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Significant cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture by the Trump administration have reduced staff working locally for the Rural Development program, including in New Mexico and a former USDA deputy secretary said it has undermined hard-won trust of rural people.

Xochitl Torres Small, told a U.S. House subcommittee Thursday USDA Rural Development offices now lack engineers, authority and experience to get vital projects approved, compounded by cuts to Medicaid, rural schools, food assistance and canceled infrastructure investments, including expanded broadband.

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"The problem I'm raising isn't simply that federal staffing was cut," Torres Small pointed out. "Rural Americans are more than willing to tell us what is working and what isn't. The problem is that those cuts happened without consulting the very people they affect."

Torres Small emphasized rural America has diverse needs but farmers and their families are often the engines of small communities. Many now face dire consequences from tariffs, which have reduced or eliminated markets for their products, especially soybean farmers. The Trump administration, which has previously given farmers billions of dollars in assistance, is now considering a similar bailout.

Torres Small urged the committee to adopt policies to ensure the best days for rural places are still ahead. She warned there's a steep hill to climb.

"Today, rural people have higher rates of suicide, fewer doctors, less treatment for addiction, lower wages and higher mortgage costs," Torres Small outlined. "If we listen to the rural people we depend on, if we invest in their ideas, there's no limit to what rural America can accomplish."

Other speakers focused on rural America's growing health care crisis. It is estimated financial difficulties will force the closure of 700 rural U.S. hospitals in the coming decades, in addition to the 150 already closed since 2010.