Federal cuts roundup: The impact on South Dakota

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has eliminated two programs that paid for locally grown foods to be provided to food banks and for school meals across South Dakota.

Cutting the programs will also reduce federal spending at roughly 55 farms in the state, many of them smaller operations that shipped fresh foods to schools, food banks and tribal charities.

"Those dollars went directly to the producers, and the food went directly to people facing hunger," said Stacey Andernacht, vice president of public affairs at Feeding South Dakota. In mid-March, the USDA said it was eliminating 2025 funding of two pandemic-era initiatives: the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) and Local Food for Schools (LFS) programs, which operated in 40 states, including South Dakota.

Taken together, the initiatives would have paid U.S. farmers more than $1 billion to supply fresh, locally grown foods to food banks, pantries and schools.

In a statement sent to News Watch, a USDA spokesperson said the agency will fund the LFPA through the end of the current funding period, adding that it is making "a return to long-term, fiscally responsible initiatives."

By Bart Pfankuch

South Dakota Public Broadcasting leaders warned of “significant impact” if President Trump’s executive order cutting off federal funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is allowed to take effect.

Trump’s May 1 order aimed to slash public subsidies to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR), as well as member stations such as SDPB, which faced a battle over state funding during the 2025 South Dakota legislative session.

The White House, in a social media posting announcing the order, said that PBS and NPR “receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’” 

About 20% of SDPB’s annual funding comes from the CPB, an independent nonprofit tasked with distributing federal funds to local stations. For SDPB, those federal funds amounted to about $2.2 million in fiscal year 2024.

“We use these dollars to pay to produce local programming, our national programming bill, and some infrastructure,” said Ryan Howlett, CEO of Friends of SDPB, a nonprofit that supports SDPB through fundraising and advocacy. “This would have a significant impact on our airwaves locally.”

Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of CPB, questioned the legality of Trump's executive order.

“CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority,” Harrison said in a statement May 2. “Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.”

The corporation earlier sued Trump over his move to fire three members of its five-person board, contending that the president was exceeding his authority and that the move would deprive the board of a quorum needed to conduct business.

By Stu Whitney

The Oahe Dam Visitor Center in Pierre is open for business heading into the summer tourist season, despite earlier reports of its closure.

The visitor center, which highlights history such as the construction of the dam and President John F. Kennedy's commemoration in 1962, was on a list of temporary closures released by the Omaha district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers set for May 1.

The reason given was that the corps is “managing seasonal staffing and resource limitations that affect its ability to safely open and maintain all recreation sites at normal levels of service.”

The Corps of Engineers in March notified 1,068 employees, about 3% of its civilian workforce, of their eligibility for the Trump administration's buyout program for federal workers.

But Lyssa Bruzelius, executive director of Missouri River Tourism, told News Watch that her nonprofit organization handles staffing of the Oahe Dam Visitor Center for the Corps of Engineers and will continue to do so.

“These visitor centers are really hubs for local communities,” said Bruzelius. “We’re able to help direct visitors to places they might want to go and have a unique experience while they’re here, maybe find a few hidden gems. It’s important to keep them going.”

Bruzelius said that tours of the dam will be discontinued because those are handled by the Corps of Engineers for security reasons. Tours have also been halted at the Fort Randall Visitor Center in Pickstown, which highlights Fort Randall Dam and Lake Francis Case on the Missouri River.

Pickstown residents were “appalled” at the corps' decision to close the visitor center suspend tours, said Cindy Broyhill, president of the town board.

“We have a lot of fishing and boating, but we also have a lot of just plain tourists coming through to see the dam," Broyhill said. “I think there are other places where they could cut that would make more sense."

The Lewis and Clark Visitor Center at Gavins Point, Nebraska, will have its operations reduced from Wednesday to Saturday, according to the Corps of Engineers news release.

“We understand these closures may disrupt plans, and we sincerely appreciate the public’s flexibility as we take the necessary steps to provide safe and sustainable recreation experiences this summer,” said Col. Robert J. Newbauer, Omaha District commander.

