Sponsors (9)
The bill keeps agricultural disaster assistance flowing to farmers and rural communities through shutdowns, at the cost of potential taxpayer expense and increased uncertainty or limits on agency workforce flexibility about who must remain on duty.
Farmers and rural communities will continue receiving agricultural disaster assistance and related emergency credit or loans during government shutdowns because USDA staff for those programs must remain on duty, reducing delays in aid delivery.
Federal agencies and state governments may face uncertainty about which positions are excepted during a shutdown because the Secretary can broadly designate any Congressional disaster program, making it unclear which employees must remain on duty.
Taxpayers may incur additional costs because employees who work during a shutdown can be paid without an immediate appropriation, potentially creating backpay obligations or retroactive funding burdens.
Federal employees who are treated as excepted gain temporary protection from furloughs or reductions-in-force during the lapse, which could limit agency flexibility to manage or restructure the workforce once appropriations resume.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires USDA employees essential to specified agricultural disaster assistance programs to be treated as excepted during funding lapses and protects them from RIF removal while so designated.
Provides that during a lapse in appropriations USDA employees who are needed to operate certain agricultural disaster assistance programs must be treated as excepted (i.e., required to continue working) and cannot be removed by reduction in force while so designated. The covered programs include specified agricultural credit and disaster assistance authorities and any other disaster assistance programs the Secretary of Agriculture determines are authorized by Congress.
Introduced October 8, 2025 by April McClain Delaney · Last progress October 8, 2025