The Senate Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on the USDA’s recently announced reorganization plan.
Stephen Vaden, deputy secretary at USDA, will appear before the committee to discuss the plan. Vaden is also tasked with overseeing the roll-out of the reorganization.
Committee leaders expressed frustration with the agency on Thursday for not sharing details in advance of the announcement. Ranking member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said her office received an embargoed version of the plan just 15 minutes before the official announcement.
Notably, the USDA plan calls for moving a large swath of the agency out of Washington and consolidating some departmental operations in five regional hubs. While some lawmakers suggested this plan would bring USDA closer to the farmers it serves, many had lingering questions about the reorganization, particularly what it would mean for institutional knowledge and research.
It’s easy to be “in the know” about what’s happening in Washington, D.C. Sign up for a FREE month of Agri-Pulse news! Simply click here
“Obviously it's completely unacceptable, and it's going to decimate research work at the USDA,” Klobuchar said of the plan shortly after its announcement on Thursday.
Chair John Boozman, R-Ark., said he was disappointed he didn’t know more about the plan ahead of its release. Through conversations with USDA officials and the hearing, he said he hopes to address concerns about how the plan will make the agency more efficient, how it will help farmers, and how that translates to the consumer.
“Lots of questions that we need to be answered,” Boozman said to Agri-Pulse Thursday. “I don’t have any problems with them reorganizing. I just want to know how it’s done to keep us informed.”
For more news, go to Agri-Pulse.com.
