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‘We have to move’: USDA soon to disclose which staff jobs will leave D.C.

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2 months ago

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georgiarecorder.com – Jennifer Shutt – 2025-05-06 15:26:00

by Jennifer Shutt, Georgia Recorder
May 6, 2025

WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced during a congressional hearing Tuesday the department will soon detail which staff positions it plans to move away from the nation’s capital and where in the country those jobs will be relocated.

“We have to move,” Rollins said. “This is a customer service oriented agency. And why do we have so many people in Washington, D.C.? And then you bring the forest part into that and then the nutrition into that and it just doesn’t make as much sense.”

Rollins’ comments about restructuring the 100,000-employee department came in the middle of a Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year.

Republicans and Democrats on the panel used the opportunity to question Rollins about USDA freezing billions in funding approved by Congress, some of which has yet to be released.

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, chairwoman of the full Appropriations Committee, said she’s heard from several “constituents who have received grant award letters from USDA in the previous administration, only to receive letters from USDA informing them that their grant funding is frozen.”

Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., urged Rollins to “ensure that funding goes to the small farms” and that it be released quickly.

Rollins testified USDA originally froze about $20 billion in federal funds and is still reviewing $5 billion to decide if the department should spend the money as planned.

“Some of the funding that we have pulled back and then reopened, we’ve asked for re-applications to realign around this president’s priorities, which, of course, not surprisingly, is not diversity, equity and inclusion, or some climate programs. But instead to reapply where the farmer or rancher would receive 65% of the funding or more,” she said.

“That’s another piece of this as well,” Rollins added. “So we again, are going line by line. We’re working around the clock. And believe me, we are on it.” 

Local food programs funding

Several Democratic senators on the panel — including Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin, New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich and Georgia’s Jon Ossoff — pressed Rollins to restore funding for the local food purchasing assistance and local food for schools programs.

“They may be COVID programs, but they’re two of the best examples of using American-grown produce to produce healthier outcomes in our students. To me, that is Making America Healthy Again,” Heinrich said, referencing an often-used Trump administration slogan. “You canceled both of those contracts, even though those contracts were signed and farmers had bought supplies for planting based on those contracts. So what would you say to both the producers and the schools who made financial decisions based on those commitments?”

Rollins said the two programs were “never meant to last forever” and that nearly every state has asked USDA for contract extensions, since they haven’t been able to spend all of the money the federal government sent them.

“Do you know USDA spends $400 million a day on nutrition and food programs? Just USDA. That’s aside from this food bank,” Rollins said. “There is plenty of money in the system. We just have to be better about how we’re spending it. So I hear you, but I think that it’s important to look at where this money is sitting, how it is being spent, and making sure that we’re using the taxpayer dollars effectively.”

The Trump administration’s budget request, released Friday, asks Congress to cut Agriculture Department discretionary funding by $5 billion, or 18.3%.

The proposal suggests lawmakers bolster funding for the Food Safety Inspection Service by $15 billion and for rental assistance grants by $74 billion, though it requests funding cuts on about a dozen programs.

The Agricultural Research Service, rural development programs, Farm Service Agency and National Forest System Management would all see funding cuts if Congress goes along with the budget request.

Rollins said during the hearing the proposed Agricultural Research Service funding cuts, if approved by lawmakers, would decrease that account from $2.1 billion to $1.9 billion.

“So while it is a cut, it’s not a massive cut, it’s a 7% cut. And it’s very much focused on outdated facilities,” Rollins said. “So as we continue the high priority and the focus on the important research, I believe that none of that will be compromised.”

Coming home to Kansas

Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran asked Rollins about proposed funding cuts to the Farm Service Agency and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, saying the programs are important to his home state.

“It was particularly troublesome when those on probation were eliminated,” Moran said, referring to mass firings of new and newly promoted federal workers. “We love the circumstance when a young man or woman out of college returns home, goes to work for USDA in a county office. We do not have sufficient personnel in those county offices today. But we particularly love when they are somebody who’s in their 20s, they come home and they raise a family in a small county of Kansas.”

Rollins responded that FSA is of “paramount importance.”

Congress will debate the dozen annual appropriations bills, including the Agriculture spending measure, in the months ahead.

Lawmakers are supposed to negotiate agreement on all of the government funding bills before the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1. But they will likely use a stopgap spending bill to give themselves until mid-December to work out bipartisan, bicameral agreements. 

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.

The post ‘We have to move’: USDA soon to disclose which staff jobs will leave D.C. appeared first on georgiarecorder.com


Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

This article presents USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins’ testimony on budget and staffing changes with a focus on restructuring and proposed funding cuts, which align with typical conservative priorities favoring government efficiency and fiscal conservatism. It highlights Republican concerns about federal spending and the emphasis on directing funds mostly to farmers and ranchers, while also acknowledging Democratic questions and priorities around program funding and equity. The language remains largely neutral and fact-based, but the emphasis on budget cuts and reallocation consistent with the Trump administration’s priorities suggests a center-right leaning.

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How the hot dog became a 4th of July staple

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11 hours ago

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July 3, 2025

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www.youtube.com – FOX 5 Atlanta – 2025-07-03 07:26:35

SUMMARY: The hot dog became a Fourth of July staple largely due to German immigrants who brought sausages in the 1870s. The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 popularized the “dachshund sausage,” which evolved into the modern hot dog. The Fourth of July only became a national holiday after the Civil War, in 1870, and hot dogs quickly became fan favorites at celebrations. German influence also shaped other staples, like potato salad. Traditional desserts like apple pie remain popular, with red, white, and blue desserts emerging in the 1950s. Today, Americans consume an estimated 150 million hot dogs on Independence Day.

