On July 24, 2025, US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins released a memo (SM-1078-015) describing the planned reorganization of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) staff. This reorganization plan was drafted without any consultation with farmers or other stakeholders. While the reorganization plan does not directly include planned layoffs or reductions in force (RIF), USDA has already lost at least 18,000 staff since January 2025. If the reorganization moves forward as planned, it will likely result in the loss of thousands more staff. 

After swift bipartisan pushback to the proposed reorganization, USDA opened an impromptu and unofficial public comment opportunity. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) encourages organizations and individuals to submit their comments, questions, and concerns regarding the reorganization to USDA at reorganization@usda.gov by August 31, 2025. NSAC also notes our concern that the opportunity for public comment has not been formally provided through the Federal Register, as is standard practice for proposals of this scope.

The dedicated USDA staff powers the Department to meet its mission to serve farmers and other stakeholders. Unfortunately, recent history shows that staffing losses directly reduce and delay USDA’s services to stakeholders. When USDA relocated the Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) offices in 2019, the agencies lost more than half of their staff. According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), these staff losses cut the number of reports and articles generated by ERS staff in half, led to the loss or delay of several vital industry reports, and led to delays and suspensions of several grant programs and payments. It has taken years for the agencies to rebuild their capacity and attempt to replace the lost institutional knowledge needed to serve American agriculture and stakeholders. USDA must avoid replicating the problems of these previous staffing disruptions and further exacerbating the already ongoing staffing crisis at the agency. 

This is the first blog post in a series discussing the loss of USDA staff since January 2025 and the expected impacts of the proposed USDA reorganization across issue areas. This post sets the stage by examining the overall department staffing losses and the losses experienced by each state.  

USDA Staff Work in Your Communities

In recent years, USDA staffing numbers have hovered around 100,000 employees. In September 2024, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) reported that USDA had 98,473 employees. Across Republican and Democratic administrations, USDA staffing levels have remained fairly consistent – George W. Bush oversaw the department’s largest workforce, while Obama trimmed it back – until the Trump administration broke sharply with precedent by presiding over recent steep cuts. The first Trump administration saw a historical low in USDA-wide staffing in September 2019 following the relocation of both the ERS and NIFA from Washington, DC to Kansas City, MO. While staffing levels recovered slightly during the Biden administration, they remained below typical levels, and the department has had little time to rebuild the lost institutional knowledge and relationships with stakeholders. 

Figure 1: USDA Staffing Levels

• Data from the Office of Personnel Management

USDA staff work in every US state and territory, as shown in Figure 2 below. Only approximately 4.6% of USDA employees are located in the capital region, with the rest of the department staff spread across the country, working closely with farmers, ranchers, and stakeholders. 

While the reorganization memo claims that major disruptions are justified to bring “the USDA closer to its customers,” the reality is that the overwhelming majority of USDA staff are already living and working outside the capital region. 

Figure 2: USDA Staff by State

• An additional 1,063 USDA staff work throughout the US, but their location was suppressed by OPM to protect employee privacy; 794 USDA employees work in US territories, and 336 outside the US. 

USDA Staff Has Already Been Gutted

USDA has already lost at least 18,000 staff since January 2025. More than 15,000 USDA employees left the department through DOGE’s so-called Deferred Resignation Program (DRP). The DRP offered federal employees fully paid administrative leave through September 2025 if employees voluntarily resigned from their positions. Approximately 3,876 USDA employees accepted DOGE’s first round DRP offer, and an additional 11,298 USDA employees resigned in the second round of DRP. Many of these employees have years of experience and irreplaceable expertise. 

In addition to staff who have resigned through DRP, approximately 2,827 USDA staff members separated from the Department between January and March 2025, according to OPM. These separations include employees who quit, experienced a “reduction in force”, retired (early, voluntary, or for disability), were terminated due to an expired appointment or contract, transferred out, or had some other separation from the department. The separated employees have an average length of service of more than 12.4 years, with 38% of separated employees having more than ten years of service. 

The table below shows the number of employees in each USDA agency, the number who accepted the deferred resignation offer, and the number of other separated employees. 

Table 1: USDA Deferred Resignation and Separations by Agency

1. The DRP data differentiates between general FSA employees and FSA county employees; FSA county employees are typically not general service employees.

Every agency at USDA has experienced staff resignations and separations. Some have been hit particularly hard, like the Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement (OPPE), losing 53% of its staff to DRP and separations, Rural Development losing 36% of its staff, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) losing 22% of its staff. Reasons for these disparities are not fully understood. Future posts in this series will explore these agency losses and impacts in greater depth. 

Staff Losses Are In Your Communities

Despite claiming to prioritize serving farmers and to “bring USDA closer to its customers”, 94% of USDA employees who resigned were located outside of Washington, DC. Every state and territory lost USDA staff during DRP, as the map below shows, and every state except three (Hawaii, Oregon, and California) had more than 10% of its USDA staff resign. 

Figure 3: USDA Staff Losses by State

• An additional 73 USDA staff in US territories also accepted the Deferred Resignation Program

Like resignations, 94% of the separations between January and March 2025 were outside of Washington, DC. Every US state and territory had USDA staff separate between January and March 2025, adding to the loss of vital USDA staff. 

Reorganization Will Further Undermine USDA Services

USDA staff are dedicated public servants who support America’s farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. They work in every state and territory and bring their expertise and energy to tackling some of America’s greatest challenges. 

Since January 2025, USDA has already lost at least 18,000 employees. These staff losses mean less capacity to serve farmers and rural communities. The major staff losses experienced during the previous relocation of ERS and NIFA led directly to lost productivity and poor service to stakeholders. Those agencies lost their most experienced staff, and it took years to rebuild their internal capacity. 

The USDA is already experiencing a staffing crisis which means longer wait times for farmers and widespread cutbacks to programs serving American agriculture. The reorganization of USDA will further devastate the department’s workforce and ability to fulfill its mission to serve farmers and rural communities. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has said that she expects between 50-70% of USDA staff to accept the relocation required by reorganization, indicating that thousands of experienced and knowledgeable staff may soon choose to leave the Department, further undermining USDA’s ability to provide vital services to stakeholders.