USDA Strengthens National Security and Protects Taxpayers by Standardizing Grant and Cooperative Agreement Requirements

(Washington, D.C., December 31, 2025) - Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins signed a Secretary's Memorandum (PDF, 87.3 KB) directing all USDA agencies and staff offices to immediately adopt and implement the first-ever set of USDA General Terms and Conditions for all future awards.

"Since Day One, the Trump Administration has been working to promote government efficiency, streamline unnecessary regulations, and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in all USDA programs. As we took action to eliminate radical left ideology and foreign adversaries within these programs, we quickly realized the herculean task of updating over 100 sets of terms and conditions, some of which didn't even have termination clauses, each time a new policy or priority was announced," said Secretary Brooke Rollins. "Today's action not only reduces government bureaucracy and makes it easier for USDA customers to access our programs, but it also strengthens our ability to take swift action when recipients and cooperators-and even recipients of subawards and subcontracts-are not compliant with Federal law and applicable Executive Orders."

USDA administers an expansive grant and cooperative agreement portfolio, spanning 21 agencies and staff offices. In FY2025 alone, the Department distributed over $145 billion through 287 programs, resulting in nearly 38,000 new awards to farmers, ranchers, foresters, families, rural communities, small businesses, universities, and various other entities. Currently, there are 50,979 active awards across the entire USDA enterprise, underscoring the critical need for consistent oversight and accountability.

Until now, every agency and staff office implementing these programs utilized a different version of terms and conditions when entering into arrangements with recipients and cooperators, resulting in over 2,200 pages of terms and conditions across over 100 different documents. This patchwork approach to award management at USDA has created unchecked paperwork burdens and barriers for producers and small businesses seeking financial assistance from USDA and also made it difficult to swiftly implement new policies and priorities across all programs.

Under this new directive, all USDA grant, cooperative agreement, and mutual interest agreement programs will utilize the same terms and conditions, and award recipients and cooperators will only need to navigate 50 or less pages of requirements.

This action is an important step in the implementation of USDA's National Farm Security Action Plan (PDF, 1.2 MB) and Executive Order 14332, Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking, as well as various other Executive Orders and Secretary's Memorandums that have been signed this year to establish a return to American principles and align the Department's focus towards its original objectives.

###