National Association of State Departments of Agriculture

4350 North Fairfax Drive

Suite 910
Arlington, VA 22203
Tel: 202-296-9680 | Fax: 703-880-0509
www.nasda.org

For NASDA Members and Key Staff

Appropriations talks to fund the impacted agencies remains stalled with no solution in sight.
The following agencies have been partially shutdown:
Transportation, Justice, Homeland Security, Commerce, State, Agriculture, Interior, Treasury and
Housing and Urban Development, EPA, FDA and IRS.
Please find updated information, shutdown plans (linked below) and contacts for the following agencies
with a significant nexus to State Departments of Agriculture:

• USDA: Please see the link for the most recent contingency plans. They continue to be updated as the
shutdown shutters or limits new programs.
Known impacts:
▪ 2018 Farm Bill implementation can only continue for programs with mandatory funding
▪ Dairy Margin Protection Program (MPP) – November’s payments are overdue and
December’s numbers have not been published.
▪ Market Facilitation Program (MFP) – Signup for the Market Facilitation Program would’ve
ended January 15th but has been extended as many days as the government is closed.
Farmers do not need to be finished with harvest to sign up and have until May 1st to certify
production.
▪ NASS and ERS are not publishing data; USDA reports such as WASDE, crop production, Grain
Stocks, etc will all be delayed until after the government reopens.
▪ FSA Offices remain closed. Loan applications will not be accepted nor processed during the
shutdown. Payments on previous loans will be credited after the lapse in federal funding has
been resolved. The postmark on the envelope will be used as the received date of the
payment.
▪ RMA will operate with a limited staff until it exhausts its non-discretionary funding, at which
time it will shutter.
▪ Farm-stored commodities pledged as Commodity Credit Corporation collateral can be
marketed (moved for purchase to a buyer) or fed, however, loan repayments &
disbursements, refunds, and termination of transfers will not be processed while the
government is shutdown.
▪ Two classes to train state employees to conduct USDA GAP Audits have been cancelled;
classes get cancelled with about 10 days notice.
Contacts:
USDA APHIS
Blake Rollins Beth Gaston
Deputy Chief of Staff for Outreach Chief of Staff, APHIS
Blake.Rollins@osec.usda.gov Beth.e.gaston@aphis.usda.gov
202-897-6275 (202) 439-9281

NASDA grows and enhances agriculture by forging partnerships and creating consensus to achieve sound policy outcomes
between state departments of agriculture, the federal government, and stakeholders.
FSIS Paul Kiecker
Carmen Rottenberg Acting FSIS Administrator
Acting Deputy Under Secretary Paul.Kiecker@usda.gov
Carmen.Rottenberg@usda.gov (608) 628-8297
(202) 679-2483
Todd Reed
Chief Operating Officer
Todd.Reed@usda.gov
(202) 573-1824

• FDA: The majority of FDA staff have been furloughed. Emergency response personnel
(foodborne illness outbreak) and those funded on user fees (animal drug reviews) are available
but policy, training, inspectors, etc. are non-essential.
Known impacts:
▪ Almost all work done under cooperative agreements or contracts continue unhindered
except:
1. Federal contract inspections being done by state staff for the first time, ex: FSMA
Animal Food PC inspections. The first time staff conduct these inspections, questions
arise for clarification, and with no one at FDA to answer those questions, some states
are deferring these contract inspections until after the FDA reopens. This does not
have a measurable impact on animal food safety as state inspections of high risk
facilities are still taking place under state authority.
2. A few states are not authorized to “float” expenses: some agreements with the
federal government require federal agency staff to review fund requests for work
completed in order to transfer the money from the federal agency to the state
agency. With foreknowledge that there is no federal agency staff to approve such
requests, some state agencies are not legally authorized to accrue expenses which
would normally be reimbursed by the federal agency.
▪ Several trainings to instruct state staff how to conduct a variety of FDA work have been
cancelled and continue to be cancelled each week.

Contact:
CVM: Tracey Forfa, Deputy Director, tracey.forfa@fda.hhs.gov
OFVM: Jeff Farrar, jeff.farrar@fda.hhs.gov
ORA/OP: Erik Mettler, Erik.Mettler@fda.hhs.gov

• EPA: The majority of EPA staff have been furloughed under the shutdown plan. Emergency
response personnel (environmental disaster) or legal enforcement (testify at court).

Contact: Tate Bennett, Associate Administrator for the Office of Public Engagement and
Environmental Education, Bennett.Tate@epa.gov

• Interior: Furloughs of employees at agencies under the Department of the Interior vary widely.
Several National Parks have closed, but most remain partially open. As with other agencies,
“activities of the BLM will cease with the exception of law enforcement, emergency response
functions, and operations necessary for the safety of human life or the protection of property.”

Agencies which are NOT affected are: Health and Human Services (except FDA), Veterans Affairs, Energy,
Labor, Education and Defense and congressional operations.
Revision: 1/10/19