April 29, 2025 – Representative Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) said today that Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins will appear in front of a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee focused on agriculture, which is in charge of USDA spending, as soon as next week, where lawmakers will have a chance to ask her about staffing cuts and field office closures.
Democrats in both chambers of Congress have been trying to get clear answers from the Secretary about how the agency has been making those cuts and the impact they may have on farmers.
Last week, Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee, which Pingree also serves on, sent a letter to Rollins expressing their concerns. “Not only are these the federal employees directly working with farmers on the ground, but these office closures are coming from programs that serve as a lifeline between the federal government and rural communities,” they wrote.
Approximately 16,000 USDA employees opted into the administration’s deferred resignation program earlier this month. Several thousand employees were also fired earlier this year, but some have been asked to come back or have been reinstated through court orders. Other reports have claimed the agency is planning to slash thousands more soon. DOGE also reported it terminated leases for more than 100 USDA offices around the country, many of which were local offices directly serving farmers.
Lawmakers are especially worried about those cuts, since the local offices connect farmers to services including technical assistance, loan programs, and conservation planning. In Maine, Pingree said a Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office previously had six employees, but “now it has one [person] trying to answer the phone and deal with it all.”
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, told Civil Eats that, in her state, one local USDA office had both of its two employees cut, while another office still had its full staff, demonstrating the haphazard nature of staff firings.
While it was too soon to expect a response to the letter, Pingree said the Appropriations Committee has struggled to communicate with the USDA in the same way they have with past administrations.
“Especially as an appropriator, the clerk in your committee could always call, no matter what administration it was, and say, ‘What kind of downsizing you’re doing?’” she said. “It’s been a very unusual time. Mostly they’re prohibited from talking to us.” For that reason, she said she was looking forward to Rollins appearing before the committee.
Senator John Boozman (R-Arkansas), on the other hand, said he has had plenty of communication with Secretary Rollins. In the past, he said, he has raised red flags about closing local USDA offices. However, he said, “reorganizing is not a bad idea” given the size of the federal deficit.
“I think the farm community understands that. I think Congress understands that,” he said. “So, we’re really trying to look and see exactly what [the USDA is] trying to do and be as supportive as we can, in order to make sure that we’re running as lean and mean as we can, but still providing those services that are so very important.” (Link to this post.)
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