Senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays spoke with Richard Fordyce, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm Production and Conservation at USDA at the National Farm Broadcasters Convention in Kansas City. Questions about how the USDA recovered after the lengthy government shutdown started the conversation, and Fordyce explains that the department “had folks back in the day after the shutdown ended” and emphasized that USDA now has “a full year appropriation, so we’re not going to be subject to another government shutdown.” According to him, both FSA and NRCS employees were “ready to go to work that very next day,” allowing operations to resume quickly.
Fordyce acknowledges that a shutdown inevitably leaves farmers uncertain about their program status, loans, and payments, and that staff have had to work through backlogs. He notes that after 43 days of closure, “there’ll be some things that have kind of piled up,” although limited staffing during the shutdown allowed some essential processes to continue. He highlights that FSA employees were still able to issue marketing assistance loans and ARC/PLC payments, and that the agency had “started a payment run yesterday for CRP.” NRCS, which had fewer personnel working, faced more unfinished projects and producer questions.
Addressing operational status across the country, Fordyce stresses that with “320–350 county offices,” local conditions vary, but “by and large… things are going pretty well.” He adds that USDA is almost fully staffed at the state-executive-director level, reporting that only Nevada and Washington still lack permanent FSA directors. This near-complete staffing helps stabilize program delivery and responsiveness at the state level.
The discussion then shifts to disaster assistance and economic aid. Fordyce explains that the American Relief Act, passed in December 2024, provided $30 billion for economic and disaster response, and USDA has been distributing those funds in stages. He states that with stage one and stage two of the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program underway, “we will have put out the $30 billion that Congress appropriated.” Regarding potential new support for farmers, he notes ongoing internal evaluations, saying that if USDA moves forward, “it needs to be very well informed and representative of where we are at that point in time.”
Finally, the conversation touches on USDA’s plan to relocate more staff outside Washington, D.C. Fordyce expresses strong support, saying, “I’m 100% supportive of the reorganization effort” to place personnel in five regional hubs across the country. He believes having staff located closer to agricultural communities is beneficial, remarking that driving past “a cornfield or… a pasture full of cattle on the way to work might do some good.” While supportive, he acknowledges that much about the final structure remains uncertain, saying, “we don’t know what we don’t know” but expects continued progress in the months ahead.
