The webinar, hosted by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, explored strategies to address challenges in food, nutrition, and human health, with discussions centered on the Trump administration's impact on public and land-grant institutions. Dr. Dominique Carter provided an overview of the current policy landscape and its implications for universities, highlighting significant structural realignments in Washington and the need for universities to align their proposals with administration priorities. The panelists discussed the potential long-term consequences of proposed budget cuts and policy changes on research capacity, innovation, and workforce development, emphasizing the importance of strategic planning and nimbleness in response to the changing political and funding landscape.
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Secretary Rollins Announces USDA Reorganization
On July 25, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced
the reorganization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), refocusing its
core operations to better align with its founding mission of supporting
American farming, ranching, and forestry.
The reorganization consists of four pillars:
- Ensure
the size of USDA’s workforce aligns with available financial resources and
agricultural priorities
- Bring
USDA closer to its customers
- Eliminate
management layers and bureaucracy
- Consolidate
redundant support functions
USDA will vacate and return to the General Services
Administration the South Building, Braddock Place, and the Beltsville
Agricultural Research Center, and revisit utilization and functions in the USDA
Whitten Building, Yates Building, and the National Agricultural Library. The
George Washington Carver Center will also be utilized until space optimization
activities are completed. These buildings have a backlog of costly deferred
maintenance and currently are occupied below the minimum set by law. For example,
the South Building has approximately $1.3 billion in deferred maintenance and
has an average daily occupancy of less than 1,900 individuals for a building
that can house over 6,000 employees.
According to the Secretary’s memorandum
issued July 24, the Department currently employs approximately 4,600
individuals in the National Capital Region (NCR). To ensure USDA is located
closer to the people it serves while achieving savings to the American
taxpayer, USDA will relocate much of its Agency headquarters and NCR staff from
the Washington, D.C. area to five hub locations. At the conclusion of
implementation, it is USDA's goal to retain no more than 2,000 employees within
the NCR.
USDA’s five hub locations and current Federal locality rates
are:
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Kansas City, Missouri
- Indianapolis, Indiana
- Fort Collins, Colorado
- Salt Lake City, Utah
In addition to these five hubs, USDA will maintain two
additional core administrative support locations: Albuquerque, New Mexico and
Minneapolis, Minnesota. These two locations have substantial concentrations of
human resources staff that support the delivery of critical public safety
functions. USDA will continue to maintain critical service centers and
laboratories including agency service centers in St. Louis, Missouri; Lincoln,
Nebraska; and Missoula, Montana.
The memo goes on to say that many agency and mission area
functions will be consolidated at the department level. Further, the
reorganization will eliminate some area offices of many agencies, including the
five Agricultural Research Service Area Offices. Finally, USDA Deputy Secretary
Steven Vaden will implement the reorganization. Vaden was the USDA Chief
Counsel when NIFA and ERS were relocated to Kansas City.
Are your clients raising backyard flocks? This survey is
for them!
Since March 2024, 70 cases
of avian influenza A(H5) (H5 bird flu) have occurred in humans in the United
States, mostly among workers exposed to infected dairy cows and commercial
poultry farms. However, cases have also occurred among people exposed to birds
kept in non-commercial, backyard flocks.
CDC is interested in learning more about backyard flock owners and their flocks. The anonymous survey asks about:
- Characteristics of backyard flock owners, their families, and their flocks.
- Knowledge of H5 bird flu and signs and symptoms of H5 bird flu in birds and humans.
- Perceived risk of and concern about H5 bird flu to their backyard flock and themselves/families.
- Attitudes towards reporting sick or dead birds and protective measures like vaccination of their flock.
- Practices they use to protect their flock and themselves from H5 bird flu.
CDC will use the survey results to improve H5 bird flu
prevention activities. Questions can be sent to h5flustudy@cdc.gov.
QR code to the survey:
URL link to the survey:
https://redcap.link/backyardflock
Save the Date!
The joint NEDA and agInnovation fall meeting will take place in St. Louis from September 15 to September 18 at the Sheraton Westport Hotel. Please keep an eye out for the registration link later this week.
