STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The president's cuts to international aid spending have not received much pushback from Republicans in the Senate, even Senate Republicans who previously supported that spending. So two Democratic senators, who cannot call official hearings themselves - they're not in the majority - are instead holding a shadow hearing on the cuts' effect on American farmers. Here's NPR's Michele Kelemen.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: The ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Amy Klobuchar, has been meeting farmers across her state to hear their concerns about tariffs, as well as cuts in domestic and international food aid programs.
AMY KLOBUCHAR: This is like a gale-force winds coming at the rural and ag communities all the time.
KELEMEN: The immediate roadkill, as she puts it, could be small farmers, but there's also a long-term concern. In recent years, American farmers have supplied about 40% of international food assistance, including about $2 billion a year in surplus commodity sales.
KLOBUCHAR: Traditionally, it's been used in developing nations as a way to make friends. And then when they are ready - and we've seen this in countries in Africa and the like, in India. When they are ready to start buying our stuff because their quality of life goes up in their countries, we are their best friends. We are their No. 1 go-to.
KELEMEN: She says the Trump administration is zeroing out some of these programs in its latest budget request. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has defended big budget cuts and the dismantlement of the U.S. Agency for International Development. This week, he ordered embassies to eliminate all USAID positions overseas by September 30. The ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jeanne Shaheen, says Republicans used to back this kind of foreign assistance as a soft power tool.
JEANNE SHAHEEN: But also because they're a real benefit to American farmers and to our small businesses in rural areas. And these cuts are really a lose-lose on both counts.
KELEMEN: So she and Klobuchar are highlighting that in their shadow Senate hearing.
Michele Kelemen, NPR News, the State Department.
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