Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the USDA’s reorganization plan will be released in the upcoming week. While meeting with farm broadcasters, Rollins said roughly 15,000 USDA employees have taken early retirement or buyouts under the Deferred Resignation Program, but emphasized this number is in line with expected attrition. “USDA has around 106,000 employees in total. Every year, we lose just by attrition between 8,000 to 10,000 of those employees so while 15,000 is blasting across a lot of headlines right now, at the end of the day, through the DRP, hopefully the goal is that it isn’t too much of a difference.” Framing the effort as part of a broader administration goal, Rollins added, “I think the President has a very bold vision of returning the power to the people of downsizing the government and I think we’re doing that in a very intentional and very smart way.”
