Dems ask Vaden detailed questions about FNS reorganization

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., ranking member on the Senate Agriculture Committee, and 25 other Democratic senators this week sent Agriculture Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden a letter asking him a series of detailed questions about the Trump administration’s plans to reorganize the Food and Nutrition Service. The Hagstrom Report obtained a copy of the letter. 

The senators asked that their letter be answered by June 5.

In the letter, the senators noted that USDA manages 16 nutrition programs and said, “Unfortunately, this administration has engaged in repeated efforts to undermine these crucial programs: cancelling over 90 million pounds of food ordered for food banks and schools; enacting the deepest cuts to SNAP in history; refusing to comply with court orders to fund SNAP benefits during the government shutdown; and terminating a long-standing food insecurity survey that has measured hunger in America since the 1990s. At the same time, the USDA has greatly reduced the capacity of the Food and Nutrition Service to administer nutrition assistance programs, and almost 30% of FNS staff have left the agency as a result of last year’s Deferred Resignation Program.

“USDA’s reorganization announcement on April 30 would further break apart this already hobbled agency. The USDA’s plan would close five of the seven regional offices and have staff relocate to different offices based on programmatic work, which would appear to reduce alignment and efficiencies among the nutrition assistance programs.”

Among the questions the senators asked Vaden to answer are whether a cost-benefit analysis has been conducted, how many Washington-based employees will leave the agency rather than accept relocation, and how USDA will manage the incorporation of new nutrition standards into nutrition programs “in the midst of a major reorganization.”