Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins released the long-awaited USDA reorganization plan this week, including closure of some facilities and relocation of many staff to regional hubs across the country.
Agri-Pulse Newsmakers spoke with Rep. April McClain Delaney, D-Md., about the plan, including the closure of the Beltsville Ag Research Center in her state, as well as rural broadband deployment.
Plus, Eric Steiner with OFW Law discussed what to expect in the skinny farm bill that House Ag Chairman “GT” Thompson wants to move this fall, and Shirley Bloomfield from NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association explains what’s needed to continue expanding broadband connectivity.
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Please note: This transcript has not been edited.
Lydia Johnson: Welcome to Agri-Pulse Newsmakers, where we aim to take you to the heart of ag policy. I’m your host, Lydia Johnson. Our guest this week is Maryland Congresswoman April McClain Delaney, who joins us to discuss the USDA reorganization, the skinny farm bill, and rural broadband. But first, here’s this week’s headlines.
The American ag sector is cautiously celebrating the first two trade deals President Donald Trump announced with Indonesia and Japan. Indonesia said it would eliminate almost all tariffs on US products, while the US will keep a 19% tariff on Indonesian imports. The agreement saw Indonesia commit to buy over $4 billion of soybeans, soybean meal, wheat and cotton as part of a series of forthcoming commercial deals. The pact with Japan will leave the 15% U.S. tariffs in place on Japanese exports. Meanwhile, Japan committed to purchasing $8 billion worth of U.S. goods, including corn, soybeans, fertilizer, bioethanol and sustainable aviation fuel. They also increased market access for U.S. rice by raising their import quotas by 75%.
Opponents of California’s Proposition 12 used a House Agriculture Committee hearing Wednesday to voice their concerns about the impacts of the animal welfare law on the nation’s pork producers. The voter approved and Supreme Court upheld law requires that pork sold in California come from the offspring of sows not raised in gestation crates. The hearing coincided with the introduction of a bill from Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson to prohibit state and local governments from interfering with the production of livestock and other states, mirroring the ETS act she led last Congress. House Agriculture Committee Chair G.T. Thompson said a legislative solution to prop 12 would be addressed in the Skinny Farm bill. He wants to move this fall.
The Agriculture Department will close major facilities and relocate staff to regional hubs as part of the agency’s long awaited reorganization plan announced Thursday. The plan will close the USDA South building as well as Braddock Place and the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland. The plan will reorganize regional operations into five hubs around the country in Raleigh, North Carolina, Kansas City, Missouri, Indianapolis, Indiana, Fort Collins, Colorado, and Salt Lake City, Utah. The news was delivered by Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins to employees by video.
Congresswoman April McClain Delaney represents Maryland sixth congressional district. We asked for her thoughts on the USDA’s reorganization plan, including the closure of the Beltsville Ag Research Center in her state.
April McClain Delaney: I’m always a little bit hesitant about, you know, rash changes and moving a couple thousand people, employees across the country. I kind of like gradual, you know, thoughtful decisions. So I want to make sure that that happens. But I guess as a general matter, in terms of all of these, agencies that are being, rapidly reorganized, sometimes things fall in the mix. And, there are certain things that are not getting done at USDA. Like, for instance, our Farm Service agency in our FSA, office in Maryland has had a vacancy for a long time, and that’s happening across the country. And there’s, you know, a lot of backlog that you’re seeing with some of the USDA applications. So I just worry that in this big reorganization, and in a rush towards effectiveness and efficiency, that, we want to make sure that we get some of the core services done for farmers.
Lydia Johnson: And, you know, you’re not the first member of Congress, not the first person to raise a red flag and say, oh, there’s still some staffing shortages from from the first round of staff reductions, you know, can you elaborate a bit more on that?
April McClain Delaney: I would love to. Well, first of all, I’m going to lift up and say, you know, I represent an incredibly diverse, district in terms of topography, but also it’s suburban, urban, rural farmers, what have you. But I have five agencies within, Maryland’s sixth Congressional District, like missed and parts of NIH, an institute on cancer and Fort Detrick. And so, you know, with respect to whenever you talk about, you know, the FSA offices or what have you, you know, I have seen a lot of cutbacks in research, cutbacks in, staffing. You know, even, you know, the inability of people to get through on call lines. So some of these staffing reductions really are cutting back trust in some of our government agencies and that they’re fulfilling core missions.
Lydia Johnson: The Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, has access to Farm Service Agency data. You know, are you hearing that as a concern from from your constituents?
