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Politico
3 days ago
- Business
- Politico
USDA's reorg rollout
Presented by With help from Jordan Wolman QUICK FIX — 'What are we trying to accomplish?': USDA chief Brooke Rollins is rolling out her department's reorganization plan — but not without some concern. — President Donald Trump secured a major trade deal with the European Union, narrowly avoiding a trade war that would hit U.S. farmers hard. — Republicans' plans to cut SNAP spending inspired one food policy wonk to run for Congress. IT'S MONDAY, JULY 28. Welcome to Morning Agriculture. I'm your host Grace Yarrow. Do you have any lunch plans? Send tips and thoughts on USDA's reorg to gyarrow@ and follow us at @Morning_Ag for more. Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories. Driving the day WHAT'S NEXT FOR USDA REORG: The Senate Agriculture Committee will hear from USDA's No. 2 official Wednesday about the department's reorganization plan, which includes shifting much of its Washington-area staff to five hubs around the country. The hearing — featuring Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden — comes after the panel's top two lawmakers expressed disappointment that Congress wasn't consulted before the announcement. As you'll recall: On Thursday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins unveiled her plan to significantly shrink the size of the department's D.C.-based employees and close several USDA buildings in the capital region. Committee Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) and ranking member Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) both called for a hearing shortly after the plan was made public to better understand the details of Rollins' decision. 'I'm more concerned about just the efficiency,' Boozman said in a brief interview with MA last week. 'What are we trying to accomplish?' More details: Rollins said Friday that her 'best guess' is that 50 to 70 percent of USDA workers based in the Washington area will relocate to the five new hubs. Rollins, speaking on Fox News' 'America's Newsroom,' said USDA may fill vacant positions with people based in the areas of Salt Lake City; Fort Collins, Colorado; Indianapolis; Kansas City, Missouri; and Raleigh, North Carolina. 'Our best guess is that perhaps 50 to 70 percent of our Washington, D.C., staff will want to move — they will actually take that relocation,' she said. Pack your bags: Rollins suggested that the USDA workers based in the capital region who don't relocate should seek jobs in the private sector. 'The economy is beginning to thrive again,' she said. 'The golden age is here. President Trump's vision was always to move people out of these government jobs, where maybe it isn't the most productive use, into the private sector.' Rollins said in a video announcement to staff that employees will be notified of where they'll be expected to move in the 'coming months.' Some Republican senators — and Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis — have also noted that current residents of the five USDA hub cities would be willing to take the new job opportunities. 'Especially with the loss of federal jobs in other areas, we welcome the new Department of Agriculture jobs being moved to Colorado,' Polis said. But Rob Larew, president of the National Farmers Union, warned that the reorganization would result in 'significant staff turnover' and loss of institutional knowledge of career staff — especially given that around 15,000 department employees have already left or taken buyouts this year. You'll recall: Rollins' long-awaited reorganization plan, which was first reported by POLITICO, calls for moving more than half of USDA's 4,600 Washington-area staff 'closer to' farmers, ranchers and foresters. More than 90 percent of USDA's nearly 100,000 employees already work outside the Beltway. Some related reading: The Trump administration this spring sought the ability to conduct mass layoffs at more than a dozen agencies, according to a new court filing that reveals what parts of the federal government were in the crosshairs of the White House's cost-cutting efforts — and which could be again now that the Supreme Court has cleared a legal block to staff reductions across the federal government. According to a Thursday court declaration filed in the Northern District of California, the administration sought the go-ahead to lay people off at 17 agencies and departments, including at USDA. Read the full story from our Sam Ogozalek here. MAHA MOMENT OUT NOW: FDA Commissioner Marty Makary defended the Trump administration's efforts to crack down on artificial food dyes, despite criticism from some Make America Healthy Again advocates that doing so doesn't address the root cause of chronic health issues. 'We want to create a different standard, and we want to have eyes on these new chemicals,' Makary said in an interview with POLITICO's Dasha Burns for 'The Conversation.' 