USDA recalls workers to help with farm loans, taxes; data uncertain

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture will reopen about 980 Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices for three days starting on Thursday to help process farm loans and tax documents during the partial federal government shutdown.

About 2,500 FSA employees who have been furloughed by the partial shutdown that began on Dec. 22 have been called back to work without pay, the department said in a statement on Wednesday. It said the offices would be open Thursday, Friday and Tuesday before closing again.

“Until Congress sends President Trump an appropriations bill in the form that he will sign, we are doing our best to minimize the impact of the partial federal funding lapse on America’s agricultural producers,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a statement. “We are bringing back part of our FSA team to help producers with existing farm loans.”

Perdue said 983 of the agency’s 2,124 offices would be open. At least one office will be open in each state, as well as in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

-snip-

POLITICS JANUARY 16, 2019 / 11:24 AM / UPDATED 6 MINUTES AGO


Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-shutdown-usda/usda-recalls-workers-to-help-with-farm-loans-taxes-data-uncertain-idUSKCN1PA2AG

[maxsolomon]

1. Dear Sonny Perdue:

Fuck you. We don't negotiate with Terrorists.

Signed,

The Democratic Majority

[Freethinker65]

2. Slooow dooown

[angrychair]

3. I find this absurd

Trump is getting around the shutdown by just forcing people to work without pay.
Why ever end the shutdown if you can just make people work for free?

[Iliyah]

4. Slavery.

[mahannah]

5. Strike.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. They keep violating the Anti-Deficiency Act every time they cherry pick

and try to pretzel twist stuff to fall under "health and safety".

[dalton99a]

8. +1

[SergeStorms]

7. See, the government works just fine...

when it's shut down! As long as you order people back to work without pay, that is. Trump is trying to make everyone believe everything is moving along just fine during his shutdown. "See, we don't need all of these people in government."

Make it small enough to drown in a bathtub, right? The fact that he's ruining millions of lives just because of his ridiculous ego never enters into his pea-sized brain.

[mpcamb]

9. Bring back the food inspectors, not the desk jockeys.