The Agriculture Department lost nearly one-fifth of its work force in the first half of this year, according to a watchdog report that offers a snapshot of the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the federal bureaucracy.
From January to June, more than 20,000 employees left the agency out of more than 110,000, including 15,114 who accepted a voluntary resignation program, according the report, which was compiled by the agency’s Office of the Inspector General.
The report, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, gives a detailed account of drastic personnel changes at the Agriculture Department as the Trump administration made deep cuts across the government in its bid to revamp the federal bureaucracy.
Since the report does not include resignations or terminations that occurred in the second half of the year, the scale of attrition may be even greater. In July, for example, the Agriculture Department announced an agencywide reorganization that top officials said would lead to more resignations.
Some farm groups have warned that the deep staffing cuts would hurt rural communities and imperil food safety. Top department officials, however, have maintained that the reductions are needed to curb wasteful spending.
The Agriculture Department said in a statement on Monday that it had been “transparent about plans to optimize and reduce our work force and to return the department to a customer-service focused, farmer-first agency.” The agency emphasized that the more than 15,000 resignations were voluntary and that it had not stopped hiring for 52 roles it deemed critical.
Nearly all of the Agriculture Department’s subagencies had deep reductions in personnel, according to the inspector general report.
Among the subagencies, the Forest Service, which responds to wildfires and manages public forests and grasslands, lost the most employees: 5,860, or about 16 percent of its total work force.
Three agencies that assist farmers and rural communities with infrastructure services, technical expertise and loans were also hit hard: Rural Development lost more than one-third of its work force, the Farm Services Agency almost one-quarter and the Natural Resources Conservation Service more than one-fifth.
About a quarter of the employees at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service — more than 2,100 workers — left the agency, which responds to disease outbreaks like avian flu and protects crops from pests.
Linda Qiu is a Times reporter who specializes in fact-checking statements made by politicians and public figures. She has been reporting and fact-checking public figures for nearly a decade.
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