More Than 15,000 Usda Employees Take Trump's Offer To Resign

At least 15,000 Agriculture Department employees have taken the Trump administration’s offers to resign, according to a readout of a USDA briefing with congressional staff that was shared with POLITICO.

The departures represent a drastic contraction of a department that handles a diverse portfolio including flagship federal nutrition programs, food safety, farm loans and rural broadband initiatives.

While just 3,877 USDA employees signed up for the first deferred resignation program offered in January, 11,305 agreed to leave under the second round, with potentially more resignations to come, according to the readout. The program allows employees to quit and be paid through September.

USDA spokesperson Seth Christensen confirmed the resignation numbers in an email.

"President Biden and Secretary Vilsack left USDA in complete disarray, including hiring thousands of employees with no sustainable way to pay them," he wrote in a statement. "Secretary Rollins is working to reorient the department to be more effective and efficient at serving the American people, including by prioritizing farmers, ranchers, and producers. She will not compromise the critical work of the Department."

The resignations account for roughly 15 percent of the department’s overall workforce, and USDA is targeting as many as 30,000 job cuts, including through its forthcoming reduction-in-force plans. Many staffers say they’ve made the difficult decision to resign rather than face what they describe as a climate of surveillance and fear. The Trump administration already has fired — and then scrambled to rehire — thousands of probationary employees.

Key consumer and farmer-facing programs at USDA were not insulated: The readout notes that 555 employees at the Food Safety and Inspection Service, the agency that handles meat inspections and helps respond to the bird flu outbreak, took the offer to resign. More than 1,000 Farm Service Agency and county office employees will also leave, even though Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that their resignations wouldn’t be accepted. And 2,408 staffers are leaving the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which helps farmers manage soil and livestock.

The U.S. Forest Service took one of the biggest hits, with more than 4,000 employees accepting the deferred resignation option. The Trump administration has signaled its intent to significantly cut the Forest Service's budget and transfer its wildfire responsibilities to a new federal agency by 2026.

More than 1,300 employees at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, 1,255 employees at the Agricultural Research Service, 78 employees from the Economic Research Service, 54 employees from the National Institute for Food and Agriculture and 243 employees from the National Agricultural Statistics Service will also depart.

At least 498 staffers have left the Food and Nutrition Service, which handles 16 nutrition programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that serves more than 40 million Americans, school meal programs and federal funding for food banks. Employees are also leaving regional offices, said one person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly.

“There have been a few departures of people who were most knowledgeable or who had been there for many years,” the person wrote in a text message. “People who will be very hard to replace.”

However, Rollins requested permission to hire 53 people, despite the ongoing hiring freeze, according to the readout.