# The End of USDA Rural Loans via Defunding

*Permalink: https://kumarletter.com/posts/the-end-of-usda-rural-loans-via-defunding*

*Published: 2025-06-29*

I [believed the USDA rural loan program](https://kumarletter.com/posts/usda-rural-loans-might-be-one-of-the-last-and-few-refuges-against-a-hostile-tax-regime) was one of the last refuges for those at the bottom against a regime of new taxes, fees, and expenses coming to the American taxpayer.  
   

![](https://a.postcard.page/rails/active_storage/blobs/proxy/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBcmFrIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--8ba56d94f11b984da35266fd4f93d370dff2be41/image.png)
  
  
  
[https://dailyyonder.com/analysis-trump-2026-budget-slashes-rural-housing-and-other-programs/2025/05/06/](https://dailyyonder.com/analysis-trump-2026-budget-slashes-rural-housing-and-other-programs/2025/05/06/)  
  

> **USDA Programs**  
> Key USDA housing programs that would receive zero 2026 funding under the Trump budget include USDA Sec. 502 direct home loans for low-income borrowers and the 60-year-old self-help housing program.   
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> Turning to USDA Rural Development, the document says that the “Budget would also eliminate programs that are duplicative, too small to have macro-economic impact, costly to deliver, in limited demand, available through the private sector, or conceived as temporary. These include rural business programs, single family housing direct loans, self-help housing grants, telecommunications loans, and rural housing vouchers. Rural Development salaries and expenses are reduced commensurately.”  
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> Hmmm. Well, the 502 loan program dates from 1950 and is one of the federal government’s oldest housing programs for low-income people. It is also a loan program that is repaid to the government. The Sec. 502 direct program between 1950 and 2020 has provided loans to allow 2.2 million low-income rural families to become homeowners. Most of those families would not have become homeowners without that program. 

Was fun while it lasted.