Questioning USDA Funding, Job Cuts

This article was originally published at 1:34 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, April 29. It was last updated with additional information at 3:06 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, April 30.

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WASHINGTON (DTN) -- Robert Bonnie, the Agriculture undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation in the Biden administration, said Monday that he is "very concerned that USDA is being weakened" by the Trump administration's staffing and budget cuts and the impact on areas ranging from conservation to fighting forest fires.

In his first public remarks on the Trump administration's policies, Bonnie told the North American Agricultural Journalists (NAAJ) at their spring Washington meeting that he is particularly worried about the loss of key personnel.

"I am very concerned. I know many people in agriculture are, that USDA is being severely weakened right now, severely weakened as an institution to serve agriculture, to serve the American people, to serve food production," Bonnie told reporters.

While full details have not been announced, USDA is expected to make significant cuts to staffing across agencies. USDA has pitched multiple plans to employees for a deferred resignation program to end their employment but pay them through the end of the fiscal year. Employees have been told to expect more "reduction in force" cuts along with consolidation in offices around the country.

A USDA employee in Washington told DTN he was retiring from the department this week because he did not want to be responsible for firing his long-time colleagues.

Responding to Bonnie's complaints, Seth W. Christensen, USDA's director of communications, said, "The Biden Administration left the USDA in complete disarray -- focused on woke policies that didn't put America's farmers, ranchers, and producers first. In her first 76 days, Secretary Rollins has taken bold action to right these wrongs and align USDA's priorities with President Trump's goal of putting farmers first, restoring rural prosperity, and eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. USDA has never been stronger than now under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Rollins."

This week USDA also has been spotlighting Rollins' work in the early days of the administration. Besides visiting 15 states, she released $10 billion in aid to farmers on time and also immediately responded to the avian influenza outbreak. She also has put pressure on the Mexican government over water in Texas and the New World Screwworm.

Bonnie said he is prohibited from having direct contact with USDA officials for two years due to the ethics agreement he signed when he took his presidentially appointed and Senate confirmed post. He has learned that Tim Griffiths, the national coordinator of the Natural Resource Conservation Service's sage grouse initiative, left USDA on Friday.

An email to Griffiths' NRCS address in Montana on Monday resulted in the following automated reply: "I am sorry, but I am no longer available." The response directed senders to another USDA official and ended with "Your friend in conservation. Tim."

Bonnie noted Griffith helped develop a 15-year initiative, "arguably one of the most important landscape level conservation initiatives," covering more than 9 million acres and "a couple thousand ranchers, all voluntary, all incentive based," pointing out how controversial it was to develop the sage grouse program. Bonnie said it was terrible for USDA to lose "that type of leadership, creativity. Tim is one of many people lost."

Bonnie also said that 75% of the federal government's wildfire response "sits at USDA," and that he is worried as the summer fire season approaches, the Forest Service is "going to lose senior people, the number of teams will be reduced."

Bonnie also raised concerns about USDA's established relationships with conservation groups such as Ducks Unlimited that could be setback as well because of cuts.

Bonnie, who developed the Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities during the Biden administration, also noted that during the Obama administration farmers "ran the other way from climate policy," but during the Biden years, the government and the farmers worked together on agriculture and forestry.

Now, he said, there is "resistance" to the Trump administration's holds on Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities grants.

The Trump administration has changed the partnerships initiative into the Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP) initiative, and Bonnie has said he hopes that the administration will follow through on the original goals.

But he said the Trump administration's decision to require groups that had already been made partners and gotten grants to reapply to continue in the program will slow down development and create uncertainty.

Bonnie said he also worried about the impact of cutting back on USDA programs under the Inflation Reduction Act, and the loss of U.S. international leadership.

He also noted that the first Trump administration had pulled a dozen senior USDA executives from agencies into the business center it created, and that the Biden administration had to "piece" back together management in the various agencies. The current Trump administration organizational changes are on a much bigger scale, he said.

On biofuels, including sustainable aviation fuel, other departments are also involved, he said.

Bonnie noted a trip to FarmFest last year in Minnesota where farmers were focused on reducing the carbon intensity of biofuels.

"They see value for their operations. They see markets for their operations," Bonnie said.

The final guidance for the 45Z tax credit for biofuels was not completed because officials in an interagency process wanted to further examine a carbon calculator, but if the Treasury Department would put in place the peer review process established by the Biden administration, "Farmers would be off the races on sustainable aviation fuel," Bonnie said.

But Bonnie said he is worried about the loss of leadership in all the agencies that play a role in biofuels. The linkage between those agencies is guidance around greenhouse gas reporting and emissions. If the Environmental Protection Agency, the Energy Department and the Transportation Department each pull back on carbon emissions, "farmers are going to pay the price," he said.

DTN Ag Policy Editor Chris Clayton contributed to this report.

Jerry Hagstrom can be reached at jhagstrom@nationaljournal.com

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