USDA Puts Food Researchers on Leave
The move follows the agency’s decision to cancel an annual hunger report
- A team of federal economists and researchers responsible for measuring hunger in America were put on indefinite paid leave.
- The move follows the Trump administration’s cancellation of the annual Agriculture Department hunger report.
- The USDA says the report had become ‘overly politicized’ and ‘liberal fodder’ used to expand food assistance programs.
The team of federal economists and researchers responsible for producing the government survey that measures hunger in America were put on indefinite paid leave Monday, according to the union that represents the workers.
The move comes two days after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration abruptly canceled the report, which has been produced by the Agriculture Department every year since the mid-1990s.
Around a dozen employees, all involved with economic research at the USDA, were put on leave, said Laura Dodson, vice president of the union that represents some of the workers.
Not all of the workers placed on leave were directly involved in the hunger report, but they were all present at meetings last week during which they learned that the hunger survey was being canceled, Dodson said.
According to a letter from a USDA human resources official obtained by the Journal, the leave “is not a disciplinary action.” It bars the employees from conducting any government business until further notice.
Dodson, a chapter vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the workers were told by managers that they were being placed on leave while “an unauthorized disclosure” was being investigated. Staff were ordered to turn in their laptop computers, she said.
“Several employees represented by AFGE were placed on administrative leave today after the public learned of USDA’s cancellation of food security data collection,” Dodson said. “The American people deserve transparency and honest data—not retaliation against the workers who provide it.”
A spokesman for the USDA said employees who work for such federal statistical agencies “are trusted with confidential information. An unauthorized disclosure of non-public information shows questionable judgement and any employee willing to break that public trust undermines the integrity of the agency.”
The food insecurity survey is used by policymakers to make funding decisions for food-assistance programs and to evaluate how well those programs work.
USDA spokesman Alec Varsamis said Saturday that the department was canceling the survey and the report it produces because it had become “overly politicized and upon subsequent review, was unnecessary to carry out the work of the Department.”
A subsequent statement by the Agriculture Department called the annual report “liberal fodder” used to justify expanding federal food assistance programs.