Will Proposed Changes To USDA, Other Departments Happen?

The Trump administration has proposed consolidate USDA safety-net programs, including food stamps in a revamped and renamed health department, as part of a sweeping government reorganization.

The White House said the federal government is bloated, opaque, bureaucratic and inefficient.  So, the administration wants to move SNAP, WIC, and other nutrition programs out of USDA and into a renamed Health and Public Welfare Department.  The FDA food inspection work would transfer into USDA.

But SNAP, or food stamps, has traditionally been the ‘political glue’ that holds together a rural-urban coalition in Congress, providing the votes needed to pass farm bills.  American Farm Bureau’s Dale Moore said he is not convinced moving these major programs is a reality.

“Food Safety Inspection is a major program, I don’t care whether its USDA or FDA, the nutrition programs are huge programs, plus there is a whole administrative interconnect with all of the states, so yes, Congress is going to have to have a strong voice in this, and they are going to have to be collaborated with this directly.”

Moor said there’s also a constitutional issue of ‘separation of powers’.

“They might say, fine move them wherever you want, the committees of jurisdiction remain as they are, so regardless of what agency it’s at, agriculture committees would still have jurisdiction over the nutrition programs.”

Separately, Democrats would likely object to one goal of the overhaul—to consolidate assistance programs for the needy to better monitor and reform them, including new work requirements, similar to the House-passed farm bill.  But some Democrats, including a long-time advocate for consolidating food safety in one agency, Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, might be open to rearranging jurisdiction in that area.

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