BILLINGS— The USDA is planning to reopen approximately 2,100 Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices across the country Thursday, after the Trump administration released $3 billion in federal aid.
Two employees will work at each office, performing services such as loan processing and signing off on Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) payments.
Watch to see why farmers rely on USDA offices:
According to Carah Ronan, a fifth-generation Montana farmer at Rodi Farm in Laurel, farmers have not been able to get crop insurance and other payments approved since the government shut down three weeks ago.
“A lot of operating loans are serviced or housed in the FSA at our USDA offices, and with those offices closed, we can't have checks that pay our bills and ourselves being signed,” she said.
Conflicting reports have emerged on whether the workers will be paid. On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said they would not, but The Associated Press, citing the USDA, reported on Wednesday that they would.
“@POTUS is standing up for our farmers while Democrats obstruct. Special thanks to our great USDA employees who continue to work without pay to serve our farmers and ranchers,” she said in a written post.
According to the post, the employees will resume “core operations”.
“They're having to take on the roles of all what they're saying is ‘critically important operations’— what's deemed critically important,” said Ronan.
Ronan serves on the National Farmers Union Board of Directors as a Next Generation Advisory Representative. She traveled to Washington, D.C., in September for the union’s annual Legislative Fly-In to discuss national farming struggles, meeting with members of Congress.
Some hardships for farming she discussed include workforce shortages, tariffs' effect on trade, and a 20% decrease in USDA employees this year.
China did not purchase soybeans from the U.S. this year as well, placing a strain on farmers.
“A girlfriend of mine and I were just talking on the phone this morning, and she farms out in eastern Montana. You know, she's already dealing with a soybean crop fiasco that's going on this year, with no one to sell soybeans to… (and) her credit card's maxed out because she can't access the service and loans that she gets through those government programs,” said Ronan.
These struggles, paired with the government shutdown, have hurt farmers’ ability to support themselves, according to Ronan.
“You know it's bad when farmers and ranchers are going to have to think about showing up to food banks to feed themselves. I don't know if we're quite at that point yet, but it's getting there. People are wondering how they're going to pay for groceries,” said Ronan.
She hopes to see the reopening of the offices help farmers get back on their feet.
“Checks being signed and some deposits going into bank accounts and some farmers being paid so that we can keep running our operations, I think, is the most imperative thing at this point in time,” said Ronan.
