Wapakoneta Farm Services Agency employees are back to work without pay after being called back as essential.
Auglaize County FSA Executive Director Anita Green said, “We were concerned for our customers. There was a number of stuff that got left behind. No elf did it.”
The office was exempt the first week of government furloughs; it was then determined the office was to be furloughed and had been closed since Dec. 27.
It has been recently determined that the market facilitation program can continue despite the government shutdown. The facilitation program offsets losses from recent tariffs. It is funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation, which is a trust and separate from other FSA funds.
“That money was available and not affected,” Green said, explaining why the office is back open. “The money for the program is there, it’s just that the money for the people delivering it is not, because it’s two different pots of money.”
Currently, Green and the two program technicians are...
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