Faced with backlog, USDA cancels October crop reports
Hundreds of thousands of furloughed U.S. federal workers returned to their posts yesterday after a late-night deal Wednesday staved off government default.
In the USDA's first tweet since Oct. 1, secretary Vilsack greets returning workers in Washington. Photo: United States Department of Agriculture
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack welcomed returning workers as they arrived to the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) South Building Thursday morning in Washington D.C.
With more than two weeks of backlogged work, however, a return to normal operations will not be easy.
The department announced the cancellation of various statistical publications and crop updates that had been scheduled for October from the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and the World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB).
Publications slated for cancellation included NASS's Crop Production and Cotton Ginnings reports and the WAOB's World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) scheduled for Oct. 11.
The next scheduled date for these publications has been set for Nov. 8.
NASS's Crop Progress reports scheduled for Oct. 7 and 15 were also cancelled.
"While the lapse in federal funding has ended, NASS has not been able to engage in the necessary data collection and analysis over the past few weeks. NASS is assessing its data collection plans and evaluating the timing of upcoming reports," the USDA reported.
Senior USDA officials were expected to meet yesterday to discuss the future of such reports, Reuters reported.
"I think we'll go back to our regular schedule in November," secretary Vilsack told the publication as he greeted returning workers.
Select reports were expected over the coming week, including Tuesday publication for the now delayed monthly cold storage report for commodities such as blueberries.
The future of certain USDA departments had not yet been made clear. The website for the USDA-operated Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) was still down as of Thursday.
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