The state’s Commissioner of Agriculture says he knows his department is not immune to sequestration, the automatic federal spending cuts that started to take effect at the beginning of March.
“The whole country will be impacted at some level,” Commissioner Walt Helmick tells MetroNews.
He says the cuts, which will add up to 2.5% of total federal spending and cover everything from education and agriculture to defense, should not be a surprise for anyone.
“We’re monitoring the issue of sequestration and it’s one that will affect probably, first, our inspection program,” Commissioner Helmick said.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture say sequestration could possibly lead to furloughs for a third of the USDA’s 100,000 employees.
Specifically, reports indicate the USDA may lay off 8,400 meat inspectors for 15 days to make up for the sequester cuts.
In those cases, Helmick says state inspectors could step in to cover for the federal inspectors, at least for a little while.
There are still questions, though, about possible federal cuts in other areas in the long term. “We’ll have to start adjusting to see what effect it does have on the other programs in agriculture, but we’re watching it really close,” the Commissioner said.
Helmick was in Morgantown this past weekend for the Ninth Annual West Virginia Small Farm Conference.