The loan is among $181 million in financing the USDA is making to upgrade rural electric systems in 10 states.

All FSA offices shut down Dec. 28 and those staff were furloughed without pay. A few offices re-opened for limited hours and services on Jan. 17.

The state's Family and Social Services Administration says the U.S. Department of Agriculture informed it that those benefits must be distributed Wednesday as a one-time early benefit due to the ongoing government shutdown.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is making loans to Martinsville-based South Central Indiana REMC and Linden-based Tipmont REMC.

The counties the loan will serve include Bartholomew, Brown, Clark, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Lawrence, Monroe, Scott and Washington.

In a statement, USDA secretary Sonny Perdue says McKinney will "wake up every morning seeking to sell more American agricultural products in foreign markets."

Anne Hazlett helped create Indiana's Office of Community and Rural Affairs.

The department is reorganizing its trade and rural development programs, while the White House takes aim at those issues in its own way.

The USDA expects farmers in Indiana and nationwide to plant more soybeans than ever this year, while corn acreage looks to hold steady.

Despite Indiana's opioid crisis and reported need for such programs, many of the USDA's plans won't come to the state in the near future, in part because of a technicality about how Indiana manages homes owned by the USDA.