April McClain Delaney: Huge. Well, I’m always concerned whenever when people give farmers, individuals give their information to the government, whether it be their social security information, whether it be, you know, health care information and HIPAA or whether it be sensitive farming data and personal information. I think that there is a real imperative for the government to safeguard that information, because we don’t expect it to be breached and given to third party contractors. But unfortunately, with DOGE we are seeing again and again a lot of these agencies that those that the information has been given to people who are not employees or not high level employees. And so I actually have just written a letter to, you know, the, agricultural, secretary, Rollins and others to, to really, question them about how this information has been safeguarded for farmers. What are the protections in place? I have others outside the agency, received that information.
Lydia Johnson: Congresswoman April McClain Delaney serves as chair of the New Democrat Coalition’s Rural Broadband Task Force. We asked her how freezing the rural development broadband reconnect program and broadband funding could slow rural economic development.
April McClain Delaney: The problem with, you know, some of these USDA, funding freezes with respect to broadband or even, you know, the NTIA, the $65 billion, bead program. You know, the problem is, is when you start to reanalyze and relook at how these are being given out or even putting them in one pot together is now being discussed. You’re going to slow down the ability, for many of those providers to put it in the ground, and it’s going to actually delay, a lot of these rural farming communities, getting their, their, their internet. I’m also really concerned that, still that there will be some farmers left behind because, you know, the reason why we have these subsidies is because it’s not economical or feasible for private companies to do it. They just don’t make the return. And that’s why you have government stepping in to subsidize so that everyone has the access. Even if there’s ten families on one long road, that last mile. But we do have to look at other alternatives, including satellite or microwave. In addition to wire, to making sure that, there’s a, fast and affordable way for them to get internet.
Lydia Johnson: I want to pivot now to discussing the skinny farm bill. You know, we saw in budget reconciliation, inclusion of, you know, many farm programs beneficial to to your constituents. But, that came at the cost of cuts to nutrition program. So I’m wondering, as you’re beginning negotiations on that skinny farm bill that the chairman hopes to move this fall, do you think that there’s a potential that there could be a restoration of some of those nutrition cuts?
April McClain Delaney: I certainly hope so. And, you know, I have to commend both ranking member Craig and, you know, chairman, you know, our chairman GT is just been amazing at trying to work together in a bipartisan way. The one thing I would say is, as Chairman Thompson did understand, that some of these snap cuts are going to have an impact in my district. For instance, 1 in 9 families, rely on supplemental nutrition assistance, but half in my children and they keep talking about able bodied people. But, you know, a lot of times it’s just red tape. And irrespective of who your parents are, children should not suffer. The other part, I will say is that farmers benefit from Snap. Many farmers sell into the Snap program, and for every dollar you put into Snap, you actually get $1.50 back into your economy for the truckers, for the grocers, for the, you know, the fruits and vegetables that, give it to the to the kids, you know, school programs, which is more healthy for our children, by the way. So in a multitude of ways, I’m hopeful some of that funding gets restored. I think that, once you see the impact of snap, and that there will be some more issues with our food pantries, because it’s going to be a run that it’s going to be hard.
Lydia Johnson: And lots of programs within the skinny farm bill important to rural America, renewal of many USDA programs as well. So, you know, I’m curious what you and your Democratic colleagues, you know, do you think you’ll be willing to come to the table? And you mentioned that bipartisanship, but the willingness to negotiate on that.
April McClain Delaney: You know, it’s interesting you say that because, I ran on common sense, common ground. And I keep saying I am desperately trying to find it. You know, I think Chairman Thompson, on the ad committee has been trying to find common ground, and and the ad committee has traditionally been very bipartisan. But I am disappointed coming in as a freshman member of Congress, that, you know, there has not been writ large a lot of bipartisanship that has been shown by the Republicans. And and it’s really been abdicated to, you know, our president. And, and so I’m hopeful that in the upcoming months that we will be able to come together because we need to have crop insurance. We need to make sure that there’s a safety net for, you know, our farmers. We need to have a maybe the skinny bill, as they’re calling it. But we haven’t been reauthorized since 2018. We haven’t had a full farm bill. It’s just been, you know, extended and extended. You know, our farming communities are agricultural interests and businesses. They really are depending on us to do our work and to get it done.
Lydia Johnson: We’ll be back with our panel discussion. But first, Andrew Huneke looks at drought conditions across the country in this week’s Map It Out.
Andrew Huneke: US farmers and ranchers are seeing improved drought conditions across much of the country. Here are the current drought conditions. White represents normal conditions. Yellow areas show abnormally dry areas, and increasing variations of orange to red represent higher levels of drought. The southwest is seeing the worst drought conditions right now. There’s exceptional drought in parts of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. The central and eastern parts of the country are seeing relatively good conditions. Rain over the past few weeks across the plains and East coast has lowered most of these states into either no drought or abnormally dry conditions. According to the USDA, 74% of the country’s corn crop is in good or excellent condition compared to this time last year. Drought is worse out west, but better across the plains in the eastern part of the country. For Agri-Pulse, I’m Andrew Huneke.
