According to the USDA’s briefing to congressional staff, more than 15,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) employees have accepted one of two financial incentives offered by the Trump administration to leave the agency.
This is about 15% of USDA’s total staff.
As part of its effort to shrink the federal workforce, President Donald Trump and his billionaire friend Elon Musk have offered federal employees several months’ pay and benefits in exchange for their resignation.
According to the summary of the briefing on Friday morning, USDA staff signed contracts for the first round of its Deferred Resignation Program, which took place in February, and another 11,305 contracts were signed in April. This totals 15,182 resignations.
The readout said that the numbers could increase over the next few months because some employees who have chosen to leave still do not have contracts signed.
The USDA didn’t immediately respond to our request for comment.
Since the beginning of Trump’s second tenure in office, more than 260,000 federal civil servants have been terminated, fired, or taken early retirement. This represents approximately one-tenth of the federal civil workforce.
The Farm Service Agency, which has offices all over the country and employs 674 county employees, is also leaving. Also, the Natural Resources Conservation Service will be losing 2,408 workers, who provide technical assistance to farmers, as well as manage working land conservation programs.
The Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, said that the frontline staff at FSA will not be affected in any future reductions.
555 employees from the Food Safety Inspection Service are also leaving. This service ensures the safety and quality of meat, poultry, and eggs in the United States.
The departure of 1,377 employees from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service could affect the agency’s ability to respond to bird flu.
In federal agencies, employees chose the second incentive program more often, citing exhaustion and the uncertainty of being fired.