'I think you win more bees with honey than fire.' Don't miss the full episode with Makary here. TRADE CORNER A BIG DEAL: President Donald Trump announced a preliminary trade agreement with the European Union Sunday, skirting a trade war that threatened to hurt farmers and opening new market opportunities for U.S. agriculture. The agreement locks in U.S. tariffs of 15 percent on most imports from the EU, fending off Trump's threat to raise tariffs on most EU goods to 30 percent on Aug. 1. Details are still to come for major food and ag industries, including the alcohol industry which relies heavily on trade to meet U.S. consumer demand. Trump promised in remarks Sunday that agriculture is among the top two winning industries of the deal. 'I think maybe cars would be the one that would go the biggest. And the second would be agriculture, the farmers,' he said. Relief for farmers? The EU's 27 nations drew up a list of U.S. goods — including soybeans and Kentucky bourbon — that would face retaliatory tariffs of up to 30 percent. Those were due to enter force from Aug. 7 onward, absent a deal between the two leaders. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed the significance of the $1.7 trillion transatlantic trade relationship — the world's largest — and appealed to Trump to do the biggest deal that either of them have ever done, as our colleagues write. 'We have a trade deal between the two largest economies in the world, and it's a big deal. It's a huge deal,' she said. Worth watching: Trump also said that steel and aluminum from the EU would continue to be subject to 50 percent tariffs — which could impact input prices for farmers who rely on steel-based equipment or manufacturers that use the materials to package their goods. 2026 Watch CAMPAIGNING ON SNAP CUTS: A food aid policy wonk is running for Congress in response to Republicans' recent cuts to the nation's largest anti-hunger program. Salaam Bhatti has entered a crowded Democratic primary to eventually challenge GOP Rep. Rob Wittman in Virginia's 1st District, a seat that national Democrats have deemed a priority for flipping. He's arguing that the megalaw, which President Donald Trump signed earlier this month, will 'upend' lives as it forces millions of families off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. And he thinks he's the best messenger on how to move forward in the face of those cuts. How he got here: Bhatti's experience growing up in a low-income family and relying on school meals to get by inspired him to work in the food aid space. While at the Virginia Poverty Law Center, he helped lead a bipartisan push to expand SNAP access to more than 25,000 Virginia households. Bhatti most recently served as SNAP director at the Food Research & Action Center, an anti-hunger nonprofit, where he tried to warn lawmakers against slashing the program in Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' He faces an uphill battle — given his lack of name recognition and donor base — in order to beat his primary opponents, let alone Wittman, who won his race last year by about 13 percentage points. 'The bill pushed me over the edge,' Bhatti told our Jordan Wolman in an interview. 'I've always wanted to run for office. I never wanted to force it, but the way that the working class has been neglected in Congress required a working class champion to come in and fight.' This interview has been edited for length and clarity. While working at the Virginia Poverty Law Center, how did you get state Republicans to support expanding SNAP eligibility? Anti-hunger advocates, when it comes to working with Republicans, don't really have the power. So we brought in banks, health insurance companies, county organizations, city organizations, people who can talk about the budget, and the grocery stores as well. And so we were all able to say, 'Hey, listen, we all agree hunger is bad. It impacts all of us in some different way. So let's let them know that SNAP expansion is helping working families, and it's going to bring this much money into your district, into the stores, and that's going to have a great ripple effect.' When the elected officials heard all that ... that really helped propel them to vote for the bill. Your experience with SNAP in particular is significant. What about the bill's changes to SNAP do you feel is so devastating? The bill has the potential to end SNAP. There is a provision in there that shifts the cost of the benefit to the states. When it comes to figuring out where that money is going to come from, there's only three options. One is to increase taxes. Two is to shift money from other programs. No other agency is going to give up their already underfunded money. And third is to bring the SNAP expansion down to default levels and reduce how many people are receiving [benefits]. And if even that's not enough, then complete withdrawal from the program. And you think that's a possibility in Virginia. It's absolutely a possibility in Virginia. And other states, too. Read the full Q&A exclusively for Pro subscribers here. Transitions The Pet Food Institute has promoted Atalie Ebersole to vice president of government relations and Dana Waters to director of international affairs. Row Crops — Capping off all the other horrors in wartime Gaza is the food-distribution situation that has prevailed since late May. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid in Gaza since late May, according to the United Nations. (The Atlantic) — After ICE raided a Nebraska meatpacking plant, the company's leaders are wondering how to stay afloat with only half their workforce. (The New York Times) — Your açaí bowl or smoothie is about to get extra pricey, unless the Trump administration and Brazilian government reach a deal to avoid a 50 percent tariff on imports from Brazil that kicks in Aug. 1. (Reuters) — The Commerce Department on Friday announced its final decision raising anti-dumping duties on most Canadian lumber imports to 20.56 percent, to offset unfairly low prices and Canadian government subsidies, our Ari Hawkins writes. THAT'S ALL FOR MA! Drop us a line and send us your agriculture job announcements or events: gyarrow@ marciabrown@ jwolman@ sbenson@ rdugyala@ and gmott@
