Senators used Richard Fordyce’s hearing to underline operational hurdles at USDA’s producer-facing agencies and to press for modernization of technology and paperwork.

Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar and other senators highlighted workforce losses: "FPAC has lost nearly 4,100 employees in the Deferred Resignation Program. FSA alone has lost over 1,000 employees," Klobuchar said, linking staffing shortfalls to potential delays in delivering disaster assistance and new program sign-ups. Several senators asked how FPAC would meet implementation needs with those reductions.

Fordyce acknowledged those concerns and emphasized the need to modernize agency tools. On current agency software, he said, "a lot of our technologies are woefully old, and antiquated, I would almost say, in some cases." He committed to studying staffing data and to pursue technology changes where they can reduce processing time and improve producer service.

Senator Ernst and others pressed for a single, streamlined acreage reporting approach, invoking the phrase "one farmer, one form." Fordyce described the potential to accept precision-agriculture data directly from producers and said such integration "would be priority 1 from a technology modernization standpoint. And Afida as well... there is certainly probably some better, better technologies to be able to capture that information." He confirmed a willingness to modernize Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) reporting processes that currently rely on paper submissions.

On the question of rebuilding staff capacity, Fordyce said he would assess where retirements and departures occurred and review geographic data to identify coverage shortfalls; he noted some operational gaps could also be addressed through targeted technology improvements.

Committee members signaled oversight follow-up on staffing levels, technology roadmaps and specific modernization plans for AFIDA and acreage reporting. Fordyce pledged to work with senators and their staffs if confirmed.