication & Control Pilot Program addresses feral swine threats by removing feral swine, restoring areas, and supporting producers with control efforts.
- Voluntary Public Access and Habitat Incentive Program encourages landowners to allow public access to their land for hunting, fishing, and other wildlife recreation by providing grants to State and tribal governments.
- Grassroots Source Water Protection Program identifies and prevents pollution of surface and ground water that is used as the primary drinking water source by rural residents.
Title IV – Nutrition ($20 million)
- Farm to Food Bank Program Project provides financial assistance to state agencies to support the collection and delivery of food donations to emergency feeding organizations.
Title VI – Rural Development ($10 million of 2018 Farm Bill)
- Rural Economic Development and Job Creation Loans provide funding to local utility organizations for projects that will create and retain employment in rural areas.
Title VII – Research Programs ($235 million of 2018 Farm Bill, FY2019 – FY2023):
- Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research builds public-private partnerships to fund research to address food and agriculture challenges.
- USDA 1890 National Scholars Program awards scholarships to students from rural and underserved communities to study food, agriculture, natural resource and other related sciences at one of the 1890 land-grant universities.
- Urban, Indoor, & Emerging Agriculture Program awards grants for the development of urban, indoor, and emerging agricultural systems.
Title IX – Energy ($125 million of 2018 Farm Bill)
- Biorefinery, Renewable Chemical, and Biobased Product Manufacturing Assistance Program provides loan guarantees to assist with the development, construction and retrofitting of advanced biofuels, renewable chemicals and biobased products.
- Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels provides payments to advanced biofuel producers to increase production.
- Biobased Markets Program creates mandatory purchasing requirements for federal agencies & contractors and manages a voluntary labeling initiative for biobased products.
Title X – Horticulture ($35 million of 2018 Farm Bill)
- National Organic Certification Cost-Share provides certification cost assistance to producers and handlers of agricultural products under the National Organic Program.
- Organic Produce & Market Data Initiatives collect organic agricultural product price data, and conducts surveys and analyses on topics related to organic production, handling, and distribution.
- Organic Certification / Trade Tracking & Data supplies the technological infrastructure to enforce regulation of organic products and safeguard against fraud.
- Multiple Crop & Pesticide Use Survey collects and distributes information on pest management practices and on-farm chemical use.
Title XII – Miscellaneous ($336 million of 2018 Farm Bill)
- Emergency Citrus Disease Research provides funding for research to combat Huanglongbing (HLB) disease.
- Wool Apparel Manufacturing Trust Fund provides payments to domestic wool manufacturers to reduce the economic injury associated with wool tariffs.
- Pima Cotton Trust Fund provides payments to domestic cotton manufacturers to reduce the economic injury associated with cotton tariffs.
- Wool Research, Development and Promotion Fund provides grants to assist domestic wool producers in improving the quality, development and promotion of the wool market.
- Sheep Production and Marketing Grants awards grants that drive benefits for sheep producers and enhance domestic production.
What happens next: the consequences of defunding “orphan programs”
The current American Relief Act of 2025 extends the 2018 Farm bill through September 30, 2025, at which point Congress will either need to sign another extension or pass a new Farm Bill. Without funding, new projects cannot begin and orphan programs will need to turn to any leftover funds to continue operations. But leftover funds cannot last forever – the time for advocacy and education regarding the importance of these orphan programs is critical for the continued operations.
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