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White House Reorganization Plans Would Change USDA

Cindy Zimmerman

During an open media cabinet meeting Thursday, which was mostly dominated by President Trump commenting on the immigration issue, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director Mick Mulvaney gave an entertaining summary of the administration’s plans to reorganize the government.

“It’s been almost a hundred years since anybody really reorganized the government,” said Mulvaney, before providing a couple of examples of why it needs to be reorganized. “Because of the Byzantine nature of the way we regulate in this country…if you make a cheese pizza, that is governed by the Food and Drug Administration, if you put pepperoni it, that’s governed by USDA. If you have a chicken, it’s governed by the USDA. If that chicken lays an egg, it’s governed by the FDA, but if you break the egg and make it into an omelet, that is now covered again by USDA.”

“This is stupid,” Mulvaney said simply.

Under the plan, food safety regulations would move from FDA to USDA, while rural housing would move from USDA to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and non-commodity nutrition assistance programs would move to the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS), which would be renamed the Department of Health and Public Welfare (DHP).

Click here to view the administration plan and listen here to Mulvaney explain some of it at the Cabinet meeting. OMB Director Mick Mulvaney outlines reorganization plan

Audio, USDA