By Stu Whitney

Sarah Jones-Lutter said she's puzzled why former Gov. Kristi Noem proposed massive cuts to the state library system, which were softened somewhat by lawmakers, and why President Donald Trump signed an executive order gutting the Institute for Museum and Library Services, or IMLS.

Trump said that the order “continues the reduction in the elements of the federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary.”

The State Library Association has advised its members that the status of current grants remains unclear.

The agency provides more than $200 million a year to library systems across the country, including $1.3 million to South Dakota.

After state lawmakers made budget cuts, the State Library in Pierre has closed except for pre-arranged visits and some archival materials have been sent elsewhere.

Local libraries receive some service support from the federal IMLS money but are mostly funded by local tax dollars. Jones-Lutter said despite tight budgets, local libraries continue to evolve to meet patron needs and remain critical community centers within small and large cities in the state.

By Bart Pfankuch

A $5 million program to help private landowners in the Black Hills manage their forest lands and prevent wildfires is on hold as part of President Donald Trump's widespread freeze of federal loan and grant programs.

The South Dakota funding is one small part of a much larger $350 million federal program aimed at helping landowners, state and local agencies and tribal governments manage private forests, reduce fire risk and mitigate impacts of climate change across the country. Funding for the entire program appears to be on hold.

The $5 million allocated to South Dakota is for a cost-sharing program with Black Hills landowners. The five-year grant funding is largely aimed at thinning overgrown forests on private land, which helps prevent forest fires from starting and spreading.

Bob Burns of Piedmont is a landowner who also serves as co-chair of the South Dakota Family Forests Association. He said the fire prevention money helps reduce wildfire risk on private lands across the Black Hills.

By Bart Pfankuch

South Dakota state epidemiologist Joshua Clayton said cuts to positions and programs at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could reduce communication on critical diseases in the U.S.

Clayton told News Watch in February that he is aware of cuts by DOGE and what he said is a "communication freeze" at the agency. At that point, he did not believe the cuts had hampered South Dakota's ability to track or prevent infectious diseases.

But the potential exists, Clayton said, that information sharing between the federal agency and states make it more difficult for states to keep abreast of fast-moving diseases, such as avian flu or the measles outbreak in the Southwest, Clayton said.

"The communications freeze does make it difficult sometimes to hear about things that we should have awareness at the state health department level," Clayton said. "Due to some of their communication freeze, (CDC) has not been as communicative around the H5N1 (bird flu) response as they had been in the past in early January and before."

By Bart Pfankuch

On March 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.

"We're going to eliminate it," the president said of the Cabinet-level agency, which has a budget of $268 billion and is responsible for distributing federal education funds, enforcing civil rights laws and supporting educational research.

It's important to note that it would take an act of Congress to dismantle the department and shift its functions to other agencies, despite Trump's order.

Such action during the current administration would likely face obstacles even with a Republican-controlled Congress. In the Senate, 60 votes are needed to overcome filibusters and advance measures to final votes.

South Dakota K-12 schools received $433 million in federal funds for the 2021-22 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

By comparison, the schools received about $954 million from local sources (primarily property tax revenue) and $612 million in state funds that school year.

That 21.7% share of federal money for total education funding was boosted by COVID-19 pandemic-related aid, contributing to a significant increase from 13.7% in 2018-19.

Not all school-related federal money comes from the Department of Education. School lunch programs are funded through the Department of Agriculture and early educational programs such as Head Start are handled by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Of the Department of Education money, the most significant expenditures are for Title I grants to support low-income students and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funds for special education and other services for disabled students.

U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds has also proposed "returning education decisions to the states" in the form of block grants that would allow for more flexibility in how some federal education money is spent.

That's a concern to public education advocates, who said putting Title I and other federal funds in the hands of state legislators or the South Dakota Department of Education could lead to that money being shifted to voucher programs encompassing private or homeschooled instruction.

By Stu Whitney

Rodney Koch, who raises soybeans and other crops north of Garretson, in eastern South Dakota, hopes the federal government will re-open funding for agricultural conservation programs that have helped him modernize and improve the health of his farm.

