WASHINGTON, D.C. – Donald Trump is slashing the federal budget like a sharecropper with a machete in a hayfield, and his new Ag Secretary is ready to team up with American Ruler Elon Musk and health fanatic RFK Jr. to make sure these po’ folk are not cheating the system nor eating empty calories.
“I would welcome DOGE to be involved,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said today, when speaking to reporters about the so-called waste and mis-use of the food stamp program, now called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Rollins (pictured at top via C-SPAN) further vowed today to “cut costs in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and that she will work with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to figure out healthy options in the program.”
Gone is former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack at the helm of the Department of Ag. A new day has dawned, and the Trump Administration slammed Vilsack’s policies on Wednesday:
“Secretary of Agriculture Thomas J. Vilsack’s choice to modify the longstanding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) obligation practice… Make no mistake, Secretary Vilsack and Deputy Under Secretary Stacy Dean put politics over commonsense, ignoring scores of USDA financial analysts and policy experts. Using a memorandum from the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities as their guide, Vilsack and Dean compromised the integrity of SNAP, the financial standing of USDA, and further eroded public trust,” said Kailee Buller, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “The Trump Administration will immediately correct this egregious action, making certain material weaknesses like this do not happen again.”
Rollins is embracing Musk and she said she expected USDA personnel to offer Musk’s DOGE workers “full access” to her agency – which may mean massive slashes with a sharp-edge to programs he and his youthful entourage deem unworthy.
Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins addressed more than 400 USDA staffers, stakeholders and friends and pledged to bring greater efficiency to USDA to ensure it better serves American farmers, ranchers, and the agriculture community. She reviewed findings from the Department of Government Efficiency and welcomes the opportunity to optimize the USDA workforce and stop wasteful spending.
“I welcome DOGE’s efforts at USDA because we know that its work makes us better, stronger, faster, and more efficient. I will expect full access and transparency to DOGE in the days and weeks to come,” said Secretary Rollins.
Since January 20th, USDA has begun a comprehensive review of contracts, personnel, and employee trainings and DEI programs. In many cases, programs funded by the Biden administration focused on DEI initiatives that are contrary to the values of millions of American taxpayers.
Today, USDA is announcing the first tranche in a series of bold reforms.
Contracts
USDA terminated 78 contracts, which totaled more than $132 million. Additionally, more than 1,000 contracts are currently under review for potential termination. Here are just 10 examples of the frivolous Biden-era contracts USDA recently terminated or proposed procurements that were discontinued before they went into effect:
- Media contracts, including Politico subscriptions: $2.77 million
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Onboarding Specialist: $374,000
- Diversity Dialogue Workshops: $254,000
- International Development for Historically Underrepresented Communities: $298,000
- Brazilian Forest and Gender Consultant: $229,000
- Women and Forest Carbon Initiative Mentorship Program: $121,000
- African and Middle Eastern and Latin America and Caribbean Regions for training, education, and access to professional and economic opportunities for women and increasing their participation in climate change adaptation activities: $91,000
- Central American Gender Assessment Consultant: $29,000
- Neighborhood Electric Vehicle Utility Van: $33,000
- Hawaii conference room rental for 100-person USDA Meeting on Biodiversity: $11,000
Employee Trainings and DEI Programs
On Day One, Secretary Rollins issued a memo to officially rescinded of all Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) programs to reprioritize unity, equality, and meritocracy.
To this end, USDA has identified and canceled 948 employee trainings, 758 of which focused on DEI alone. Other canceled trainings include Environmental Justice and gender ideology.
Workforce Optimization
USDA is pursuing an aggressive plan to optimize its workforce by eliminating positions that are no longer necessary, bringing its workforce back to the office, and relocating employees out of the National Capital region into our nation’s heartland to allow our rural communities to flourish.
This is just the beginning. Over the next few days and weeks, Secretary Rollins will have the opportunity to review thousands of contracts, grants, cooperative agreements and spending across the agency to ensure that every dollar is being spent as effectively as possible to serve the people, not the bureaucracy.
Per the President’s directives, Secretary Rollins will lead a new era of USDA to ensure that it is the most efficient, nimble, and innovative department to serve American Agriculture since it was Established by President Abraham Lincoln.
10 thoughts on “Trump’s new Ag Secretary ready to sic Elon Musk’s DOGE on food stamp users”
The Republicans have been lying to its voting base for months. We will not touch Medicare or Medicaid. The cuts to Medicaid will hurt red states the most.
On Friday the Republican-dominated House Budget Committee presented its budget proposal to the House. It calls for adding $4.5 trillion to the budget deficit in order to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. It also calls for $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, including cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and supplemental nutrition programs. Budget Committee chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) said: “The era of wasteful, woke, and weaponized government is over.”
https://justiceinaging.org/budget-resolution-signals-major-cuts-to-medicaid/
In addition to those area, DOGE has put classified information on its page for disclosures. Of course, this is not a problem to those in the cult. https://www.yahoo.com/news/doge-website-posts-classified-information-215218305.html
I , personally, think that “people” on medicaid should be rounded up (along with the homeless) and put into work camps where they can “tanzen macht frei” until they get straightened out.
All of this is illegal. Only Congress has the power to cancel contracts. I wonder how farmers feel about this. Most voted for trump and now they are finding that he is cutting programs that purchased large quantities of food from our farmers. Guess who that hurts?.
If you think “Hawaii conference room rental for 100-person USDA Meeting on Biodiversity: $11,000” is useful in any way (when zoom calls exist) and not just a taxpayer funded Hawaiian Vacation, you need to seek professional help. Or cut a check and pay for it yourself.
However it is ok for the felon to cost the tax payers millions to go to a football game and leave at half time for a photo op.
Could of been a zoom?
Could have but trump probably doesn’t know how Zoom works. With all the screwups that DOGE is making, Mush probably doesn’t either.
TDS or MDS or both?
I think you have both.