Epoch Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Epoch Times
USDA Announces Reorganization Plan to Slash Washington Staff by Over 50 Percent
The Trump administration has announced a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that will cut its Washington-area workforce by more than half and shift thousands of positions to regional hubs, part of President Donald Trump's broader push to shrink the federal government and move agencies closer to the communities they serve. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the reorganization plan in a July 24 memo, which lays out plans to cut the department's D.C.-area staff from about 4,600 to fewer than 2,000 employees.
Axios
7 days ago
- Business
- Axios
USDA will move most of Washington staff "closer to" farmers
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will shutter nearly all of its Washington, D.C. buildings and disperse most of its staff throughout the country, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced on Thursday. Why it matters: The USDA is one of several departments to majorly restructure during President Trump's second term, seeing more than 15,000 employees accept White House resignation offers. State of play: Most of the Washington-area staff will relocate to five locations around the country, Rollins confirmed in a statement. In a video message to employees, Rollins said that employees will be placed in Fort Collins, Colorado, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Missouri, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Salt Lake City. Staff will receive details about their new assignments in the coming months. The department will close nearly all of its D.C.-area buildings, except for the Whitten and Yates buildings on the National Mall. What they're saying: Rollins said that the move is a cost-cutting one in step with Trump's agenda to slash the federal budget. "President Trump has made it clear government needs to be scrutinized, and after this thorough review of USDA, the results show a bloated, expensive, and unsustainable organization," the department said in its statement. "However, there will be no large-scale reductions in force, given that the department has already seen an exodus of 15,364 employees through the administration's deferred resignation plan." Catch up quick: The department said last week that it fired 70 foreign contract researchers following a national security review intended to secure the U.S. food supply from adversaries that include Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New controversial plan wants to tokenize Gaza real estate for investors
New controversial plan wants to tokenize Gaza real estate for investors originally appeared on TheStreet. As the Israeli military action in occupied Palestinian territories continues, the Financial Times recently published two news reports that detail the involvement of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the Tony Blair Institute in a project to "relocate" Gazans. Notably, BCG's plan used innovative models such as tokenization of real estate in Gaza via blockchain refers to the process of using blockchain technology to digitally represent real-world assets (RWAs) such as real estate as tradable tokens and offer fractional ownership of the assets to prospective investors. To put it simply, the process of tokenization digitizes and fractionalizes real estate. The BCG's plan envisioned all of Gaza's public land being put into a trust, whose assets could be tokenized and sold as digital tokens to prospective investors. The plan also considered offering the residents of Gaza an opportunity to "contribute" their privately owned land to the trust in return for a digital token. The token would give Gazans the right to a permanent housing unit. As per the report, BCG entered into a multimillion-dollar contract to help launch an aid scheme for the shattered enclave and also modelled the costs of 'relocating' Palestinians from Gaza, the report mentioned. As per the report FT published on July 4, the group considered a scenario that estimated that more than 500,000 Gazans would leave the enclave with 'relocation packages' worth $9,000 per person. It suggested that around 25% of Gaza's population might leave permanently. However, BCG claimed that the partners running the project repeatedly misled the consultancy's senior figures on the scope of the work. BCG said in reference to the work on post-war Gaza: 'The lead partner was categorically told no, and he violated this directive. We disavow this work.' The group added that it stopped the work, took no fees, and launched an