Senator Ruben Gallego urges rural USDA office to stay open

(KYMA, KECY) - U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego from Arizona is speaking out against the local United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) office being closed by the Department of Government EFficiency (DOGE) for cost-saving purposes.

The local office is a natural resource conservation service center, helping with a variety of agricultural needs in Yuma, something Senator Gallego says Elon Musk knows nothing about.

"Musk doesn't know anything about Yuma...he doesn't know anything about rural Arizona," said Gallego.

According to the DOGE site, by closing it, the government will save around $390,000. However, Gallego believes this will negatively impact our community.

"You're basically pulling out necessary services to the lettuce capital of the world which ends up being 80% of our winter lettuce in this country," said Sen. Gallego.

Gallego says Musk is only doing this for his own self-interest.

"Now we're going to be poorer because all Elon Musk wants to do is cut important programs in order to give him and his big buddies huge tax cuts," said Sen. Gallego.

The local University of Arizona (U of A) explains how influential the local office is, and what it does.

"This is a huge job...that office provides resources and soil conservation, they offer guidance on how to manage your soil, how to manage your soil health, how to prevent water erosion," said Tanya Hodges, the Executive Director of U of A Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture.

Gallego shares how people can help try to get the local USDA office to stay.

"They should be lobbying their members of Congress. They should be providing letters to the USDA, to the White House, and telling them that this needs to stay, just like I did, to make sure that we're bringing attention to it and make them understand that this will disproportionately hurt rural Arizona, especially Yuma," said Gallego.

If the office closes, the nearest service center would be in Phoenix.