OMAHA (DTN) -- USDA is planning to severely slash its county Service Center offices around the country that house local staff for the Farm Service Agency and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, potentially consolidating county staff into state committees, according to a report published Tuesday.
The website Government Executive, which covers the federal workforce, reported Tuesday that White House documents from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) proposes to "severely scale back or outright eliminate funding for many programs across the Agriculture Department."
Government Executive reported the "passback" document from OMB proposes cutting fiscal 2026 funding levels to "gut research and conservation efforts, trim program budgets nearly across the board and cut staff. OMB in the document cited "many difficult decisions" that "were necessary" to reach the proposed spending level, the report stated.
Pointing to the savings by cutting USDA staff, the OMB document calls for "protecting the American people by deconstructing a wasteful and weaponized bureaucracy," Government Executive reported.
As DTN has reported, USDA leadership has warned its 100,000-plus employees that major staff cuts are coming, offices will be closed, and people will be forced to relocate if they want to keep their jobs. USDA currently is sorting through employees who submitted their requests for a Deferred Resignation Program that would pay them potentially through the end of September but terminate their employment.
Government Executive cites as many as 16,000 employees have accepted those deferred resignation offers.
The passback document, which is considered "predecisional" and subject to change, assumes the cost savings associated with USDA's RIF and reorganization plan, Government Executive reported. Passbacks serve as OMB's response to agencies' individual budget submissions. The Congressional Research Service has noted agencies can appeal certain programmatic decisions to OMB, but the documents generally serve as the White House office's final decision, the report stated.
In the document, 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, the report stated.
"That would be laying off those county employees that USDA has," an official said to Government Executive. "Ironically, these are the people that are directly where the farmers are."
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, Government Executive 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."
Zachary Ducheneaux, who served as FSA administrator under the Biden administration, noted to Government Executive that the Trump administration's approach will lead to farmers waiting longer to get federal loans and federal personnel will miss deadlines set in statute and regulation because "there is not enough time in the day." That will fail to satisfy congressional Republicans, he added, who criticized the Biden administration for taking too long to provide key services to their constituents, Ducheneaux told the website.
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. 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.
DTN reached out to USDA for comment on the Government Executive report but did not receive an immediate response.
Government Executive quoted Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, who said the cuts OMB has proposed represented a "one-two punch" when coupled with the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs and ensuing trade war. She added the proposed cuts and program eliminations included in the passback would "pull the rug out on our farmers and rural communities," Government Executive reported.
"There's nothing efficient or smart about gutting our investments in American agriculture and our public lands," Murray told the website. "This proposal is a roadmap for retreat that would leave our country worse off."
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, Government Executive stated. 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.
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