Free Republic

Employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are quitting at a rapid clip as Secretary Sonny Perdue prepares to move forward with plans to relocate two offices far outside the Washington, D.C., Beltway. Federal employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) – two small but important agencies within the USDA – are unhappy with Perdue’s plan, announced last August, to move the majority of their staff from current offices in the capital to an area closer the country’s agricultural centers. “This move does not serve a public purpose,” Peter Winch, a...

As the U.S. House of Representatives prepared to consider the fiscal year 2015 agricultural appropriations bill, the White House threatened to veto the legislation due to opposition related to funding provisions related to school nutrition programs, potatoes in the Women, Infants and Children program and other policy issues.This is the first veto threat from the White House for fiscal year 2015 spending bills.“The bill undermines key investments in financial oversight, injects political decision-making into science-based nutrition standards, and includes objectionable language riders,” said the official Statement of Administration Policy. “If the President were presented with H.R. 4800, his senior advisors...

Nassau County says it has a balanced budget. The state of New York, which seized control of the county's finances earlier this week, says the budget is tens of millions in the red. Which is right? At issue are assumptions in the county's budget. The county is counting on revenue from a hiring freeze and a reduction in police overtime, among other things, as well as an increase in fees from red-light camera violations, which requires state approval. The state and at least one rating agency disagree with many of these assumptions, deeming the revenue "risky." The heart of the...