United States Department of Agriculture
Department of the US government
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| January 2025 | The Trump administration implemented mass layoffs following the extreme Southern California wildfires, dismissing probationary employees and potentially weakening the agency's wildfire mitigation capabilities. |
| January 20 2025 | Xochitl Torres Small concluded her service as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. |
| July 17 2023 | Xochitl Torres Small from New Mexico became Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. |
| April 2023 | The U.S. Forest Service published a proposed rulemaking to improve climate resilience on public lands, addressing challenges such as wildfire, drought, insects, disease, and extreme weather events affecting national forests and grasslands. |
| March 2023 | The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed new regulations to allow for responsible carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration projects on National Forest lands, marking a significant policy shift in environmental management strategies. |
| March 3 2023 | Jewel H. Bronaugh left office on March 3, 2023. |
| February 2023 | Joe Biden nominated Xochitl Torres Small as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. |
| 2022 | Publication of 'Tractor Wars' by Neil Dahlstrom, exploring the early development of modern agriculture through the competition between John Deere, Henry Ford, and International Harvester. |
| 2022 | Total Forest Service budget peaked at $9,161,463,000, with Research budget increasing to $313,560,000 and State and Private Forestry budget at $304,614,000. |
| 2022 | Reached peak total budget of $9,161,463,000, with discretionary appropriations rising to $8,436,564,000. |
| December 29 2022 | Alexis Taylor was sworn in as the new Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, succeeding Ted McKinney. |
| 2021 | Total budget increased to $8,370,527,000, with discretionary appropriations at $7,451,262,000. |
| May 17 2021 | Jewel H. Bronaugh from Virginia became Deputy Secretary of Agriculture during Joe Biden's presidency. |
| May 13 2021 | Jewel H. Bronaugh was confirmed as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, becoming the first African-American to serve in this role. |
| 2020 | The Forest Service allocated $2.4 billion for Wildland Fire Management, which was a $530 million decrease from the 2019 Annualized Continuing Resolution due to the 'fire fix' cap adjustment becoming available. |
| 2020 | Melody Starya Mobley, the first black female forester hired by the Forest Service, publicly claimed she was sexually assaulted by a colleague in the late 1970s and that the incident was ignored by the agency. |
| 2020 | Highest total budget recorded at $8,142,677,000, with discretionary appropriations reaching $7,450,413,000. |
| December 2020 | President Trump announced the nomination of Stephen Vaden to the deputy secretary role. |
| November 8 2020 | Stephen Censky left office on November 8, 2020. |
| 2019 | The Forest Service experienced a budget decrease of $815 million compared to the previous fiscal year, with the total budget authority being $5.14 billion in fiscal year 2020. |
| 2019 | Sent a contingent of firefighters to assist during the 2019-2020 Australian bushfires, working alongside other American fire departments. |
| 2019 | The family comedy movie 'Playing With Fire' featured John Cena as a U.S. Forest Service firefighter, portraying the service's role in wilderness rescue and child safety. |
| 2018 | Significant budget increases observed, with National Forest System budget rising to $1,890,313,000 from previous years, and State and Private Forestry budget increasing to $319,737,000. |
| 2018 | The Forest Service was reprimanded by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for issuing permits for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline that violated the National Forest Management Act of 1976 and the National Environmental Policy Act. |
| September 20 2018 | The Forest Service reported having 27,062 permanent, full-time employees, with 541 in the headquarters office and 26,521 in regional and field offices. |
| 2017 | Ted McKinney was officially appointed as the first Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs. |
| 2017 | A draft report describing the legal basis for federal land managers' decision-making authority proved unexpectedly controversial. |
| October 11 2017 | Stephen Censky from Missouri became Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. |
| October 10 2017 | Mike Young left office on October 10, 2017. |
| October 3 2017 | Stephen Censky was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. |
| July 13 2017 | President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Stephen Censky, CEO of the American Soybean Association, as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. |
| January 20 2017 | Mike Young from Washington D.C. became Deputy Secretary of Agriculture during Donald Trump's presidency. |
| January 20 2017 | Michael Scuse left office on January 20, 2017. |
| March 1 2016 | Michael Scuse from Delaware became Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. |
| February 29 2016 | Krysta Harden left office on February 29, 2016. |
| 2015 | Grain farmers began breaching lease contracts, reducing land cultivation and risking legal conflicts with landowners, a practice not widely seen since the 1980s. |
| 2014 | The position of Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs was mandated by the 2014 Farm Bill, establishing the role within the United States Department of Agriculture. |
| 2014 | Passage of the Agricultural Act of 2014, a significant piece of farm legislation. |
| August 2014 | Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced putting $400-$500 million in wildfire prevention projects on hold due to low firefighting funding. |
| July 23 2013 | Krysta Harden from Georgia became Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. |
| March 14 2013 | Kathleen Merrigan left office on March 14, 2013. |
| 2011 | Forest Service budget for Research was $306,637,000, with State and Private Forestry receiving $277,596,000, and Wildland Fire Management receiving $2,168,042,000. |
| 2011 | United States Forest Service received a discretionary appropriation of $5,096,746,000, with total budget reaching $5,858,615,000. |
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles United States Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, History of agriculture in the United States, United States Forest Service & Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.