Koch, 38, has previously taken advantage of grants and training provided through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Conservation Stewardship Program and Environmental Quality Improvement Program, both of which are now halted under Trump’s freeze on almost all federal grant and loan programs.

With grant funding from USDA, Koch has been able to improve soil health on his farm, reduce runoff, lower pesticide use and diversify the crops he grows.

“I’ve seen what these changes have done for us and I’d like to see that continue,” Koch told News Watch on Feb. 20.

Doug ​​​​​Sombke, president of the South Dakota Farmers Union, said "we've got a lot of pain" with NRCS layoffs and also the uncertain status of Farm Service Agency (FSA) loan officers, who help administer programs and loans for farmers and ranchers.

By Bart Pfankuch and Stu Whitney

Small farms and businesses that boost food security in rural areas could feel the pinch of a freeze on USDA funding to the North Central Regional Food Business Center, one of 11 such centers across the nation.

The business center helped distribute grants to “expand small and mid-sized agricultural value chains” in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. 

One of the grants frozen by the Trump administration is the Business Builder Award Program, which provides direct financial assistance of up to $100,000.

Fruit of the Coop, a Brandon-based supplier of pasture-raised eggs, was a recipient of a Business Builder grant and announced on Facebook that the funds have been frozen.

The money was being used for distribution supplies and to hire a part-time employee.

“The Trump trickle-down has reached Brandon,” Fruit of the Coop owner Stephanie Peterson told her Facebook followers on March 3.

By Stu Whitney

The oldest agency within the Department of the Interior is the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which provides services to predominantly Native American communities, commonly through contracts and grants.

One of those contracts, awarded to Akicita Cyber LCC of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, was cancelled recently as part of federal funding audits conducted by the Trump administration.

The original contract was for $434,024 to provide translation services as part of business support services. The end date was changed from Sept. 3, 2029, to Feb. 13, 2025, meaning the funds provided decreased from 81% from $434,024 to $81,757.

Mike Shvenderman, CEO of Akicita Cyber LCC, also known as Akicita Federal, confirmed to News Watch that the contract has been cancelled. He did not respond to inquiries about the specifics of the grant nor why it was cut short.

Akicita Federal was federally registered in October 2022 and has received over $21.5M in federal contracts, according to HigherGov.com. The company’s services include medical staffing, construction project management, cybersecurity and business consulting.

By Stu Whitney

The Trump administration’s efforts to claw back federal grant money will affect access to fresh fruit for some of the nation’s poorest people, according to an article by South Dakota Searchlight.

Late last month, a nonprofit organization that serves and is headquartered on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation got notice that it would lose access to a $547,000 federal grant funneled to it through the Nebraska-based Arbor Day Foundation.

Sicangu Co. was set to use the funding to plant 70 fruit trees and 600 berry bushes in backyards across the western South Dakota reservation and at the Keya Wakpala garden on the grounds of a Lakota immersion elementary school.

Some of the community garden’s produce is used to feed kids in that program. Some is used for boxes delivered to tribal members.

Native American tribal leaders in South Dakota are preparing for economic impacts as Congress negotiates a new budget that is expected to include significant cuts across federal programs and services.

Some of the primary concerns center around Medicaid funding, Head Start programs, health programs and public safety.

"These programs are barely surviving on what they get now," John Long, chief of staff of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, told News Watch. "We just had a meeting with our program directors trying to come up with contingency plans if these cuts come, and it's going to be difficult."

The Trump administration recently backed away from a proposal to eliminate funding for Head Start, the early education program that serves some of the nation’s neediest preschoolers.

A budget summary released May 2 outlined programs set to receive drastic cuts or boosts but did not mention Head Start. On a call with reporters, an administration official said there would be “no changes” to it.

Still, South Dakota tribal officials said there is plenty to be concerned about as debate over the budget process continues in Congress. 

