Shutdown on
Agriculture
Some expected impacts of today’s federal
government shutdown on agriculture are:
- Up to 1 million U.S. federal workers may face
furloughs without pay beginning October 1 (tomorrow).
- Most federal agency workers will be furloughed.
- Federal workers could face penalties if they
tried to do any work during the furlough.
- The FDA said it would continue "limited
activities" only related to drug approval applications.
- Meat inspectors for the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, considered necessary to national safety, would stay on job.
- The
United
Fresh Produce Association’s Washington Public Policy Conference, in
progress in Washington, DC, has had to relocate or cancel events.
Participants' visits to Congressional offices have been cancelled or are
pending cancellation.
-
An Oct. 2 seminar at the University
of California, Davis by research entomologist Jay Evans of USDA's Agricultural
Research Service (USDA-ARS) Beltsville Bee Research Laboratory has been
cancelled.
- Some Department of the Interior-Bureau of Land Management services
and programs that will cease are:
- Endangered
Species Act and cultural clearances
- Range
management restoration
- Work on
resource management plans, including those driven by court deadlines
- Monitoring
of grazing allotments
- The U.S. Agriculture Department will
cease its statistical reports leaving traders and food producers in the
dark about most activities
in the world's largest farm exporter. (Reuters)
- USDA may be forced to delay the release of its monthly crop estimates, due on
October 11, which often cause swings worth billions of dollars in the price of
corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton.(Reuters)
- The department's public face, the usda.gov website, has already been shut down:
"Due to the lapse
in federal government funding, this website is not available.
We sincerely
regret this inconvenience.
After funding has
been restored, please allow some time for this website to
become available
again.
For information
about available government services, visit usa.gov
- USDA's NASS (National Agricultural Statistics Service)
statistics and other agricultural economic and statistical reports and projections
will be discontinued.
- The Economic Research Service, which provides analysis
and forecasts, would be shuttered and its public Website would be taken offline,
said USDA. Agricultural research stations also would close, and reports from
USDA's Foreign Agriculture Service attaches around the world would be
suspended.
- The
Bureau of Reclamation’s contingency plans are to keep minimal services and programs operational for emergency purposes and/or excepted activity with
non-appropriated or non-lapsing funding, such as:
- Dam Safety
Program
- Reservoir
Operations/Water Delivery
- Emergency
Management
- Operations
& Maintenance
- Water Rights
- Water
Treatment
- Bureau of Reclamation's routine
reporting, inspections, and planning will cease.
- EPA will be nearly totally shutdown, retaining a few
essential employees.
Labels: Department of Agriculture shutdown, FDA shutdown, federal government shutdown, government shutdown, Government shutdown to affect agriculture, shutdown on Agriculture, USDA shutdown
