Vilsack: FSA office ‘realignment’ likely in 2015

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says no closings of Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices are planned for this year.  But he says some realignment of the system will likely take place starting in 2015. “We need to modernize our system and there are a couple of reasons for that,” Vilsack says. “Number one, we have 20 percent fewer workers than we did several years ago. The budget that I’m working with at USDA is now one billion dollars less than it was when I became secretary in terms of the operating budget, so with a 20 percent reduction in workforce, you obviously have to realign where folks work and what they do.” As of today, 30 Farm Service Agency offices nationwide do not have an employee assigned to work there and over a hundred other F-S-A offices have just one full-time employee.  Read More