Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, we need to have a nationwide conversation about USDA's Farm Service Agency's staffing levels that have suffered as a result of COVID-19. USDA operates over 2,000 FSA county offices around the country. Its mission is to serve all farmers, ranchers, and ag partners through the delivery of effective and efficient agricultural programs such as commodity support programs, farm ownership, operating, and emergency loans, disaster assistance, and other ad hoc disaster assistance programs. One of the FSA's greatest strengths is its grassroots delivery system of farm programs to the agency's customers, meaning FSA's programs are delivered through an extensive network of county offices and local FSA employees. Producer-elected county committees comprised of farmers in the local area are responsible for overseeing FSA programs and services delivered to the farming community. This local oversight of farm programs enables FSA to maintain close relationships with farmers and ranchers, address their needs in a timely manner, preserve and improve the integrity of Federal farm programs, and provide production agriculture with the tools they need to produce the world's best ag products. Unfortunately, the FSA county office footprint has been impacted by employee retirements and USDA's inability to attract high-level talent and onboard new employees. Producers in my district continue to raise the lack of FSA staff as one of the main reasons for program delivery delays.…”