Thousands of USDA Employees Taking Buyout Offer

E&E News’ Marc Heller reported that “thousands of workers have taken the Trump administration’s second buyout offer at the Department of Agriculture, as the Trump administration continues to shrink the nearly 100,000-employee agency.”

“Employees who’ve seen internal numbers at the USDA indicate the count has reached 3,100 takers at the Forest Service, around 1,200 at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and possibly as many as 12,000 departmentwide — or more than 10 percent of the department’s total employment,” Heller reported.

“The voluntary departures represent a wide swath of the agency’s work with communities that rely on its myriad conservation, energy and forestry programs, in addition to protecting the nation’s plants and animals from diseases,” Heller reported. “The buyouts — deferred resignations with paid leave through September — are a prelude to firings expected to hit the agency in the coming weeks, the number of which depends on how many leave voluntarily. The buyout offer expired Tuesday.”

“A USDA spokesperson didn’t comment on specific numbers, except to say they’re still being finalized and are aimed at improving service in the long run,” Heller reported. “And a Natural Resources Conservation Service employee who took the offer told POLITICO’s E&E News the numbers are subject to change if workers clicked on the offer but don’t ultimately sign the resignation agreement.”

Departures Could Challenge Some USDA Operations

Agri-Pulse’s Steve Davies and Noah Wicks reported that “an employee with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service who asked not to be identified told Agri-Pulse that up to 20% of employees in Plant Protection and Quarantine took the latest DRP offer. PPQ has more than 3,000 employees, according to its website.”

“PPQ ‘safeguards our nation’s crops and forests against the entry, establishment, and spread of economically and environmentally significant pests,’ according to its website,” Davies and Wicks reported. “The APHIS employee said the departures of personnel at PPQ mean ‘our pest detection programs are … cut to the bone, and the survey season is supposed to get started in a lot of ag states. Our ability to survey for harmful pests will be greatly diminished this year.'”

Source: Workers key to bird flu response taking USDA buyouts, may strain agency’s efforts https://t.co/lusXb4eEfM

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“Food Safety and Inspection Service employees also are leaving, which could impact meat inspections,” Davies and Wicks reported. “Paula Schelling Soldner, an FSIS employee and chair of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals, said she doesn’t know the percentage or number of FSIS employees who took the latest buyout, and departmental administration won’t tell her. However, she is leaving, knows others who have, and says it will have a ‘huge impact’ on inspections.”

USDA Could Shrink D.C. Presence After Employee Departures

Government Executive’s Eric Katz reported that “the Agriculture Department is planning to dismantle its presence in Washington, D.C., according to several officials briefed on the plans, and will relocate those it does not lay off to three hubs around the country.”

“The locations for those new offices have not yet been determined, senior officials throughout the department have told employees in recent days, but the shakeup will impact thousands of headquarters staff,” Katz reported. “USDA is expected to offload one of its two Washington headquarters buildings, according to two employees familiar with the matter.”

“The department did not respond to a request for comment but previewed these types of changes on Secretary Brooke Rollins’ first day in office,” Katz reported. “‘USDA is pursuing an aggressive plan to optimize its workforce by eliminating positions that are no longer necessary, bringing its workforce back to the office, and relocating employees out of the National Capital region into our nation’s heartland to allow our rural communities to flourish,’ it said at the time.”