Frank Star Comes Out, president of the 54,000-member Oglala Sioux Tribe, testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee on Feb. 25 in Washington. He addressed concerns about treaty obligations and reductions in law enforcement on the Pine Ridge reservation, a subject of past legal disputes with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

"I believe those treaties are being violated and challenged today with this current administration, and I'd like to see that change," Star Comes Out told committee members. "We're a huge tribe with a large population and lots of area to cover as far as roads and schools, and on top of that, we have to come here and fight for funding for our people."

Nearly 1,000 Indian Health Service (IHS) employees nationally were laid off as part of an executive order Feb. 14, but the order was later rescinded.

By Stu Whitney

The DOGE cuts of probationary employees has included elimination of some staff positions at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs facilities in South Dakota, according to Eve Derfelt, a deputy director in the VA public affairs office.

The VA has three South Dakota hospitals — in Sturgis, Hot Springs and Sioux Falls — and operates nine regional clinics, two veterans help centers and three national cemeteries, according to the VA website.

“The VA facilities in South Dakota dismissed a small number of probationary staff,” Derfelt said in an email to News Watch. “This decision will have no negative effect on veteran health care, benefits or other services and will allow VA to focus more effectively on its core mission of serving veterans, families, caregivers and survivors."

Derfelt said she could not provide further information about specific personnel moves due to privacy concerns.

On a national level, Veterans Affairs leaders dismissed more than 1,400 probationary employees on Feb. 24, the second round of mass layoffs at the department this month, according to Military Times.

By Stu Whitney

Due to DOGE cuts and an ongoing staffing shortage, former National Park Service employee Sydney Hansen isn't sure whether anyone will be available to lead popular cave tours at Jewel Cave National Monument in the Black Hills this summer.

Hansen, 24, was hired as a physical science technician at Jewel Cave in June 2024.

On Feb. 14, Hansen was in the final stages of training to lead cave tours in preparation of the upcoming summer tourist season. Jewel Cave and Wind Cave national parks are both low on staff to take visitors on the tours, she said.

After emerging from a cave, she had email saying she had been terminated, despite a positive performance review.

"My heart just dropped," she said. "We were told we were safe if we had a good employee evaluation, so I felt pretty good."

As of February, the park service had eliminated 1,000 jobs and accepted 700 early retirement offers from employees. The effects of the cuts are being felt around the country, as some parks restricted open hours and patron wait times have increased.

By Bart Pfankuch

A number of federal employees who lost their jobs due to DOGE cuts have taken to social media platforms to share their stories, and their frustration. Here is one example from a South Dakota woman who was ousted in February.

Until last month, Liz Renner, a graduate of Augustana University in Sioux Falls, was rising quickly in her chosen career path as a wildlife biologist.

Not long ago, after a stint working the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department, Renner had landed her "dream job" as a researcher with the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service in Yankton. Renner was working on pallid sturgeon conservation on the Missouri River from the Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery and Aquarium.

Renner wrote that after losing her job, she is moving in with her grandmother to help on the farm, and may also tend bar or substitute teach to get by.

"To say I'm devastated doesn't even scratch the surface," she wrote on Facebook.

By Bart Pfankuch

Funding for South Dakota’s primary refugee resettlement program was put in limbo soon after Trump took office, when Musk publicly questioned the legality of the organization’s federal support.

This came as the new administration ended new refugee arrivals to the U.S. and ordered a freeze on all funding related to refugees.

On Feb. 3, Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota president and CEO Rebecca Kiesow-Knudsen responded to social media messages from Musk “falsely claiming that Lutheran organizations, including ours, have illegally received federal payments and engaged in money laundering."

Kiesow-Knudsen added in that statement to News Watch that the messages “indicated an intention to defund our organization as a result. These accusations are completely baseless and inaccurate.”

LSS helps resettle immigrants and refugees through its Center for New Americans. It’s an affiliate of Global Refuge, a nonprofit organization formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

The Trump administration's plan to freeze federal grants and loans is on hold while being litigated in federal court, leaving organizations such as LSS in limbo in terms of the services they can provide.

The organization said it helped resettle 386 refugees in South Dakota in fiscal year 2024. The most common countries of origin were the Congo (97), Venezuela (57), and Somalia and Sudan (42 each).

By Stu Whitney