Several hundred federal employees who help keep invasive pests and plant diseases out of the United States have accepted buyout offers from the Trump administration, which could leave the agricultural industry vulnerable to the destruction of valuable crops, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
About 3,000 employees work in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Plant Protection and Quarantine division. They inspect luggage at airports and shipments at ports of entry to ensure invasive species stay out of the country. They also survey forests for pests.
As many as 700 employees, including in the agency’s administration and field operations, decided to accept the administration’s resignation offer, said the sources, who requested anonymity over fears of retaliation. High-level administrators at the division, known as PPQ, are also expected to leave.
The losses mean fewer resources will be available to combat harmful pests and diseases that can decimate crops and spell financial disaster for the agriculture economy.
“We have a major loss of institutional knowledge and a loss of new employees who otherwise may have made a long career in PPQ,” said one source, a longtime USDA employee. “That will all affect operations for a long time.”
The USDA did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday on how PPQ would perform its duties with fewer staff.
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The resignations are part of a broader Trump administration effort to drastically downsize and reshape the federal government. Agencies such as the Department of Education and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have also faced steep job cuts. The USDA is hoping to cut about 30% of its 100,000 workers, according to Politico Pro.
Earlier this year, the USDA offered its workforce its first deferred resignation program, which allowed employees to depart but still be paid for several months. When relatively few took the offer, the USDA terminated employees en masse.
More than 200 employees at PPQ were caught up in the first wave, The New York Times reported in February. The cuts were already causing delays at the nation’s ports, according to the paper.
Soon after, an administrative law judge stopped the mass terminations for 45 days, a pause that ends April 18. A separate court order also halted the terminations, and many USDA employees returned to work.
The USDA offered a second round of the deferred resignation program, dubbed “DRP 2.0,” on April 1. Employees had until April 8 to accept. Those who accept will be placed on administrative leave by the end of April, according to a mass email from USDA leadership.
While on administrative leave, they will receive pay and benefits until Sept. 30 — effectively being paid by taxpayers not to work. One USDA employee called it a “huge waste” of taxpayer money.
More cuts could be on the way. The USDA is identifying “duplicative” or “redundant” roles that could be eliminated, according to Government Executive. The department is also planning job relocations.
When the USDA moved some of its Washington, D.C. offices to Kansas City, many employees left the department instead of relocating. The relocation mostly affected Black employees, the Government Accountability Office found.
PPQ eradicates economically disastrous pests
Employees at PPQ inspect billions of pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables each year and have helped stop outbreaks of invasive species that threatened entire industries.
In 2023, California experienced its worst fruit fly infestation in the state’s recorded history. The fruit flies threatened to ruin the production of oranges, mangoes and grapes — most of the country’s grapes are grown in California.
Farm bureau officials in California warned the economic damage from the flies could be in the billions of dollars, according to news station KTLA 5.
Hundreds of PPQ employees, along with state government workers, laid traps, performed surveys and applied an organic insecticide. They also released sterile fruit flies into the wild that disrupted the insects’ reproduction, which helped control the population, according to a 2024 USDA press release.
The effort took more than $100 million, according to the USDA.
Many of the PPQ employees who placed fly traps in California were seasonal workers, many of whom have accepted the referred resignation, one source said.
Fewer resources means being less effective, federal watchdog has found
The Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog, has found that PPQ has struggled to perform its duties without sufficient resources.
For instance, in the 1980s, the Asian longhorn beetle began infesting trees in urban areas on the East Coast. The government found property values could suffer if tree canopies were destroyed.
Though port inspectors intercepted the beetles in wood shipments from China, the agency hadn’t been systematically monitoring or surveying for them. If they had, they might have discovered the beetle earlier, before it became widespread, the GAO concluded in a 2006 report.
Such monitoring is “time-consuming and resource intensive,” the watchdog found. And, at the time, looming funding cuts “raised doubts” about being able to eradicate the beetle.
The beetle is still a problem in some states. Last year, the USDA announced its plans to eradicate the insect in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and South Carolina. The funding for at least part of the project was cut in February, however, according to one source.
Combating invasive species also requires the best science, often from multiple disciplines, the GAO found. After the GAO’s 2006 report, the PPQ hired more scientists, which has improved the agency’s responsiveness, the watchdog said.
Also in 2006, the GAO found the USDA likely needed to hire more port inspectors to effectively detect risks to the agriculture economy. An area of “potential vulnerability” was new inspectors’ lack of experience because they “do not possess the institutional knowledge related to agricultural issues that more seasoned specialists had,” according to the report.
This inexperience left the agency vulnerable, a concern that could grow as long-serving employees exit.
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