Nearly Half of USDA Employees to Be Furloughed as Gov’t Shuts Down

NBC News’ Sahil Kapur, Julie Tsirkin, and Gabe Gutierrez reported that “the U.S. government officially shut down at midnight after Congress and the White House failed to reach an agreement on how to extend federal funding.”

“President Donald Trump’s Republican Party controls both chambers of Congress, but it needs Democratic support to pass a bill in the Senate, where 60 votes are required,” Kapur, Tsirkin and Gutierrez reported. “And the two parties failed to craft a bipartisan bill, with the Senate rejecting both a GOP proposal and a Democratic proposal just hours before the shutdown deadline.”

“It’s the first government shutdown since 2018, in Trump’s first term, which was the longest ever at 34 days, lasting into early 2019,” Kapur, Tsirkin and Gutierrez reported. “There is no clear path to a resolution, with the two sides fundamentally at odds over how to resolve the impasse.”

Reuters’ Leah Douglas, P.J. Huffstutter, and Julie Ingwersen reported that “during a shutdown, about 42,000 USDA staff would be furloughed, according to the agency’s 2025 shutdown contingency plan, roughly half the agency’s employees. Activities deemed mission-critical, like food safety inspections and some lab operations, would continue, while efforts like non-mandatory data collection and most research would cease, the document shows.”

“The agency would use emergency funds to continue animal health programs related to diseases like bird flu and New World screwworm, the document shows,” according to Douglas, Huffstutter and Ingwersen’s reporting. “The agency would halt issuance of new farm loans, but maintain some operations of the Farm Service Agency depending on the length of a shutdown, the document shows.”

Farmer-Facing Agencies Face Largest Furlough Numbers

Agri-Pulse’s Philip Brasher reported that “according to the USDA plan, the work that would be suspended during a shutdown would include the ‘majority of Risk Management Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Foreign Agricultural Service, Food and Nutrition Service, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Economic Research Service, National Agricultural Statistical Service, Rural Development, and Staff Office activities.‘”

“Specific activities that would stop include ‘payment processing, disaster assistance processing, regulatory work, and surveys for high-risk plant pests and diseases for certain swine, cattle, and aquatic animal diseases’ and research on animal diseases,” Brasher reported. “The closely watched reports that would be suspended during a shutdown include the monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, due to be released Oct. 9.”

“The plan also warns that during a shutdown, states may run out of funds to perform meat and poultry inspections under cooperative agreements with the agency,” Brasher reported.

“The shutdown would hit farmer-facing agencies particularly hard. The furloughed employees would include 6,377 of the 9,468 who work for the Farm Service Agency,” Brasher reported. “…’If a shutdown continues past 10 days, additionally, one farm loan employee and/or one county office farm program employee per service center will be excepted on call to complete certain loan processing items to protect the security interest of the government and to prevent the loss of security or loss of value to the borrower.’”

“Another 8,849 of the 9,237 employees of the Natural Resources Conservation Service would be furloughed, although some work would continue using farm bill money and leftover funding,” Brasher reported. “By comparison, only 533 of the 7,614 people who work for the Food Safety and Inspection Service, which regulates meat and poultry processing, would be furloughed.”

Nutrition Programs Could Experience Disruptions

Douglas, Huffstutter, and Ingwersen reported that “administration of the nation’s largest food aid program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, would continue during a shutdown and the Office of Management and Budget would issue reserve funding as needed, according to the shutdown planning document.”

“Operations of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC, would also continue, though the program is low on funds and participants could experience disruptions if a shutdown lasts longer than a week, according to the National WIC Association,” according to Douglas, Huffstutter, and Ingwersen’s reporting.

Nearly Half of USDA Employees to Be Furloughed as Gov’t Shuts Down was originally published by Farmdoc.