USDA DEPUTY SEC. COMMITS TO WORK WITH HYDE-SMITH TO ENSURE FUTURE OF ARS OPERATIONS IN STONEVILLE, MISS.
At Ag Committee Hearing, Hyde-Smith Questions USDA Reorganization Impact on ARS Southeast Area Office in Washington County
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today received assurance from Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Vaden that U.S. Department of Agriculture officials will work with Congress as they flesh out an ambitious agency reorganization proposal that will affect a major agricultural research facility in the Mississippi Delta.
Hyde-Smith and her colleagues on the Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday questioned Vaden a hearing called to review the USDA reorganization proposal outlined last week by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. The plan would direct the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS) to “eliminate” area offices, one of which is the Southeast Area Office in Stoneville.
“I want to be very clear that I support efforts to make the Department of Agriculture more efficient, fiscally sustainable, responsive to farmers and producers, including making the USDA operate closer to the people it serves,” Hyde-Smith said. “However, there are still many questions that need to be answered on the specifics of this reorganization proposal. So, I’m glad and I understand that things are still open and nothing's final yet. It’s a work in progress.”
“I will take the Deputy Secretary’s offer to be part of consultations as the reorganization proposal is finalized. I want to ensure that this plan sustains all the good work being done in Stoneville, even as part of a restructuring effort to reduce the USDA bureaucracy,” Hyde-Smith said.
Following Hyde-Smith’s extensive review of the scope of work done at Stoneville and its importance to the Mississippi Delta as the largest agricultural research location in the Southeast, Vaden provided Hyde-Smith with some assurance that the Stoneville site will continue without major disruption.
“I could go on for days talking about how valuable the Southeast Area office in Stoneville, Mississippi, is to USDA agriculture research and our ability to remain a global leader in agriculture. Mr. Deputy Secretary, what assurances can you provide me that any proposal finalized by USDA will not negatively impact the Stoneville ARS facility, its employees, or the important work that’s being done there?” Hyde-Smith asked.
Vaden responded, “Well, Senator, I thank you for the question and your passion for the center in Stoneville shines through in it. First of all, let me make a distinction that may not have been clear in my earlier remarks. The fact that the Secretary’s memorandum indicates that we are removing a level of middle management between the people on the ground, who actually do the work, and the people, who ultimately are responsible for overseeing it, does not mean that automatically everyone who’s located in a former regional office of an agency will be moved. And with respect to Stoneville, because of the important research that is actually conducted there, I believe at the current time, USDA’s plan, subject of course to consultation with you, is for the staff to remain there.”
Overall, Vaden provided a vigorous defense of the USDA reorganization proposal, which he described as “an initial step, not the final one” to shift 2,600 employees from the Washington, D.C., region to five hubs around the country. He pointed out that 90 percent of all USDA employees already work outside the nation’s capital, despite the outsized growth of the USDA bureaucracy during the Biden administration.
Over the course of the last four years, the Department has seen its budget explode. The prior administration not only burdened the taxpayer through questionable policymaking but also by hiring thousands of employees and maintaining a massive real estate footprint that USDA’s budget could not support. If any business or farm family managed its resources the way USDA did the prior four years, it would be bankrupt,” Vaden testified.
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