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USDA faces big task distributing IRA funds to support conservation
An ag policy specialist is confident USDA is up to the task of distributing billions of dollars allocated for conservation programs.
Andrew Lentz with the Environmental Defense Fund says there’s concern the agency will struggle to effectively distribute funds from the Inflation Reduction Act to farmers.
“And I think we’re seeing that they can. USDA just recently bolstered (staff) by bringing in more than 300 new staff members, just in the past three months I believe. To meet the needs of farmers who are seeking financial and technical assistance through these IRA funds.”
He tells Brownfield USDA is committed to rolling out conservation programs with the full funding available.
“We’re seeing the need from farmers as well as the action from USDA to really meet that demand.”
The Inflation Reduction Act provides more than $19 billion over five years to support USDA conservation programs.
You need to fix your article. Andrew said 300 new NRCS staff not 300,000 (3x the size of USDA). You should have followed up on his assertion that NRCS has the capacity of NRCS to get conservation money out the door. 300 new staff for an entity of 9600 won’t make a dent given the size of the IRA funding.