Iowa farmer who worked under Biden decries ‘careless actions’ of USDA upheaval

DES MOINES — Matt Russell, a fifth-generation family farmer who farms near Lacona, served in a state leadership post in the federal agriculture department under former President Joe Biden.

Since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, the president’s effort to remodel the federal government has included dramatic changes to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where Russell worked.

The Trump administration has fired roughly 4,200 USDA workers, according to the New York Times, under the administration’s effort to reduce the size of the federal government. The USDA said some of the firing notices were erroneous, and some workers were retained to staff the agency’s response to the bird flu outbreak.

“President Donald J. Trump immediately undertook a bold, necessary effort to downsize the federal government by ending the waste, fraud, and abuse that has permeated virtually all aspects of the bureaucracy — making sure government works for the taxpayers who fund it,” a recent statement from the Trump White House said.

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The Gazette spoke with Russell about his view of the changes being made at the federal agriculture department. Russell was the state executive director for the USDA Iowa Farm Service Agency, which supports farmers by helping them enroll in federal programs like disaster relief, conservation, commodity price guarantees and loans.

Russell told The Gazette he was speaking only from his own perspective and not on behalf of the various advocacy organizations for which he has worked. The following is a transcription of a portion of that conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.

Q: You worked at USDA for four years. What do you think is the atmosphere in those offices, especially among workers who have served the agency under both Democratic and Republican presidents?

A: I’m going to use the words of the administration. The Trump administration, apparently with full support from all the Republican leaders, their goal was to traumatize the federal workforce. … Their word: traumatized. And good for you, you’ve done it. That was the goal, and that’s what’s happening.

And now I want to be clear: I have not been reaching out to the 640 people that I used to lead at Iowa Farm Service Agency, and I worked very closely with the almost 500 (USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service) staff as well. I have not been reaching out to them because I do not want to put a target on their back. Because it’s very clear that the political winds are to try to make these employees committed to serving the president rather than committed to their oath of office, which is to the Constitution. So anything I share with you is not in conversations I’ve had with the people I used to work with. I’ve intentionally not had those conversations.

But I have had conversations with fellow appointees from across the country that I used to work with. I’m reading things on social media. So I’m very engaged, but nothing that I say is directly related to any conversation that I’ve had with Iowa USDA employees. I’ve had a little bit of interaction with some that have been fired and hopefully are now going to get hired back. But to a person, the people that I used to work with were ready to serve the next president of the United States knowing that it’s a change in party. A lot of them had been through this before. They were ready to serve the agenda of the next president of the United States and the party in charge. They didn’t have that opportunity because that administration, the Republicans, took a chain saw to them. And that, to me, is unbelievably shocking.

Q: The bird flu is again a growing issue in Iowa, and the administration reversed course on firing some of those USDA workers so they could remain and work on the government’s response to the outbreak. Can you speak to the importance of USDA’s role in that bird flu response?

A: What we’ve seen is, I don’t know if it’s an algorithm, I don’t know if it’s just simply saying, ‘OK, these are all the people that are on probation that we’re going to do this action.’ They just did a blanket, anybody that wants to take the severance package and resign now for a future date and get paid for eight months without coming to work. There was no strategy beyond, ‘How can we cut and fire the most people we possibly can with no consideration of any kind of (strategy)? ‘Maybe we’ll want to keep these people in place.’ There was no prioritizing around service delivery. There was simply just cut with a chain saw. So then when that happened, then we saw all the mistakes. So then there was some backpedaling. And bird flu would be an example of that.

… And so it’s fire (personnel) based on some formula that has nothing to do with efficiency or service or public safety, and then turn around and backpedal trying to, ‘Whoops, I’m sorry. Made a mistake.’ And (presidential adviser Elon) Musk has even said it: ‘Oh, we’re working fast and we’re going to make some mistakes.’ That is not acceptable.

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Q: Looking forward, what remains your biggest concern for USDA and what is your hope for the agency?

A: When I was working with my staff and I visited all the 97 county offices, I always said two things that they did that only people can do, and that’s make sure that every American, and in the case of Iowa, every farmer has access to the programs that they are eligible for. So accessibility. These employees across the entire USDA, they make sure that every American, every farmer, every rural community that is eligible for a benefit has access to get that benefit. And the flip side of that is, and all these volunteer programs when people participate, these are the folks who hold them accountable. If you sign up for the program, then you as a participant have to be accountable to do what you’re required to do to participate in the programs. Accessibility and accountability, and we have thrown both of those out the window.

So we’ve undermined our public servants’ ability to do those two core parts of their job: making sure everyone has access to the programs, and that when you do that you are participating so that American tax dollars are spent the way they are supposed to and nobody’s committing fraud and no one’s taking advantage of the program. And we have undermined our ability to do those two things by taking the chain saw to the federal employees. And so that’s the cost of these careless actions.

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People who deserve these programs aren’t going to get them, and people are going to game the system and take advantage of it and take advantage of our taxpayer dollars. And you can’t simply unwind that now, because the damage has been done, and you have to rebuild that capacity.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com