Multiple sources have confirmed at least 30 USDA employees have been dismissed from the Natural Resource Conservation Service in Oklahoma. They also say employees in other agencies were impacted as well.
Other employees took a federal buyout offered through the Trump Administration, and workers in other USDA agencies, such as the Agriculture Research Service and the Farm Service Agency, have been dismissed.
There were almost 1,000 USDA employees in Oklahoma as of August 2024, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. However, it is unclear among agriculture leaders who, how many and where USDA workers were dismissed in the state.
KOSU contacted NRCS staff and was forwarded to the national press office. In a statement, a USDA spokesperson wrote new Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins fully supports President Trump’s effort.
“We have a solemn responsibility to be good stewards of Americans’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars and to ensure that every dollar is being spent as effectively as possible to serve the people, not the bureaucracy,” according to the statement. “As part of this effort, USDA has released individuals in their probationary period of employment. Secretary Rollins understands the array of mission critical positions and programs at the Department, and she will ensure that those areas have the resources and personnel they need to continue serving the American people.”
In late January, the USDA began a review of contracts, personnel, employee training and DEI programs and announced the termination of 78 contracts worth $132 million, according to a press release. Some of those cancellations are paused by a judge’s order.
A DOGE USDA account also appeared on the social platform X in February.
KOSU sent a list of questions to the USDA and did not receive a response.
It is also unknown how many U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service employees in the state have been impacted by the recent cut of probationary employees. What is clear is the cut comes as Oklahoma enters March, the state's windiest month and with the highest number of wildfires.
Questions and gathering information for a clearer picture
At the American Farmers and Ranchers Annual Convention in Norman, leaders stressed the importance of staying focused on the big picture, as things can happen quickly.
Scott Blubaugh, president of the organization and the Oklahoma Farmers Union, said from conservation work and predator control, to research and farm loans, the services USDA agencies provide are crucial.
For Blubaugh, one of the biggest concerns is delivering the economic and disaster assistance Congress passed along with the Farm Bill extension in December within the 90-day deadline. He said the cutoff is next month, and many producers need assistance to plant crops this summer.
But cutting staff will make things more difficult.
“How are you going to do that?” Blubaugh said. “Because we know that those FSA (Farm Service Agency) staffs are bare bones to start with, and knocking off the highest level of people with the most experience is very concerning.”
He said the full picture of USDA employee layoffs in the state is unclear. To get a better idea in Oklahoma and across the country, the National Farmers Union is collecting information.
Rob Larew, president of the National Farmers Union, echoed the importance of staying focused on the needs of producers and everyday consumers. He said some members received denials of their contracts or didn’t know who to contact because the person tied to their project was fired.
Larew said his organization is trying to understand the realities people are facing so the union can inform Congressional members and the administration.
“We want to make sure that if they are making cuts, that they understand exactly what those cuts are, and that too often these cuts have huge impact in a negative way on these rural communities when it's withheld,” Lawrew said.
For Larew, questions surrounding program delivery are part of the puzzle. He also mentioned the compounding impact of the existing financial environment, where tight margins hinder producers' ability to plant a crop or continue to farm.
“And so, if they have already made significant investments in programs with the understanding that the federal government was going to be there to provide additional support, and that support is now withheld then that perhaps can push individuals into leaving farming altogether,” Larew said. “So we're watching situations like that.”
He said another factor is the impact on small communities that have entered programs for community infrastructure upgrades.
Larew said the USDA’s release of $20 million in conservation funds from the Inflation Reduction Act is encouraging. But there is still uncertainty surrounding other funding sources.
“I hope, as we go forward into this year and really into the next couple of years, that if we move past this kind of space of DOGE, if you will, and we look for true efficiencies in government, I hope that there is a continuing recognition, and Farmers Union will be working on this, that our food system cannot be taken for granted,” Larew said.
At the convention, Congressman Frank Lucas, R-Cheyenne, said building an information base to work from together is important.
“I would suggest to you that most people who take an early buyout are on the verge of retirement anyway, they are the experienced, knowledgeable decision-makers,” Lucas said. “And again, I say this respectfully, when you take out the one year or less people, they're the worker bees who move the paper, who get in the trucks, who go out and do the things.
