WASHINGTON - Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11), Chair of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations, and Rep. Stacey Plaskett (VI), Chair of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research, released a statement Wednesday following reports that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service will likely delay a large number of the agency’s reports due to staffing issues related to the agency’s pending relocation out of the Washington area:

“The reports today confirm what we in Congress and the countless witnesses before our Committee have warned about all along: USDA’s misguided push to relocate key agencies and uproot employees impacts the Department’s ability to provide support to farmers, consumers, and rural communities.  USDA has made reckless policy decisions that will delay or halt work on nearly 40 Economic Research Service reports covering a broad range of important issues impacting food and agriculture.  We pushed USDA to provide a contingency plan to ensure that these work products would continue without delay, but it’s clear that the agency has no such plan.  Basic and essential functions of the USDA are being delayed, and in some cases completely cast aside, as a result of an ill-planned ideological crusade by the Administration.  It is remarkable the degree to which they claim to represent farmers, yet do precisely the opposite.”  

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