AFSCME members fight administration’s threats to farmers, food supply, nutrition programs
ByAFSCME Staff
July 13, 2026
Federal Budget & Taxes
Organize
Anticipating mass resignations and damage to important food and farm programs, AFSCME members and our allies are asking a federal court to block the Trump administration’s misguided and unlawful reorganization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
AFSCME members who work at USDA, along with those represented by our sister union AFGE, face significant personal and professional disruptions if the reorganization proceeds.
The reorganization would also impede the public services they provide to families and farmers around the country, including the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.
AFSCME President Lee Saunders said the administration’s attack on USDA is part of the overall effort to downsize government and reduce public services, all so it can reward billionaires with more tax cuts.
“From helping our farmers get their products to market, to assisting with farm loans and providing infrastructure improvements in rural communities, to protecting American agricultural exports through the Foreign Agricultural Service, the AFSCME members targeted by this ‘reorganization’ provide essential services that strengthen rural communities and support America’s food supply,” Saunders said. “This administration is trying to gut the agency that helps farmers stay in business and puts food on working families’ tables so it can hand out even more tax cuts to billionaires. We will continue fighting for these public service workers and the farmers, families and communities across the country who rely on the services they provide every day.”
AFSCME and AFGE are part of broad coalition of union members, nonprofit groups, cities and counties that are asking a federal court in California to block the reorganization, which is being done without the required approval of Congress.
Several AFSCME members provided written testimony opposing the reorganization and forced employee relocations.
“After 32 years of working for the Rural Development, Rural Utilities Service in the National Capital Region, I must decide whether to uproot my life, sell or rent my house, and move across the country to Texas or to give up my career at the USDA and risk my retirement plan,” Chearice Vaughn, president of AFSCME Local 3870 (District Council 20), said in a legal filing. “Relocation will place a large financial burden on me just to be able to keep my job of 32 years and to be able to retire with dignity. More importantly, I have built a life in the National Capital Region for the last 32 years and it will be extremely difficult to leave my support system and start a new life in a new state.”
Click here to read more about the case and the supplemental complaint filed on July 1.