Certain foods are synonymous with certain holidays. Americans will eat approximately 150 million hot dogs during this year’s 4th of July weekend. FOX News spoke to a historian about how certain foods became 4th of July staples.

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Bookman: Trying to parlay football career into US Senate run is a tired play, even with Dooley name

Published

16 hours ago

on

July 3, 2025

By

georgiarecorder.com – Jay Bookman – 2025-07-03 02:00:00


Former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley, son of legendary UGA coach Vince Dooley, is considering a run for the U.S. Senate in Georgia. Critics question his qualifications, citing his mediocre coaching record and reliance on family name recognition. Dooley describes himself as a political outsider aiming to offer “common-sense leadership” and cut through partisanship, but skeptics see his potential candidacy as stunt casting similar to other unsuccessful football celebrity campaigns like Herschel Walker’s. Meanwhile, GOP contenders like Rep. Buddy Carter aggressively court Donald Trump’s support, reflecting intensified intra-party competition in the 2025 Senate race.

by Jay Bookman, Georgia Recorder
July 3, 2025

If I wanted a failed football coach as my U.S. senator, I’d move to Alabama.

And I’m not moving to Alabama.

Seriously, what in Derek Dooley’s resume makes him think his next job ought to be serving Georgia in the U.S. Senate? At age 57, his sole asset as a political candidate is his legendary last name, gifted to him by his late father, the longtime football coach and athletic director at the University of Georgia. 

In football, that name opened a lot of doors for the younger Dooley, but once inside those doors he wasn’t able to stay long. His career peaked with a surprise hiring as head coach of the University of Tennessee, where he was fired in 2012 after building the worst record of any Volunteer coach since 1906.

Yet to hear Dooley tell it, mediocrity in other fields might be the perfect qualification for government work. He apparently aspires to be a generic candidate, spouting generic rhetoric, and in that sense at least he is already off to a grand start.

Consider his announcement of interest in the race:

“Georgia deserves stronger common-sense leadership in the U.S. Senate that represents all Georgians and focuses on results — not headlines. I believe our state needs a political outsider in Washington — not another career politician — to cut through the noise and partisanship and get back to real problem solving.”

Excited yet?

In that statement, Dooley refers to himself “a political outsider,” which is one way to put it. Another is to describe his potential candidacy as a political version of stunt casting, where producers put an unqualified celebrity in a role in hopes that name recognition will make up for a lack of actual skill or talent. It shows disrespect for the audience and disrespect for the craft, but sometimes it works, if only for a short period of time.

It worked for Republicans in Alabama, where Coach Tommy Tuberville leveraged a mediocre football career into a seat in the U.S. Senate, and now reigns as the dumbest member of that once illustrious chamber. It didn’t work so well in Pennsylvania, when TV’s Dr. Oz was the candidate. It also didn’t work here in Georgia in 2022, when the GOP ran a far more famous football celebrity, Herschel Walker, as their candidate for U.S. Senate.

As we know, Walker then proceeded to embarrass himself, his party and his state, losing what could have been a winnable race against Raphael Warnock. So, given that recent history, why would Georgia Republicans risk burning their hand again on the same hot stove, this time by considering Dooley? 

Well, there are reasons.

To Republicans, Herschel’s appeal as a candidate went beyond high name recognition. With a friendship with Donald Trump but no history in politics, he could be presented to the public, and more specifically to the GOP base, as a vacant slate, which he pretty much was.

At the time, GOP leaders feared that a highly competitive primary would unleash forces within the base that general-election voters would find disturbing, particularly with candidates competing to outdo each other for Trump’s approval. Walker was their way of side-stepping all that.

In 2025, three years later, that danger hasn’t gone away, and with Trump back in the White House it has intensified. Look at U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter of Savannah. While Dooley dithers about whether to run, Carter has jumped into the Senate race and is campaigning hard for the attention of the one man who matters most.

For example, when Trump says he wants to seize Greenland as American territory, Carter proposes to seize it and rename it “Red, White and Blue Land.” When Trump bombs Iran, Carter wants to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. It’s shameless groveling of the sort that Trump loves, that GOP primary voters love, but many other Georgia voters will not.

But if your name isn’t Dooley, that’s what you have to do to get noticed.

YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.

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Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.

The post Bookman: Trying to parlay football career into US Senate run is a tired play, even with Dooley name appeared first on georgiarecorder.com


Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This content critically examines a Republican political figure and GOP strategies with a tone that highlights perceived flaws and shortcomings, particularly referencing GOP-aligned candidates and their association with Donald Trump. While it critiques Republican approaches and candidates, it does so without overt partisanship or promotion of a specific alternative, suggesting a center-left leaning that is somewhat skeptical of conservative politics but not explicitly endorsing a far-left stance.

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Judge denies bail after Sean 'Diddy' Combs found guilty of prostitution-related offense

Published

19 hours ago

on

July 2, 2025

By

www.wsav.com – Safia Samee Ali – 2025-07-02 23:13:00

SUMMARY: A federal judge denied Sean “Diddy” Combs’ request for bond, keeping him detained until sentencing on October 3. Combs, convicted of two counts of transportation for prostitution under the Mann Act, was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking charges, which carry potential life sentences. The judge cited Combs’ violent history and risks to community safety as reasons for denial. Prosecutors portrayed Combs as running a criminal enterprise exploiting women, while defense argued all acts were consensual, dismissing charges as exaggerated. Testimonies from ex-partners Cassie Ventura and “Jane” detailed abuse and coercion during “Freak Offs” and “hotel nights.” The trial lasted seven weeks.

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The post Judge denies bail after Sean 'Diddy' Combs found guilty of prostitution-related offense appeared first on www.wsav.com

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