Colorado aggies have mixed reaction to USDA reorganization

Colorado agricultural leaders are expressing mixed feelings about the announcement July 24 of a reorganization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the move in a memorandum sent out and posted online Friday afternoon. The memo announced sweeping changes in the department, including consolidating the agency’s 12 regional offices into five regional hubs and moving more than half of the 4,600 Washington, D.C., workers into the hub offices. One of those regional hubs will be in Fort Collins, Colo., but there’s no mention of whether the Denver regional office staff will be relocated to Fort Collins. A Denver USDA worker who asked not to be identified said there has been no further information about the future of the Denver office.

The memo claims that a massive reduction in force is not underway, but that more than 15,000 USDA workers have taken advantage of early retirement programs offered by the Trump administration.

Ben Rainbolt, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union CEO, said he thinks there are some good parts to the reorganization, especially de-centralizing many of the USDA’s functions.

“We’re still trying to digest the details, but moving (workers) out of Washington and into the states is a good idea if its planned right,” Rainbolt said. “And we’re excited about jobs coming to Fort Collins.”

COUNTY OFFICES A QUESTION

On the other hand, Rainbolt said, the plan leaves unanswered serious questions about staffing in the county offices.

“What does this mean for replacing people in county offices?” he asked. “Across the state there are a lot of openings (in county offices). Is this going to address that? Also, how was this developed, who had input into it, what’s the plan?”

Nick Colglazier, executive director of the Colorado Corn Promotion Council, expressed cautious optimism about the reorganization. He said what matters to Colorado Corn is that the producers are well-served.

“We can appreciate the department’s desire to make the USDA more efficient,” Colglazier said. “Right now, we are watching to see what happens. Whatever the plans, what matters is the USDA and its programs, be it boots on the ground working directly with our farmers or the ones working in the background, work for our farmers”

State Sen. Byron Pelton, a stockman from Sterling, Colo., said he’s happy to see the USDA putting “boots on the ground” in the ag-producing states.

“I thought it was a good idea to put the people right in the states where the food is grown, rather than have them all in Washington,” Pelton said. “I would rather see the USDA in Weld County, but Larimer is the seventh-largest ag production county in Colorado. And, with Colorado State University right there, it makes sense.”

Pelton also said he was happy to see the regional hub not staying in Denver.

“I just don’t think Denver is very ag-friendly right now,” he said. Pelton was alluding to an anti-meat campaign being paid for by Denver city tax dollars.

The Fence Post also reached out to the offices of the Colorado Livestock Association but received no response.

As previously reported in The Fence Post, reaction on Capitol Hill has been mixed. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, was miffed that Rollins didn’t share details of the plan before announcing it. On the other hand, Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., applauded the plan to relocate some positions to Kansas City.