Commonground
Senior Moderator
[emphasis is mine]
WASHINGTON (IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) - Nearly half of U.S. Department of Agriculture employees will be furloughed during the federal government shutdown, though key programs that support nutrition, forest preservation and wildfire prevention, the most pressing plant and animal diseases and agricultural commodity assessments will continue.
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USDA programs that will continue despite the shutdown:
WASHINGTON (IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) - Nearly half of U.S. Department of Agriculture employees will be furloughed during the federal government shutdown, though key programs that support nutrition, forest preservation and wildfire prevention, the most pressing plant and animal diseases and agricultural commodity assessments will continue.
-snip-
USDA programs that will continue despite the shutdown:
- Farm loan processing.
- Certain natural resources and conservation programs that are mandatory under the farm bill or to protect human life and private property, like the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, dam safety and rehab work, the National Water and Climate Center which tracks flooding and weather risks and the National Soil Survey Center.
- “Core” nutrition safety net programs. This includes SNAP and child nutrition programs which have funding appropriations through October. The Women Infants and Children, or WIC, program is set to continue through the shutdown “subject to the availability of funding.” According to the plan, WIC can “recover and reallocate” unused grant funding from previous years to cover gap in coverage.
- Food safety operations, like inspections and laboratory testing.
- Wildfire preparation and response.
- Activities like grading, assessment, inspection, import and export for farm commodities. These activities are supported by user fees and therefore not impacted by the shutdown.
- Emergency programs under USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service that address new world screwworm, highly pathogenic avian influenza, African swine fever, rabies and exotic fruit flies. Surveying for other plant and livestock diseases will cease during the shutdown.
- Prior obligations in the Section 521 rental housing agreement program. This is the program element of USDA Rural Development offices that will persist.
- Operational requirements like human resource policies, cybersecurity and critical IT infrastructure.
