Budget Battle Will Fuel Attack on Corn Payments:

RC&D Funding First to Go

Rural communities take note.  Fierce saber rattling was heard yesterday in Iowa as USDA Secretary Vilsack warned his home state that there will be no sacred cows when tackling spending cuts for the 2012 budget.  This weekend, the 375 federal employees of the RC&D (the Lilliputian $54 million step-child of the NRCS) heard a shot across the bow.  

Buried in the current fiscal budget is an item that few people seem to have noticed.  Dave White, the Chief Administrator for the NRCS, threw his own RC&D program under the bus before the House Appropriations Committee as part of the Continuing Resolution needed to keep the government running for the next 6 months.  Mr. White's testimony, which is far too long for anyone to read, says that "other USDA agencies provide technical and limited financial assistance to the RC&D councils." (page 11)

Does Mr. White really think that the 375 USDA coordinators who have been living and working in rural communities for years have been unnecessary? 

When I talked with 2 of the RC&Ds I work with, last Friday morning, they were expecting a transition period if their funding was cut.  On Monday morning, they were put on notice to shut down, turn in their office keys and vehicles, stop using computers and report to the nearest USDA/NRCS office immediately.

What other programs will be cut to reach the $3 billion savings objective for the for the upcoming 2012 USDA budget?