Vance Announces $57.4M in Tentative Meat Processing Grants at Kansas Rally, Pending Congressional Funding

Vice President JD Vance used a Topeka campaign rally for Republican Sen. Roger Marshall on Monday, Oct. 26, to announce new federal money for meat processors.

"Today, the Department of Agriculture is announcing millions of dollars in new grants towards 10 meatpacking facilities right here in the state of Kansas," Vance told the crowd. He said it "could not have happened without Doc Marshall."

What USDA actually committed

The Agriculture Department's release puts the total at $57,424,130, spread across 147 tentative awards in 40 states.

The money runs through the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program, managed by USDA Rural Development's Rural Business-Cooperative Services. USDA says the awards are pending congressional allotment. The funding is not final.

Eligible applicants include for-profit and nonprofit entities, producer-owned cooperatives and corporations, certified benefit corporations, Tribes and Tribal entities, and state or local government entities. Under the program's rules, private entities must be independently owned and operated, and all entities must be domestically owned.

USDA says it has already awarded more than $200 million to independent businesses under the program and that the projects have created thousands of jobs.

The stated goal: competition and beef prices

USDA says the program is designed to encourage competition and sustainable growth in the meat processing sector and improve supply chain resiliency. The department says the grants will help smaller meat processors expand and compete in an industry dominated by a handful of major companies. Vance said expanded processing capacity would increase competition and could bring down beef prices.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins tied the grants to President Trump's executive order, "Promoting Fair Competition in Livestock Markets and Expanding Market Access for American Meat Producers."

"We are focused on rebuilding the Great American Cattle Herd, and providing more local processing opportunities will continue to give confidence to our ranchers to help us fulfill this goal," Rollins said.

Consumer prices have also risen. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor numbers, ground beef averaged $6.79 per pound nationwide in September, up from $6.32 a year earlier. Steak has climbed about 3.5 percent over the same stretch.

Ten facilities in Kansas are slated to receive grants, according to Vance. USDA's release does not break out the dollar amount for those facilities.

A week before the midterms

The announcement is one of several farm-focused moves from the administration as Trump and Vance make rally stops ahead of next week's midterm elections.

Last week in Nebraska, Vance announced a $1.3 billion investment in domestic fertilizer manufacturing. During an earlier Kansas stop for Marshall, Trump announced an $8 billion Harvest Fuel Relief Program, one-time payments to farmers to offset high diesel costs during harvest.

Trump also said then that if Marshall won, he would push to allow year-round sales of E15, fuel blended with 15 percent ethanol, which is restricted in the summer months. Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order expanding access to tax-exempt, red-dyed diesel, which is typically used in farm and construction equipment.

In that context, $57 million is a small line item next to the $8 billion fuel relief program. The processing grants are aimed at a different problem: bottlenecks in how cattle get turned into beef.

Vance described the price effect as something the grants "could" do, not something they will do.

What comes next

The 147 awards become real money only if Congress provides the funding USDA says it is waiting on. The funding is pending congressional approval, and USDA has not said when that allotment is expected.

Until then, the Kansas processors Vance cited have a tentative award and no final commitment.