Tag Archives: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

The Law Of Unintended Consequences

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The government shutdown continues. The Democrats refuse to pass a clean continuing resolution identical to thirteen that they have previously passed. The shutdown is on the Democrats–all but one Republican has voted to keep the government open. However, while the shutdown continues, we are learning some interesting things.

On Monday, The Gateway Pundit reported:

One aspect of the government shutdown that probably wasn’t anticipated by Chuck Schumer and other Democrats, is that it has revealed to the public just how many people receive food stamps.

Years ago, when the program was still called ‘food stamps’ it was seen as something that struggling families might use temporarily to get through a hard time. Then it was re-branded as the ‘SNAP’ program and destigmatized. People were encouraged to enroll. Now there are many more people using the program, many who probably don’t even really need it.

The longer the shutdown goes on, the more reports there are about this and it’s stunning to taxpayers who did not realize until now how incredibly huge this is.

The article quotes The Hill:

More than 40 million low-income food assistance beneficiaries are expected to receive less help with grocery bills — or no help at all — in the coming days.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is threatening to withhold billions of dollars in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) contingency funding, which Congress has already allocated for emergency scenarios, if the government shutdown stretches into November.

According to The Overton News:

“There are 42 million people in this country that need food stamps on a weekly basis.”

“And we’re saying ‘people’ deliberately instead of Americans because most of the people that are on food stamps aren’t even from this country.”

“45% of Afghanistan immigrants are on food stamps.”

“42% of Somali immigrants, 34% of every immigrant from Iraq, 23% of Haitians.”

“59% of ALL illegal aliens are collecting food stamps, meaning that most of the people getting food stamps from the U.S. Government and the U.S. Taxpayer are not even Americans.”

“Think about that.”

“And we didn’t know about any of this before the government shutdown started.”

“But thanks to Democrats, we can confirm tonight that millions of Joe Biden, illegal aliens, people who crossed the border when Joe was president, are now collecting food stamps from a program funded by hardworking American taxpayers.”

This country was built by immigrants who came here, worked hard, didn’t take money from the government, and contributed to the growth of America. I need someone to explain to me how the people who came here illegally and immediately took advantage of government programs are benefiting America.

Green Acres, Here We Come!

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You might have to be over a certain age to understand that headline.

On Friday, Hot Air posted an article detailing some changes that are coming to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). A common-sense decision has been made that will be both good and bad news for the people who work in the agency.

The article reports:

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced this morning that she is reducing the Washington D.C. area workforce by more than half, and hopefully not through a reduction in force. Sec Rollins hopes to relocate as many current employees who are willing to do so to five different hubs across the country. They’ll be landing in states and cities where agriculture happens. That puts the USDA where the farmers are and saves the government a ton of money in expenses for employee overhead at the same time.

Theoretically, this will allow those in the Department to be able to hear the concerns of farmers–not bureaucrats and lobbyists.

The article notes:

…But several USDA staffers told POLITICO that the move will further hurt morale.

“This administration [isn’t] interested in supporting staff or even really in the jobs we do,” said one employee granted anonymity in order to speak publicly without fear of repercussions. “If they cared about either of those things, if they cared about serving farmers and ranchers, they wouldn’t have taken away all the staff, tools, and resources we use to serve them.”

A second employee, also granted anonymity to speak candidly, warned that relocating staff out of the Washington area would make oversight more difficult.

“[This] is just going to create an inner circle of powerful employees with access to people in high places and send everyone else out to ‘hubs,’” they said. “They are concentrating power and want fewer witnesses to what they are doing.”

The second employee suggested that moving would be costly for employees and for USDA, and it could force some workers to make the difficult choice to quit.

Swamp creatures enjoy the swamp. What they don’t seem to understand is that their cost of living is about to drop like a rock, their commute is going to be much easier, and their surroundings much more enjoyable. There is also the fact that the employees who own a house in the Washington suburbs (if they are able to sell that house) will be able to afford a mansion in middle America.

Fixing Discrimination In The USDA

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On July 21st, Just the News posted an article about changes in the disaster relief program standards for farmers.

The article reports:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has ended the Biden-era disaster relief program standards for farmers based on race and sex, which was praised by a legal watchdog that had been fighting the policies in court.

The USDA “has independently determined that it will no longer employ the race- and sex-based ‘socially disadvantaged’ designation to provide increased benefits based on race and sex in the programs at issue in this regulation,” the department said in its formal notice earlier this month.

The Southeastern Legal Foundation said  the USDA’s notice was in direct response to the watchdog’s victory in court in the case Strickland v. USDA. SLF’s lawsuit stopped eight disaster relief programs from the Biden administration that gave funds to farmers on the basis of race and sex, excluding white male farmers.

I am not a farmer, but it seems to me that disasters don’t discriminate according to race or sex. A flood or a drought is a flood or a drought.

The article concludes:

“Farming is one of the most important and difficult occupations in the world, where their hard work directly impacts everyone. They have to be able to do their jobs without having to worry about DEI nonsense, and we hope to see any forms of discrimination in federal programs come to a complete halt.”

A level playing field is always the best solution to any problem.