According to information obtained from a USDA briefing with congressional staff and seen by Reuters, over 15,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture employees have accepted one of the Trump administration’s two financial incentive offers to voluntarily leave the agency. This number accounts for around 15% of the USDA’s total workforce. The administration, in collaboration with Elon Musk, has been working to reduce the federal workforce by offering federal employees several months of pay and benefits to resign from their positions.
In the USDA’s first Deferred Resignation Program held in February, 3,877 staff members signed contracts, and in the second round in April, 11,305 staff signed contracts, bringing the total number of resignations to 15,182. The figures are expected to increase as employees over 40 have been given additional time to make their decision, and some who have chosen to resign have yet to sign contracts.
More than 260,000 people in the federal civilian workforce have been let go, taken early retirement, marked for termination, or accepted buyouts since the beginning of Trump’s second term in office, equating to approximately one-tenth of the federal civilian workforce. Various departments are affected, including the Farm Service Agency, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Food Safety Inspection Service, and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has assured that frontline staff, such as those at the Farm Service Agency, will not be impacted by any upcoming reductions at the agency. The departures also include employees of the Food Safety Inspection Service and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which may impact these agencies’ ability to respond to responsibilities such as ensuring food safety and handling bird flu cases.
Many federal employees have chosen to participate in the second incentive program due to reasons like exhaustion and uncertainty about potential layoffs.
