OMAHA (DTN) — Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins will have a lot to discuss on Capitol Hill this week with the Trump administration shedding nearly 15,200 positions at USDA and a budget proposal detailing more than $4.6 billion in discretionary cuts at the department as well.
Rollins will testify both Tuesday and Wednesday before Senate and House appropriators — her first congressional hearing since being confirmed at the end of February. The hearings will provide Rollins the opportunity to highlight how her staff plans to reorganize USDA while making dramatic cuts to staff and funding across several agencies.
Late last week, President Donald Trump released his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2026 that highlights plans to cut USDA’s discretionary budget by more than $4.6 billion. Fiscal 2025 budget levels are not posted on USDA’s website. Looking at 2024 budget spending, the $4.6 billion would be about a 13% cut.
The budget cuts don’t affect mandatory spending such as commodity programs, most conservation programs, crop insurance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), but discretionary funding is critical in areas such as research and Rural Development.
The proposed cuts come after USDA last week detailed to lawmakers that 15,182 employees across the department agreed to leave federal service under two separate “Deferred Resignation Program” offers. In a document shared with DTN, a summary of a call between USDA staff and lawmakers on Friday provided a breakdown of the job cuts.
Seth Christensen, USDA’s communications director, confirmed the cuts in an email to Politico, suggesting the Biden administration didn’t have a way to pay for employees.
“President Biden and Secretary Vilsack left USDA in complete disarray, including hiring thousands of employees with no sustainable way to pay them,” Christensen stated. “Secretary Rollins is working to reorient the department to be more effective and efficient at serving the American people, including by prioritizing farmers, ranchers, and producers. She will not compromise the critical work of the Department.”
In a breakdown, the job losses include:
— 2,408 employees from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
— 1,538 employees in Rural Development (RD)
— 1,377 employees from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
— 1,255 employees from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
— 674 Farm Service Agency (FSA) county staff
— 449 other FSA employees
— 555 employees from the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)
— 498 employees in Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services
— 243 employees at the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
— 105 employees in the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS)
For some agencies, the cuts run deeper. For instance, the 243 employees at NASS who took the buyout offer, that’s nearly 30% of the agency’s staff. The 1,538 employees leaving Rural Development also make up nearly 30% of the agency staff.
Yet, the job cuts also left agencies trying to plug holes. NPR reported over the weekend that APHIS let people leave, then leadership immediately sent out an email offering employees a chance to shift over to 73 positions “that are especially critical to fill as soon as possible.”
###
DTN
