Bureaucratic Mismanagement? USDA Spent $2 Million an Intern

Aug 10, 2012

The USDA is in hot water over a funding project that went wrong. USDA officials had spent $2 million on an internship program and only had one participating intern. This issue occurred because the department failed to protect themselves from hackers, even after receiving $63 million in federal government towards boosting security measures.

This cover-up scandal was revealed after a USDA inspector report found that the Office of Chief Information Officer had “funded an intern program for a total of $2 million which, while funded as a security enhancement project, only resulted in one intern being hired full-time for ASOC [Agriculture Security Operations Center.”

This oversight sheds some light on USDA’s mismanagement of 16 projects that were supposed to protect the department from security threats. Back in 2009 the department requested an increase to the security budget from $18 million to $44 million. The stickler in the report is that even after an increase of $63.4 million in overall funding, the department received back in 2010 and 2011, however, the IT and security systems are still susceptible to risk. This sounds like a case of bureaucratic mismanagement at its best.

Video: Dicamba Returns for Georgia Farmers: What the New EPA Ruling Means for Cotton Growers

After being unavailable in 2024 due to registration issues, dicamba products are returning for Georgia farmers this growing season — but under strict new conditions.

In this report from Tifton, Extension Weed Specialist Stanley Culpepper explains the updated EPA ruling, including new application limits, mandatory training requirements, and the need for a restricted use pesticide license. Among the key changes: a cap of two ½-pound applications per year and the required use of an approved volatility reduction agent with every application.

For Georgia cotton producers, the ruling is significant. According to Taylor Sills with the Georgia Cotton Commission, the vast majority of cotton planted in the state carries the dicamba-tolerant trait — meaning farmers had been paying for technology they couldn’t use.

While environmental groups have expressed concerns over spray drift, Georgia growers have reduced off-target pesticide movement by more than 91% over the past decade. Still, this two-year registration period will come with increased scrutiny, making stewardship and compliance more important than ever.