By Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -More than 15,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture employees have taken one of the Trump administration’s two financial incentive offers to leave the agency, according to a readout from a USDA briefing with congressional staff seen by Reuters.
The sum represents about 15% of the USDA’s total workforce.
President Donald Trump’s administration has offered federal employees several months of pay and benefits if they opt to leave their jobs as part of his effort with billionaire ally Elon Musk to shrink the federal workforce.
At the USDA, 3,877 staff signed contracts in the agency’s first Deferred Resignation Program in February and 11,305 signed contracts in the second round in April, for a total of 15,182 resignations, according to the readout of the Friday morning briefing.
The numbers could rise over the next month because employees over 40 were given more time to decide whether to leave, and some who opted to leave have not yet signed contracts, said the readout.
A USDA spokesperson confirmed the total number of staff departures and said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is working to make the agency more efficient.
Rollins has exempted 53 position classifications from the ongoing federal hiring freeze, including wildland firefighters, veterinarians and food safety inspectors, to ensure critical agency functions continue, the spokesperson said.
More than 260,000 people across the federal civilian workforce have been fired, taken early retirement, earmarked for termination or accepted buyouts since the start of Trump’s second term in office. That represents about one tenth of the federal civilian workforce.
Those leaving include 674 county employees of the Farm Service Agency who directly serve farmers in offices across the country, and 2,408 staff of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which provides technical assistance to farmers and manages working land conservation programs.
Rollins has said frontline staff, like those at FSA, will not be affected by any forthcoming reductions by the agency.
Also leaving are 555 employees of the Food Safety Inspection Service, which ensures the safety of the U.S. meat, poultry and egg supply.
Some of the 1,377 staff departures from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will affect the agency’s response to bird flu.
Across federal agencies, more employees opted for the second incentive program, citing exhaustion and uncertainty about whether they would be fired.