Lydia Johnson: Welcome back. President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill act includes many farm bill programs and elements important to farm country. We’re joined by Eric Steiner with OFW Law and Shirley Bloomfield with the Rural Broadband Association on today’s panel. First, Eric, where will farm country see the biggest impacts from the reconciliation bill and how soon could they feel the effects?
Eric Steiner: There’s a lot to love for production agriculture in the big beautiful Bill. As you mentioned, the updates to reference prices to crop insurance, to taxes. There’s a lot of things that can help production agriculture right now at a time when they really need it most. I know USDA will be working very quickly to implement these provisions, just as quickly as possible. I don’t have exact timeline for that, but you can bet that they’re they’re going to do everything they can to get this money and the support out the door as, as quickly as possible, especially at all these farmers that need it.
Lydia Johnson: Chairman Thompson is committed to moving to Skinny Farm Bill this fall, including the elements left out of reconciliation, which found those savings through a snap closure proposal with states. I’m wondering first, Eric, how you see this proposal hitting states will have to fund and implement it. And second, if these cuts could be clawed back and skinny farm bill negotiations.
Eric Steiner: Yeah, it’s a good question. And through the course of reconciliation and which was the big beautiful bill, the provisions that would require states to match some of the food benefits that typically would come from, from the federal taxes, won’t be coming into play for a couple of years. So that’ll give states a little bit more time to plan to try to get their snap er rates lowered a little bit to try to avoid paying some of that cost share. But you’re right, some of those administrative fees, will start, you know, as soon as October 1st this year. And states will be, needed to pay about a additional money to administer the program. For some states, that may be easier than others, the more participation that they have in the program, the more administrative funds that they’ll need to bring to the table. So that will be a challenge, for the skinny farm bill. You know, I don’t know if that will be, clawback or offset at all. But I know from experience. So having worked for Chairman Cochran and Chairman Chambliss on the Senate committee and then later for Chairman Roberts, you know, did two farm bills, you know, both our kids were born three farm bills ago. That’s, kind of how we measure life in our family. And I know the importance as well as the difficulty of really trying to establish a bipartisan, farm bill, full of provisions that both sides of the aisle can support. It is difficult to put together, and you can imagine right now, there’s, there’s a lot of raw nerves, on a, a little bit on both sides of the aisle. And there will always be a few on both sides of the aisle that just don’t support farm bills, period. So in a scenario where we have such tight majorities in House and Senate, it’s more crucial than ever to be able to put a bipartisan farm bill together.
Lydia Johnson: And Shirley bring you into the conversation as we look ahead to a skinny farm bill. Reauthorizing and funding rural broadband assistance is one topic that also needs addressing. What elements are at a standstill right now, and what do you hope to see in that skinny farm bill?
Shirley Bloomfield: One of the things that people don’t really understand is that there’s a lot of telecommunications funding that comes through USDA, through the Ross program. So a couple of things that we’re really focused on is the president’s budget actually zeroed out the telecommunications portion of the bill? However, the appropriators, are looking to return that funding, which is really important because that support will ensure that those networks that have been built into these rural and ad communities not only get sustained, but obviously further deployment, because we know there’s still a lot of rural Americans waiting for connectivity. We also know how much technology has been putting into precision ag and the tools that can provide. So as we look forward to the fall, you know, I think a few things we’re hoping to see is, continued full funding for the Ros program. And there’s also a program called reconnect, which was established about 5 or 6 years ago, which is essentially a grant and loan program. And that has been incredibly impactful in really building broadband into some of these communities where you just can’t make a business model for, sustaining that broadband. So we remain very, very hopeful. And just like Eric noted, I, you know, seen a bipartisan effort. The one thing that we see on the broadband front is Democrat, Republican, everybody is in favor of ensuring that all Americans have access to connectivity.
Lydia Johnson: Internet connectivity in rural areas is important, but so is having a high enough speed to complete telehealth, streaming and other functions. We asked Shirley Bloomfield why it’s important to both continue deploying broadband and continue ramping up speeds.
