Downsizing, A View from the Inside

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is getting smaller. Total nondefense staffing in the federal government has declined by about 3 percent over the past fifteen years. Within this total, a number of agencies have absorbed reductions of over 17 percent, including USDA. This article begins with a brief history of USDA Next, it describes the distinction between the downsizing efforts of the 1980s and those that have occurred in the 1990s with respect to what has turned out to be a drastically different programmatic and political climate.