Industry News

USDA Plans Reorganization; Undersecretary for Trade Office Created

May 16, 2017


On May 11, 2017, in response to statutory directives in the 2014 Farm Bill, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue published a report which included plans for creating a new undersecretarial office dedicated developing and administrating USDA’s agricultural trade policies and initiatives.

Part of a larger reorganization of several agencies, such as the FAS, FSA, and RMA, the new Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agriculture will consult with the USTR and the Department of Commerce to assist farmers and other related domestic agricultural industries with exporting their products. Instead of administrating the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Risk Management Agency (RMA), the new position will be completely dedicated to overseeing the Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS), while the others will be entrusted to the Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation, another proposed position. Furthermore, all agencies tasked with encouraging rural development interests will report directly to the agriculture secretary, rather than to an Undersecretary for Rural Development.

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