U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced on Monday that the Agriculture Department will close 259 domestic offices, labs, and other facilities in order to save $150 million per year, the Associated Press reported.
The closures follow a review of USDA operations in an effort by the Obama administration to cut waste, but will remain relatively minor in the context of the agency’s $145 billion budget.
“We must innovate, modernize, and be better stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars,” Vilsack said in a prepared statement released prior to his speech before the American Farm Bureau Federation in Honolulu.
USDA has not provided details on which offices would be closed or if employees would be laid off, but an outline given to the Associated Press prior to Vilsack’s speech indicated that many of the offices had few employees or were located near others.
Last year, the Obama administration closed 10 agricultural research stations in an effort to cut $42 million from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service budget.
Seven other departments in addition to the Agricultural Research Service, including the Farm Service Agency, Rural Development, and Food Safety and Inspection Service, will be affected by closures.
“As we continue to invest in rural communities across the country, USDA has heard from producers about reducing red tape and the need to modernize its services,” Vilsack said. “Today, we are answering that challenge by announcing a series of efforts to help us continue to streamline operations, make the best use of taxpayer resources and provide the best possible service to the American people.”
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