The U.S. Department of Agriculture under the new administration will need to gear up unusually quickly and face budget, staffing, technology, and farm bill challenges, according to a report from Agri-Pulse.
The first challenge for President-Elect Donald Trump and USDA Secretary of Agriculture will be to fill top slots at USDA quickly as Congress plans to start working very soon on a new farm bill even as the new administration is working to staff up. House and Senate Agriculture committees plan to begin work early next year on a new farm bill to replace the 2014 law that expires in 2018. And, without presidential appointments filled, it will be difficult for the administration to have a large policy voice on the farm bill. Congress will move forward on the legislation whether USDA is staffed up or not because they have deadlines to meet.
There are 220 political jobs at USDA. Fourteen of these positions require Senate confirmation, including the secretary, deputy secretary, undersecretaries, and general counsel. Another 39 of the appointees are members of the government’s senior executive service who fill positions just below the senior presidential appointees.
In addition, Congress will be facing a tremendous amount of pressure early in the new Congress to gain control of the budget. The federal budget in fiscal year 2017 is estimated at $594 billion. And, USDA’s Risk Management Agency new administrator will be required to defend spending for computers, compliance, product development and other services that are critical to USDA.
In 2001, the agriculture committees had an additional $73.5 billion to spend on the farm bill that year because of the federal surplus. In 2017, with the government now running annual deficits of nearly $600 billion, the congressional committees will face demands for additional spending on cotton and dairy products as well as for conservation programs.
There will also be budget challenges for the Farm Service Agency where longstanding efforts to increase efficiency and streamline county offices have continually had to deal with resistance from Congress. FSA’s nationwide staff, including its non-federal, country employess, has been cut from 14,678 to about 12,000 since President Obama took office. FSA’s workforce continues to age as well.
There is also concern at the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) that funding for conservation programs most likely will be vulnerable and that transparent measures and metrics must be put in place to demonstrate the return to the taxpayers for dollars invested. “We’ve got to ensure farmers have the resources they need to move forward on conservation, and that means adequate funding in the conservation programs,” said Dave White, who ran the NRCS during Obama’s first term. “Budget cuts already are challenging the agency’s ability to manage its programs,” said White. The NRCS staff has been reduced from 12,233 to 11,657 since Obama took office.
