Thousands of workers have accepted the Trump administration’s buyout offers at the USDA. E & E News says employees who’ve seen the internal numbers at USDA say the count has reached 3,100 at the Forest Service, 1,200 at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and possibly up to 12,000 people through the entire agency. That’s over 10 percent of the department’s 100,000 employees.
The buyouts are deferred resignations with paid leave through September and are said to be preludes to firings expected to hit USDA in the weeks ahead. An employee at the Natural Resources Conservation Service who took the buyout offer said the numbers are subject to change if workers clicked on the offer but don’t sign the resignation agreement.
Another report says the USDA is planning to relocate a sizable number of employees that it doesn’t lay off to one of three locations around the country.
The extent of the coming cuts depends on how many take the buyout and an early retirement offer, employees said.
Forest Service buyouts are roughly equal to the number who were caught up in the earlier firing of probationary employees that landed the administration in court. That ongoing dispute has wavered between court rulings, one ordering employees reinstated and a more recent upholding the firings.
The mass resignations and firings spurred House Agriculture Chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) on Wednesday to repeat earlier warnings that the administration risks losing some of its most experienced people, undermining the stated goal of efficiency.
Although new, younger employees may eventually fill positions being vacated, Thompson told reporters, “there’s a learning curve when you come in.”
He added, “If nothing else, we ought to encourage the most experienced folks to stick around to basically pass on their wisdom.”
But Thompson said he’s not surprised that management-level employees would take an offer to leave.
“If you were offered a sweetheart buyout, would you do it?” Thompson said. “Most people would.”
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NAFB/E&E NEWS
