Articles Tagged with ''USDA''

The Meat Institute hired Jesse Fulton as director of animal health and welfare. Former National Pork Board CEO Bill Even will be the next commissioner of the South Dakota Governor's Office of Economic Development. Kenneth Selzer was sworn in as associate administrator of the Risk Management Agency. 

USDA's Farm Production and Conservation mission area added new staff: Kaytlin Bemis is now a policy adviser, Matthew Wininger was hired as special assistant, Kelli Evans was named senior adviser and Kyle Allen is a special assistant. 

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins tells senators that the department is working to rehire some staff, primarily in the Farm Service Agency, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and wildfire response offices. 

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Tuesday the department will unveil its reorganization plan next week and it won’t be as “drastic” as many have feared. Speaking to members of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting, Rollins confirmed that about 15,000 USDA employees had taken buyouts. 

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins faces back-to-back hearings this week, while House Republican leaders continued to struggle to agree on tax policy and deep cuts to SNAP and Medicaid that could be key to their budget reconciliation efforts.

The Make America Healthy Again movement, heralded by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other members of the Trump administration, has long pinned the rise of chronic diseases on food chemicals and dyes. In an announcement last week laying out the federal government’s plan to eliminate synthetic dyes from the food supply, Kennedy set aim on another issue: Sugar. 

The Agriculture Department will provide specialty crop producers with up to $1.3 billion through the Commodity Credit Corporation, continuing a Biden-era program aimed at helping the industry amid cost pressures.

Congressional Republicans return from their two-week recess facing the herculean task of finding agreement on a budget reconciliation bill that can enact President Donald Trump’s tax and spending priorities. USDA’s top trade nominee will get his confirmation hearing. The House GOP also is taking aim at California climate waivers and an endangered species designation.

USDA is withdrawing the salmonella framework it proposed last summer after years of study, drawing praise from the broiler industry but sparking concern from consumer advocates.

The Trump administration’s plan for reorganizing and downsizing USDA should be out by the middle of May, and it will likely call for consolidating some programs with other agencies, according to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

USDA is providing $340.6 million in disaster aid to rural communities and producers harmed by hurricanes and other natural disasters.