By Ryan Hanrahan
Agri-Pulse’s Philip Brasher, Noah Wicks, Steve Davies, and Lydia Johnson reported this past week that “the Trump administration’s mass firing of probationary federal employees has swept out workers across USDA, including loan analysts in Farm Service Agency field offices, ag scientists, and about 1,200 staff of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, according to sources.”
“The number of firings isn’t known but there are more than 200,000 federal employees nationwide on probationary status, which means they are in their first year of federal employment, or in some cases the first two years,” Brasher, Wicks, Davies and Johnson reported. “Multiple sources told Agri-Pulse on Friday that USDA also is demoting employees who were recently given senior executive service status, which is reserved for top-performing managers just below presidentially appointed positions.”
“Multiple termination notices viewed by Agri-Pulse also include language claiming the firings were based on performance, when in fact the terminations extended to all probationary employees. In addition, employees said they had either received good performance reviews or no formal reviews at all,” Brasher, Wicks, Davies and Johnson reported. “A spokesperson for Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement to Agri-Pulse that Rollins ‘fully supports President Trump’s directive to optimize government operations, eliminate inefficiencies, and strengthen USDA’s ability to better serve American farmers, ranchers, loggers and the agriculture community.'”
Reuters’ Timothy Gardner, Leah Douglas and Nathan Layne reported this past Friday that “the firings, reported by Reuters and other major U.S. media outlets, are in addition to the roughly 75,000 workers who have taken a buyout that Trump and Musk have offered to get them to leave voluntarily, according to the White House. That equals about 3% of the 2.3 million person civilian workforce.”
“Trump says the federal government is too bloated and too much money is lost to waste and fraud. The government has some $36 trillion in debt and ran a $1.8 trillion deficit last year, and there is bipartisan agreement on the need for reform,” Gardner, Douglas and Layne reported. “…In addition to the job reductions, Trump and Musk have tried to gut civil-service protections for career employees, frozen most U.S. foreign aid and attempted to shutter some government agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau CFPB almost entirely.”
Firings May Make it Tougher for USDA to Serve Producers, Experts Say
“Zach Ducheneaux, who served as FSA administrator during the Biden administration, said the firings of loan officers would likely make it harder for farmers to get USDA loans,” Brasher, Wicks, Davies and Johnson reported. “‘Firing local FSA loan officers is not only a waste of taxpayer investment in their training, producers will lose the opportunity to buy a farm or ranch, if not lose their existing farm or ranch,’ Ducheneaux said. ‘They will not be able to get their operating money in a timely fashion. That’s not hyperbole. It is actual, literal fact.'”
“An estimated 40% of USDA loan officers are eligible for retirement, according to a congressional source familiar with USDA. The source said Congress has given FSA $30 million over the last two years to hire staff to replace those nearing retirement,” Brasher, Wicks, Davies and Johnson reported. “‘FSA has to do this because it is a two-year training cycle for loan officers before they are fully operational. All this talent is now gone,’ the congressional source said.”
“Approximately 1,200 Natural Resources Conservation Services employees are believed to have been fired, according to a source close to the agency who spoke to Agri-Pulse on the condition of anonymity,” Brasher, Wicks, Davies and Johnson reported. “The firings will be a setback for NRCS, which has been trying for years to increase its workforce to help producers implement conservation practices. Many of the impacted staff work in county offices, often serving as farmers’ first points of contact when applying for a federal program, the source said.”
“‘I think this is a lot of steps backwards in terms of the ability to serve those producers,’ the source said,” according to Brasher, Wicks, Davies and Johnson’s reporting.
EPA Fires Nearly 400 Workers
Bloomberg’s Ari Natter reported this past Friday that “the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it had fired 388 workers, part of a wave of terminations across the federal government this week spurred by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.”
“The agency added that the probationary workers were terminated after ‘a thorough review of agency functions in accordance with President Trump’s executive orders,'” Natter reported. “‘EPA has followed standard protocols and procedures, ensuring impacted staff received notification of their status,’ the agency said in a statement. ‘President Trump was elected with a mandate to create a more effective and efficient federal government that serves all Americans, and we are doing just that.'”
“Union officials and environmental groups said the decision would hamstring the the functions of the agency, whose air, water, chemical and biofuel regulations touch nearly every sector of the US economy — from mammoth oil refineries to family farms,” Natter reported.
Forest Service Fires 3,400 Workers
Reuters’ Andrew Hay reported this past Friday that “the U.S. Forest Service is firing around 3,400 recent hires while the National Park Service is terminating about 1,000 under President Donald Trump’s push to cut federal spending, people familiar with the plans said on Friday.”
“The cuts — which represent about 10% percent of the U.S. Forest Service workforce and about 5% of Park Service employees — are part of Trump and his adviser Elon Musk’s campaign to radically cut back the U.S. bureaucracy,” Hay reported. “The Forest Service is excluding firefighters, law enforcement and certain meteorologists from firings, according to Matthew Brossard, who represents the agency’s workers as part of the National Federation of Federal Employees union.”
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the U.S. Forest Service, said it could not comment on personnel matters,” Hay reported.
Source : illinois.edu