independent investigation: 'We are taking steps to ensure this never happens again.' It was a Washington-area security contractor called Orbis that engaged BCG on the project. Orbis was preparing the study on behalf of an Israeli think tank, the Tachlith Institute, people familiar with the project told FT. As per the report FT published on July 6, the Tony Blair Institute staff also participated in the project. The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) is a non-profit founded by the former British prime minister Tony Blair in 2016. Titled the 'Great Trust' and shared with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, the plan envisioned a 'Trump Riviera' and an 'Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone' in had earlier shared a plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip as the 'Riviera of the Middle East' and suggested emptying the region of its 2.2 million people, a plan rights groups and United Nations officials equated to ethnic cleansing, FT wrote. Though the TBI didn't author or endorse the final slide deck and its own document didn't refer to the relocation of Palestinians, its two staff members were part of message groups and calls as the project involving BCG developed, people familiar with the work told FT. The institute told FT that its staff were 'essentially in listening mode' on these chats and it has never authored, developed, or endorsed any proposal "about relocating Gazans." New controversial plan wants to tokenize Gaza real estate for investors first appeared on TheStreet on Jul 7, 2025 This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jul 7, 2025, where it first appeared. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Hill
25-06-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Revised plan sells 1.2M acres of public lands
The Big Story A revised plan from Senate Republicans would sell off as much as 1.2 million acres of publicly owned lands, according to legislative text obtained by The Hill. © Jason Goode The updated text would require the sales of between 0.25 and 0.5 percent of the 245 million acres currently owned by the Bureau of Land Management, or between 612,500 and 1.225 million acres. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), is spearheading the plan, which would be included in the GOP's megabill to advance much of President Trump's agenda. Lee has said he would revise his original plan, which would have sold off between 2.2 million and 3.3 million acres, after the Senate parliamentarian ruled it could not go inside the party's budget package. Lee's office did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment. The text obtained by The Hill only pertains to Bureau of Land Management lands, complying with Lee's promise to ax provisions in his original bill that would have also included National Forests. The updated version also makes further changes: It specifies that land that is sold must be used 'solely for the development of housing or to address any infrastructure and amenities to support local needs associated with housing. It also requires land sold to be within 5 miles of the 'the border of a population center.' Read more at Welcome to The Hill's Energy & Environment newsletter, I'm Rachel Frazin — keeping you up to speed on the policies impacting everything from oil and gas to new supply chains. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. Essential Reads How policy will affect the energy and environment sectors now and in the future: Schumer taken to hospital for dehydration amid DC heat wave Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was taken to a Washington-area hospital Wednesday after becoming lightheaded at the Senate gym during the morning. Judge blocks Trump from withholding EV charger infrastructure funds A federal judge on Tuesday issued a ruling blocking the Trump administration from withholding funds for electric vehicle charger infrastructure from 14 states. 'Alligator Alcatraz': What to know about Florida Everglades migrant detention site The nearly 40-square-mile site was first developed in the late 1960s with plans to become a major hub, but the project fizzled because of environmental concerns, leaving just a single strip that has been used as a training site and for rare general aviation needs. What We're Reading News we've flagged from other outlets touching on energy issues, the environment and other topics: Shell in Early Talks to Acquire Rival BP (The Wall Street Journal) On Tap Upcoming news themes and events we're watching: What Others are Reading Two key stories on The Hill right now: Questions around success of Iran strikes spark fears on Capitol Hill Questions swirling around the success of U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites are raising fears on Capitol Hill that more could be coming. Read more Trump calls for firing of CNN reporter over Iran nuclear damage report President Trump on Wednesday called for the firing of CNN correspondent Natasha Bertrand, who reported on air an internal U.S. intelligence assessment that found Saturday's strikes on Iranian nuclear sites set back Tehran's nuclear program by only a few months. Read more You're all caught up. See you tomorrow! Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here
