Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 1/10/12

USDA late Monday released what it calls its Blueprint for Stronger Service, a widely anticipated overhaul of the agency’s operations, which among other changes will close 259 domestic offices, facilities and labs across the country and seven foreign offices.

The plan is expected to save the agency about $150 million annually, USDA said in a news release.
“Blueprint for Stronger Service [is] a plan that helps producers continue to drive America’s economy by streamlining operations and cutting costs,” USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said, in the release.
The office closings include:
• Farm Service Agency (FSA): Consolidate 131 county offices in 32 states
• Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS): Close two country offices
• Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS): Close 15 APHIS offices in 11 states and five APHIS offices in five foreign countries
• Rural Development (RD): Close 43 area and sub offices in 17 states and U.S. territories
• Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS): Close 24 soil survey offices in 21 states
• Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS): Close five district offices in five states
• Agricultural Research Service (ARS): Close 12 programs at 10 locations
• Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services (FNCS): Close 31 field offices in 28 states

A complete list of locations being consolidated is available here. Meanwhile, Vilsack noted that services are not to be cut.

Department-wide review
USDA’s program is based on a department-wide review of operations, the release said: “The end result is a plan that will create optimal use of USDA’s employees, better results for USDA customers and greater efficiencies for American taxpayers.”

Other recommendations in the plan address other near- and long-term changes, such as consolidating more than 700 cell phone plans into about 10 and standardizing civil rights training and purchases of cyber security products.

The overhaul has come in the wake of a couple of early retirement programs that led to nearly 7,000 departures in the last 15 months and a reduction in travel, supplies and printing costs by nearly $90 million altogether, Vilsack said in remarks to the National Farm Bureau earlier Monday. But, he noted, since 2010, Congress has reduced the agency’s discretionary operating budget by more than $3 billion — a roughly 12 percent cut.

Done by September
Although the office closings and the cuts in personnel are happening at a time when demands on USDA’s resources are growing, “We estimate implementation of all these recommendations will allow USDA to avoid spending millions of dollars in less effective ways while preserving funding for the programs directly serving rural America and avoiding furloughs or further reductions in workforce that can interfere with prompt delivery of important services,” Vilsack told the Farm Bureau.

Office closings will begin in late winter, with the goal of having about half of the consolidation done by July and most of the rest done by the end of September, Vilsack said.

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