Perdue Happy USDA Has Reopened

“Now, hopefully we're back up to full speed this morning,” Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue said Monday.  “That's the expectation.”

The USDA reopened Monday, returning to its full suite of departments and agencies.  Perdue said there will be several challenges opening departments and services that have been shutdown for over a month.

“Naturally it'll take a little while to get all the gears lubricated and moving again, but it's going be as soon as possible,” Perdue added.  “We've got a lot of work on the desk needing to be done so people are working at that diligently, and hopefully we'll be back at full speed very, very soon.”

Some aspects of USDA have been open as much as possible to assist farmers and ranchers, such as local farm service agency offices to handle matters such as applications for the latest rounds of market-facilitation program payments to growers impacted by trade disruption.

"We announced last week that due to the shutdown the extension for deadline of filing for the market-facilitation program will be extended to February 14th."

You can contact your local USDA office to get more information and help filing for the program.

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