USDA Official Responds to Climate Change Coverup Claims

(WASHINGTON, DC) Democratic members of the Senate Agriculture Committee spent the morning grilling a USDA official on plans to relocate two departmental functions to Kansas City next month. In addition, Dr. Scott Hutchins, USDA’s Deputy Undersecretary for Research, Education, and Economics faced tough questions arising from media allegations that the Trump Administration was “deep-sixing” climate change research. Hutchins, a former researcher with DowDupont, spoke about how sometimes employees face difficult decisions regarding relocation in the real world – one that he knows first-hand. Responding to Ranking member Debbie Stabenow’s (MI-D) questions of why employees of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the Economic Research Service (ERS) were forced to decide to relocate or quit with less than 30 days notice, he explained they have known about the impending decision for the last year. He did agree that there will be a “brain-drain” in the interim while USDA looks to fill positions in the Kansas City region. On climate change, Hutchins explained that in 2019, USDA is on track to release more information than in any of the past four years. He also addressed a report from Politico charging the department with sitting on a climate action plan for two years. The plan was an internal document, he said, in order for USDA to design and implement all aspects of the research program. Although never intended for public release, it signals very clearly the work USDA is doing in this arena.