The White House told federal agencies to prepare to scale down employee numbers over the next four years in line with President Trump’s proposal — expressed without much detail in mid-March — to slash discretionary spending, including a 21-percent cut at USDA. Budget director Mick Mulvaney said the reductions, part of a government reorganization, were “how you drain the swamp” — a catchphrase from last fall’s presidential campaign.
“This is really important to the president,” Mulvaney told reporters. “This is a centerpiece of this administration.”
The budget office sent a 14-page memo to federal departments and agencies, directing them to look for ways to cut employment, shed unneeded duties, and restructure operations while becoming more efficient. No personnel targets were listed. Workforce reductions would occur from 2018-2022 and reflect funding levels in the budgets proposed by the White House.
“We have nothing to share at this time,” said a USDA spokesman when asked about the impact on the department. USDA is one of the largest federal departments with an annual budget of $150 billion and some 90,000 employees, not counting more than 8,000 “non-federal staff” at USDA’s county offices. The Forest Service, in charge of 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands, has one-third — some 32,000 — of USDA’s employees.
The “skinny” budget released last month would eliminate a water and sewer program for rural communities, reduce staffing at USDA Service Center Agencies “to streamline county office operations, reflect reduced Rural Development workload and encourage private-sector conservation planning,” reduce funding for USDA data-gathering agencies, eliminate discretionary activities of the Rural Business and Cooperative Service, and reduce funding “for lower-priority activities in the National Forest System,” such as land acquisition.
There are roughly 5,000 employees in USDA’s Rural Development wing, more than 11,000 at the Natural Resources Conservation Service, 4,000 at the Farm Services Agency, and 1,300 at the National Agricultural Statistics Service and Economic Research Service.
“We think we can run the government with fewer people than the previous administration,” said Mulvaney. “This is about good government.”
Agencies were given six months to submit to the White House budget office a plan to modernize and streamline their work. “Begin taking immediate actions to achieve near-term workforce reductions and cost savings,” said the memo. “Submit an agency reform plan (to the budget office) in September 2017 … that includes long-term workforce reductions.”
The last time USDA went through a comprehensive reorganization was in the early 1990s, during the Clinton era.