Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack made a bold move this week when he recognized that USDA, like families and businesses across the country, cannot continue to operate like it did 50 years ago. In doing so, he announced extensive plans to streamline operations and cut costs across the agency’s departments.
Vilsack announced a reallocation of USDA facilities and resources in light of the government’s budget challenges. Since 2010, Congress has reduced USDA’s discretionary operating budget by more than $3 billion – a roughly 12% cut.
That includes a workforce decrease of more than 7,000 employees, streamlining of services and the consolidation and closing of 259 USDA domestic offices, facilities and labs across the country, as well as seven foreign offices. In some cases, offices are no longer staffed or have a very small staff of one or two people.
“We must innovate, modernize and be better stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars,” Vilsack said. The secretary assured that in an era of reduced budgets, farmers will not see reduced services.
Of those offices, 131 are Farm Service Agency offices, Vilsack said. Of those, 35 already had no staffing and the remainder had either one or two employees and all were within 20 miles of another FSA office capable of handling farmer and rancher clients. In other cases, technology improvements, advanced service centers, and broadband service have reduced some need for brick and mortar facilities, the agency said.
Vilsack said the Blueprint for Stronger Service is based on a Department-wide review of operations conducted as part of the Administration's Campaign to Cut Waste.
When fully implemented, these actions along with other recommended changes will provide efficiencies valued at about $150 million annually-and eventually more based on future realignment of the workforce-and will ensure that USDA continues to provide optimal service to the American people within available funding levels. These actions and plans to close or consolidate facility, office and lab operations will impact USDA headquarters in Washington and in 46 states and 1 U.S. territory.
Vilsack said Congress also made deep cuts in Departmental Management and the staff offices that provide support for staff in the mission areas, such as the Chief Economist and General Counsel’s office. Their appropriation was cut by about 18% this year alone, he told attendees at the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting Jan. 9.
In addition, USDA is implementing a series of other changes that will save taxpayers' money while eliminating redundancies and inefficiencies. The Blueprint for Stronger Service details 133 recommendations that affirm processes already in place, as well as 27 initial improvements, and other, longer-term improvements.
The initial improvements include the following:
Detailed fact sheets on the Blueprint for Stronger Service can be found here, by USDA Mission Area: Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services (FFAS); Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services (FNCS); Food Safety; Marketing and Regulatory Programs (MRP); Natural Resources and the Environment (NRE); Research, Education and Economics (REE); and Rural Development. For more, please visit www.usda.gov/strongerservice.
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Policy is one of the most important issues facing farmers today, but often the most difficult to digest. Jacqui Fatka has a passion to decode the often difficult world of agricultural policy into terms understandable for today's ag players.
Fatka joined the Farm Progress team as E-Content Editor in August 2003 after graduating from Iowa State University. Prior to full-time employment with Farm Progress, she interned at Wallaces Farmer magazine, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley's press office and the Iowa Pork Producers Association and freelanced for National Hog Farmer. She also worked as a public relations consultant with Iowa Industries for the Future, an effort to bring together major players in the biorenewables industry.
Currently Fatka is a staff editor at a sister publication, Feedstuffs. For Farm Futures she regularly tells the story of ongoing agricultural policy changes. Her byline can also be found on management profiles.
Fatka grew up on a grain and livestock farm near Atlantic, Iowa. She currently lives in central Ohio with her husband Eric.
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