The Agriculture Department has placed a dozen Economic Research Service employees on leave, including the agency’s acting administrator, as it probes a leak connected with the cancellation of an annual household food security report.
The action against the employees of the Economic Research Service (ERS) was taken Monday, ERS union representative Laura Dodson told Agri-Pulse. Dodson is a vice president for the ERS local bargaining unit of the American Federation of Government Employees. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the administration’s action today.
“The use of administrative leave like this to sideline experts and employees who are just trying to do their job is an abuse of power and an obvious misconstruing of what public service is about,” Dodson said. “The public deserves honesty and truth from the administration, including about data, and employees should not be retaliated against for doing their job.”
Dodson said employees’ laptops were confiscated.
“As employees of one of 13 federal statistical agencies, ERS employees are trusted with confidential information,” a statement from USDA says. “An unauthorized disclosure of non-public information shows questionable judgment and any employee willing to break that public trust undermines the integrity of the agency.”
The workers were present at a meeting last week where they learned the food security survey was being canceled, Dodson said. The Journal reported on the survey news Saturday.
A USDA statement said the survey is unnecessary and “rife with inaccuracies slanted to create a narrative that is not representative of what is actually happening in the countryside as we are currently experiencing lower poverty rates, increasing wages, and job growth under the Trump administration.”
Dodson said that “what's … kind of upsetting about this” is that in addition to people who worked on the food security survey, two other people who were “somewhat affiliated” with the survey, and then “every level of management above them to the administrator” were placed on leave.
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She said those affected include Acting Administrator Kelly Maguire, her chief of staff, the food economics division head, several other division workers, and AFGE bargaining unit employees. Maguire is a career federal employee who has been with ERS for seven and a half years, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Former ERS Administrator Spiro Stefanou recently left the agency.
The memos to the employees from the Office of Human Resources Management state explicitly, “This action is not a disciplinary action.”
They also say that while on administrative leave, “you are prohibited from conducting any official government business; contacting any USDA employees, customers, industry stakeholders and/or government contacts to discuss any matters associated with your employment with USDA; or accessing any USDA system, building or work site for any reason, without explicit and advanced permission.”
Dodson said ERS has lost about one third of its staff since the beginning of the year, in part due to voluntary buyouts. During the first Trump administration, both ERS and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture were relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, resulting in the loss of a significant number of personnel.
Dodson said ERS now has ” a little under 200” employees; about 40 are in Kansas City, about 40 in D.C., “ and the rest are spread everywhere.”
Anti-hunger groups have criticized the discontinuation of the survey, saying that in order to address hunger and nutrition issues, it’s important to have good data. USDA’s statement says the department “will continue to have access to more timely and accurate data needed to carry out statutory responsibilities.”
The placement of the workers on leave comes as ERS prepares to release the last survey on Oct. 22.
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