The U.S. Agriculture Secretary says her agency’s restructuring is not hurting farmers.
Brooke Rollins told the House Agriculture Committee Wednesday the agency is still able to serve the needs of farmers.
“No one has been fired.” She says, “There were 15,000 USDA employees who took the deferred resignation, but no one was fired. In a normal year we’ll have an 8,000 to 10,000 attrition rate.”
Ranking Member Angie Craig says that’s not what she’s hearing from farmers in her Minnesota district.
“If you had reviewed this, you would have made sure that folks who are trying to stop bird flu in our country weren’t allowed to retire,” she says.
During a heated exchange regarding USDA’s recently proposed budget taking staffing down to 2019 levels, Rollins says the agency grew disproportionately in recent years.
“Is this not unbelievable though to you that USDA under your administration increased 25% by 20,000 people,” she says.
But Democratic member Eric Sorensen, of Illinois, says USDA personnel offer invaluable assistance to farmers often at critical times.
“Too many of our farmers, they can’t quit their jobs like I did to come to Congress, they quit their life.” He says, “We’re failing to meet their needs.”
Rollins says the agency remains committed to serving America’s farmers and ranchers.
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