Tuesday, Acting Deputy Under Secretary at USDA Mike Young announced the President’s 2018 budget proposal for the ag department. The overall proposal calls for USDA’s budget in discretionary spending to be $18 billion for 2018, which is $6 billion less than in 2017. Under the plan, there is an increase for farm loans in the FAS portion of the budget.

He says for NRCS, there’s a reduction of $83 million from 2017 that’s being requested.

Young says the USDA has some legislative proposals calling for cuts to crop insurance.

He says the President’s USDA budget plan calls for cutting 973 staff members from the Farm Service Agency, and 925 jobs from Rural Development. Young says out of the 90 current Ag Research Service Laboratories, 17 will be cut entirely.