Shirley Bloomfield: I’ll tell you what I’m starting to sense, which is concerning me a little bit, is is a little bit of a sense of just enough is good enough for rural Americans. I’m picking that up with some efforts that we’re seeing to kind of, lower what we consider to be the, broadband speed stakes, the goals that we’ve kind of set out there as a country. The fact that symmetrical speeds, the ability to upload and download at equal speeds, which is really important if you’re doing telemedicine, very important if you’re, really trying to run a small business in these communities. And, and, I think we’ve got a real job in front of us to ensure that folks recognize and appreciate the fact that, just because rural Americans are living there, what they what that contributes to the American economy. So I, I do think there’s going to have to be a little bit of a push to continue to educate people about technology choices, and we’ve got to really ensure that, we’re not looking to settle. You know, I know there’s a lot of interest, for example, in, in low-Earth orbit satellites, you know, does that fill a gap in the meantime? Is that a great tool if you’re an incredibly remote area until you can get a more robust network? Yeah, absolutely. Is it really a long term solution? Is it really going to kind of drive some of the rural economy? I really am very doubtful of that kind of capability. So again, I think we’ve got to continue to educate policymakers, about why rural America actually deserves to have the same comparable service and comparable pricing that we see here in urban America.
Lydia Johnson: Eric, you’ve seen many farm bills during your career. How do the elements and reconciliation and now looking at the skinny Farm bill stack up with previous farm bills and with the Cuts in Nutrition program, do you think Democrats will be willing to come to the table and negotiate as needed?
Eric Steiner: Yeah, it’s a good question, Lydia. I mean, this time because the big beautiful Bill and I is I would share with folks to the egg committees, didn’t ask for those really large reductions in spending, but they were able to use that opportunity to plus up some parts of agriculture that normally would be very difficult, if not impossible to try to do. And a regular farm bill that would typically need to be budget neutral. So in this sense, they’re able to plus up the programs for farm country that needed to happen. And now they can turn the focus on those policy areas that just weren’t able to be considered during reconciliation, because specifically for the Senate reconciliation budget rules. So now there will be a chance for those and the rest of these items, which there’s so many and so many different parts of the farm bill that impact, you know, all sectors of the agriculture economy. Now, we’ll have a chance for the Republicans and Democrats to hopefully be able to work together and agree on some bipartisan things, to be able to make improvements that haven’t had a chance to be done in the last five years.
Lydia Johnson: And Shirley, I want to get your thoughts on the BEAD program, the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, which was paused for review by the Trump administration earlier this year. Has that work restarted, and will it continue?
Shirley Bloomfield: So I we are very excited about this program. And I think for rural America, this is the last big shot at getting some capital infusion in there. I’m actually really glad that the Infrastructure Act passed, in a bipartisan way in 2021 because given the political environment today, this would have been a very tough bill to pass. But it’s got $42 billion in funding to build broadband into these rural communities, unserved, underserved communities. We continue to think it’s a great opportunity. Trump administration did pause it. They did change a little bit of some of the rules that they’re looking at. My concern on that is they kind of have created this bargain basement round, which again, goes back to my earlier concerns about let’s not just settle here in rural America. Let’s not just go with a choice because it’s the cheapest. Let’s make sure that it is the best long term investment, because I think we all know that there will never be this type of capital funding for broadband again. The states are now dealing with this. They will have to have their plans approved and their bids approved by NTIA. So I’m really hoping that we see a focus on scalability and less on what is the, bargain basement cheapest bid that comes in.
Lydia Johnson: We’ll be back with more Agri-Pulse Newsmakers. But first, Andrew Huneke has more on the percentage of people who think the food system produces affordable food. And this week I read the numbers.
Andrew Huneke: Over 50% of Americans feel that the US food system produces affordable food. According to the most recent Gartner Food and Agricultural Policy Survey. This chart shows the last two years of the survey results. When people were asked if the food system produces affordable food. You can see people have been feeling better lately about food affordability. The percentage has been trending upward for about a year now, from 50% to 57%. Numbers were lowest in August of 2023 at 49%. But despite the optimism, people are still concerned about tariffs. Of the 1000 people surveyed, 79% expect tariffs to increase or somewhat increase food prices, and 77% say they are worried about how tariffs will impact food prices. If you’re interested in the most recent wave of proposed reciprocal tariffs and how they could impact you, check out Oliver wards reporting on our website. Agripulse.com for agri-pulse. I’m Andrew Huneke
Lydia Johnson: Thanks for joining us for another episode of Agri-Pulse Newsmakers. The house is out for recess and won’t return to Washington until after Labor Day. Next week, the Senate will be in session. The Senate ag committee will meet to reauthorize the U.S. Grain Standards Act. And many communicators in the ag media space will gather in Rogers, Arkansas, for the annual AG Media Summit. Tune in next week and check our website any time for the latest developments on all things food, farm and fuel policy for agri-pulse. I’m Lydia Johnson.
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