White House Budget Plan Proposes Local FSA, NRCS Office Closures

By Ryan Hanrahan

Government Executive’s Eric Katz reported Tuesday that “the Trump administration is planning to severely scale back or outright eliminate funding for many programs across the Agriculture Department, according to White House documents obtained by Government Executive, as it slashes workers and closes offices at the local level.”

“The ‘passback’ document from the Office of Management and Budget [OMB] proposing fiscal 2026 funding levels would gut research and conservation efforts, trim program budgets nearly across the board, and cut staff as part of what OMB called ‘many difficult decisions’ that ‘were necessary’ to reach the proposed spending level,” Katz reported. “In the document, the OMB directed USDA to develop plans to consolidate its local, county-based offices around the country into state committees that would service the FSA, NRCS, and Rural Development.”

“Those three agencies employ nearly 20,000 workers and one official who helps oversee them said the change would lead to office closures at the county level,” Katz reported. “‘That would be laying off those county employees that USDA has,’ that official said. ‘Ironically, these are the people that are directly where the farmers are.’ USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins last month called those agencies, along with the Risk Management Agency, ‘the most farmer-facing mission area at USDA,’ which ‘producers rely on every day.’”

“OMB suggested the Farm Production and Conservation Business Center, which provides management and shared services to FSA, NRCS, and RMA, will have less work to do going forward ‘given the reduction of staffing proposed’ for those agencies,” Katz reported. “​​FSA would see its salaries and expense account cut by 22% under the OMB suggestion as the agency modernizes the customer experience and implements ‘a smaller footprint of FSA county offices.’”

Katz reported that the document is currently “considered ‘predecisional’ and subject to change.”

USDA County Office Closures Historically Rare

Progressive Farmer’s Chris Clayton reported that “Congress historically has frowned upon USDA office closures, particularly local FSA offices. The 2018 farm bill includes language that USDA must notify Congress before closing any FSA office and provide justification for the closure. Offices in rural and underserved areas are protected to maintain services.”

“Such provisions were written into law after USDA proposed closing 200 FSA offices nationwide in 2006 under the Bush administration,” Clayton reported. “In 2012, the Obama administration also proposed closing 131 FSA offices due to Congressional spending cuts. Congress then added annual appropriation riders to prevent USDA from closing local offices.”

Forest Service, Other Areas Face Steep Cuts, Too

“Among the other cuts the Trump administration is looking to implement at USDA would be eliminating forest and rangeland research as currently conducted by the U.S. Forest Service. Government Executive previously reported USDA planned to slash research at USFS and eliminate research stations as part of its RIF and reorganization plan,” Katz reported. “It would also eliminate a program that provides state, private and tribal landholders with funding to help prevent and fight wildfires. NRCS would slash funding for its Private Lands Conservation Operations by $773 million, though OMB said some of those cuts would be offset elsewhere in the budget.”

“Two programs that provide American-grown commodities to feed vulnerable populations abroad — McGovern-Dole and Food for Peace grants, which are collectively allocating nearly $2 billion annually — would see their funding eliminated,” Katz reported. “Discretionary spending on Rural Utility Service programs that provide advanced telecommunications technology to enhance learning and health care opportunities for rural residents and funding for reliable drinking water systems, sanitary sewage disposal, and storm water drainage in rural areas would be decimated.”

“Asked about the cuts, Alexandra McCandless, an OMB spokesperson, said only that ‘no final funding decisions have been made,’” Katz reported. “A USDA spokesperson said that while the department was ‘actively pursuing plans’ to reduce the workforce, it would ensure key services would not be impacted.”

White House Budget Plan Proposes Local FSA, NRCS Office Closures was originally published by Farmdoc.