More than 700 USDA workers accepted resignation offers that provided months of paid leave. Now the agency is warning that key biosecurity work, like port inspections and outbreak response, will suffer without them.
As many as 700 USDA workers on the frontlines of pest detection and crop protection have accepted deferred resignation offers. Their departure could slow inspections, delay outbreak response and leave the nation’s crops exposed to invasive species — which could harm the agricultural economy.
Thousands of Oklahomans got payments from a Biden-era program to help address generations of farm lending discrimination. Now the Trump Administration wants to end programs that could be labeled as DEI. Some Oklahoma programs have already seen funding freezes.
The 2009 Endangerment Finding declares six greenhouse gases ‘threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.’ Yet EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin says, ‘We are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age.’
More than a dozen recently fired USDA employees told Investigate Midwest that mass terminations have stalled irrigation projects, rural housing aid and efforts to combat invasive crop diseases. Remaining staff are overwhelmed; farmers may not receive much needed timely help, former staff say.
Although farm loans appear unaffected by President Donald Trump's funding freeze, the administration's rollback of DEI initiatives has cast uncertainty over USDA programs vital to socially
Trump’s rapid dismantling of federal agencies is disrupting key government oversight functions. Critics say cuts at the EPA will stall investigations into industrial ag pollution in marginalized communities.