“So if you take out the decision makers and you take out the worker bees, that's real destruction,” Lucas said.
Lucas was the former U.S. House Committee on Agriculture chair from 2011 to 2015 and has had a leadership role in the committee this year. At the convention, he spoke about the state of Congress and his priorities, including legislation to fund the government and passing an overdue Farm Bill.
He said DOGE's goals - reducing federal spending to get a hold of the nation’s deficit and reducing federal employees if not all of them are not needed - are meritorious.
“But between the goal and the impact, how do you make sure that critical programs and services continue, and that the individuals – many of whom are very experienced or like some of the first-year employees, very enthusiastic – how do you make sure the right people are still left in place and in an environment where we don't have a complete executive branch of government, yet?” Lucas said.
Although there are cabinet officers and career people, Lucas said President Trump dismissed the Biden Administration’s political appointees, which an incoming administration customarily does. He said they lack undersecretaries, deputy secretaries and division heads, making it harder to work through departments because there is no one to talk to when a decision needs to be made.
He said Republican House agriculture committee members have frequent calls and praised the current chairman of the committee, Glenn Thompson, R-Pennsylvania, who has been responding to the issues members present.
“We just have to keep working at it, and it’s not just the people in the field,” Lucas said. “It is the ag research stations, its potential impact on the land grant universities, it’s across the board. And DOGE has not yet stepped into the biggest struggles like the Department of Defense where it’s big sums of money.”
With the extension of the Farm Bill, current programs are still in place. Lucas said they would see staffing issues in county offices because workloads differ and fluctuate based on the needs of people.
“We'll have to work our way through all of that,” Lucas said. “I'm just trying to make sure that my constituents have the tools they need to get their work done this year. I suspect that a lot of the lawsuits and a lot of the other issues will be sorted out as we go through the spring and into the summer.”
Conservation employees cutbacks in Oklahoma
The Natural Resource Conservation (NRCS) service has field offices in every county and numbers from the Office of Personnel Management show 280 employees in the state as of August 2024.
The conservation service’s roots go back to the 1930s amid the Dust Bowl, the worst man-made ecological disaster in U.S. history.
Trey Lam, executive director of the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, said the organization works closely with the service, and many commission employees are in the same NRCS offices, often working as a team of conservationists.
Lam said the conservation system is voluntary and is successful. And it’s been done with professionals in different organizations, including the USDA. He said it could be more challenging to provide the same amount of services to producers and landowners who sign up for federal programs with fewer workers.
“I mean, I don’t think we can make it smaller than what it is,” Lam said.
He said services might need to be provided differently, like using more technology, but uncertainty is a problem.
He said there have been hiring freezes at different times, and the commission was able to make agreements with federal partners to share staff. With the recent changes, Lam said the commission’s employees are willing to assist in program delivery, but some conservation offices might be significantly understaffed.
“But will just have to see, as we work through exactly where they need assistance and then where we can be of assistance,” Lam said.
Although commission employees will be able to do more, Lam said he is concerned about the partnership in the future, Congress’ priorities for conservation and the delivery of conservation to people. He said it’s also tricky to hire federal workers, and with the loss of employees, it will take longer to rebuild the conservation workforce.
“So there's a whole, whether you call it a class or a generation of conservations that are gone now, so the folks that they've hired in this last wave,” Lam said. “It would take years to rebuild that staff, even with a large commitment of resources.”
Federal and state focus on smaller government workforce
President Donald Trump’s Administration, through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has laid off many federal employees to make the government more efficient.
While the federal workforce is shrinking, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt also wants to reduce the number of state employees by the end of his term.
Stitt appeared in a recent interview in POLITICO and spoke on DOGE cuts and the effort of efficiency.
In the context of the federal funding freeze and reports of some farmers not receiving USDA grants they rely on for their operations, Stitt was asked what he has heard from Oklahoma producers and whether he is concerned about them being targeted by the administration’s policies.
“I mean, here’s the deal. Sure, farming is so so critical, I mean in Oklahoma, that’s our number two or number three industry,” Stitt said. “But from a business perspective, we’re going to figure it out. Right? They’ll figure out the rules of the game.”
“Do we believe that we should be subsidizing every single thing? Is that important to the United States? OK, maybe. But you have to look at the overall spending.”
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