The Trump administration is lassoing the Agriculture Department into the digital age. Looks like trading dusty paper will form for sleek apps through IT government contracts. Their new policy agenda is all about freeing small family farms from bureaucratic quicksand.
An internal audit sniffing out every last paper-based application like a bloodhound on a mission,yeah that’s the idea. These relics will be zapped into digital form via IT government contracts, building on Trump’s first-term efforts and Biden’s tweaks to streamline farm loans. But, the thing is recent staff cuts have left the USDA’s IT corral looking like a ghost town. As a result it is threatening this high-tech hoedown. Still, IT government contracts are saddling up to make farmers.gov the ultimate digital barn, linking Farm Service Agency and Rural Development programs. “Putting Farmers First means bulldozing barriers,” declared Secretary Brooke Rollins, waving the IT government contracts flag high.
Roping in IT Government Contracts for the Win
Despite losing 30% of its IT wranglers, the USDA is betting on IT government contracts to rustle up digital and customer experience hotshots. They’ve got history: Trump’s first term birthed a farm loan discovery tool with the General Services Administration, and Biden’s 2021 executive order slashed online applications by 16 pages—yeehaw! Now, IT government contracts are the shiny spurs to keep this modernization galloping. But, as Amira Choueiki Boland from New America mutters, “How do you herd digital cattle with half the cowboys gone?” With IT government contracts leading the charge, the USDA’s quest to digitize farmer programs promises a bumper crop of efficiency—if they can rope in the right tech talent for this wild ride.
