1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

I am writing to express my deep concern about Elon Musk and his DOGE team cutting staffing and funding at the Unites States Department of Agriculture. Farmers are a crucial part of our economy, both in the United States and in Texas. USAID alone purchases more than $2 billion in agriculture products annually. The abrupt stoppage of all USAID shipments and purchases has already greatly impacted our nation’s farmers. Gutting the USDA will further negatively impact them. Elon Musk has no legal right to make these cuts. He is an unelected, unvetted billionaire who is using his ‘department’ of like-wise-unvetted youth to bypass Congress and the powers granted to Congress in the Constitution’s Article I. His DOGE staff are too young and inexperienced to realize—or care about—the harms their actions will cause. Farmers will go bankrupt. Families will lose their farms. Tens of thousands will become unemployed. Our economy will be weakened. Needlessly. That will be the ultimate fault of Congressional Republicans who failed to stop it. My wife and I strongly urge you to reclaim your Congressional authority and halt any and all cuts to the USDA staff and funding for the good of our farmers and our nation.