Trump Reviews Slowed Screwworm Response, Former Officials Say

The Trump administration’s sweeping federal spending reviews slowed government efforts to contain the New World screwworm, according to three former Agriculture Department officials and a fourth person with knowledge of the matter.

USDA reviews held up funding for the construction of one facility that is crucial to slowing the flesh-eating pest’s threat to the U.S. cattle supply, according to the three former officials, who like the fourth person were granted anonymity to discuss internal decision-making. A $100 million research initiative designed to create new tools to slow the screwworm’s advance was also delayed, two of the former officials said.

Skepticism from the White House budget office meanwhile delayed plans for a second facility at a Texas air base, said two of the former officials and the person with knowledge of the matter.

“That sense of urgency wasn't there,” said one of the former officials. “Even though screwworm was given a high priority, it did not help us get things done faster.”

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has told Senate lawmakers that staff cuts had no effect on the government’s response and that President Donald Trump approved new spending to combat the screwworm early in 2025. She has repeatedly blamed former President Joe Biden’s administration for a faulty response to the threat and insists the screwworm would have arrived in the country sooner were it not for the Trump administration’s approach.

“Since the initial few months of the second Trump administration, USDA has moved at lightning speed to obtain any and all necessary funding and approvals to fight New World screwworm,” USDA spokesperson Michael Abboud said in a statement. “We have aggressively moved dollars and project timelines at a pace unprecedented for [the] U.S. government, as expected of us by President Trump.”

New presidents frequently review spending approved by their predecessors, but the Trump administration did not act quickly on the recommendations of career USDA staffers who sought to convey the seriousness of a potential outbreak, according to two of the former officials.

Months of initial delays, combined with the exits of dozens of experienced USDA staff amid efforts to shrink the federal workforce, risks seeing the pest spread beyond Texas and New Mexico — potentially resulting in billions of dollars in damages to the cattle industry, according to a USDA estimate.

The cattle industry — a loyal Republican constituency — has been one of the few economic bright spots in farm country despite high fertilizer and diesel costs that have eaten into farmers’ profits and Trump’s tariffs that have shrunk their opportunities to sell overseas.

A screwworm infestation could even push some ranchers into bankruptcy as they struggle to afford prevention and treatment, though the pest is not necessarily fatal for cattle and countries including Argentina and Brazil have robust beef industries despite the presence of screwworm.

There’s just one facility in North America producing millions of sterile male flies that represent USDA’s best tool for stopping New World screwworm by halting the pest’s ability to breed, and it’s already running at maximum production. The facility produces just a fraction of the number of sterile flies Rollins has said USDA needs to eradicate the infestation.

The New World screwworm has been moving northward since it crossed into Central America in 2022. When it was detected in Mexico in 2024, the Biden administration ramped up building new facilities to help stop the spread.

Then-Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack approved emergency spending of more than $100 million in 2023 to boost surveillance and increase sterile fly production at a USDA facility in Panama from 20 million to 100 million weekly — and another $165 million in December 2024 to build new sterile fly facilities, including a $20 million project to retrofit a fruit fly facility to produce screwworm flies in Metapa, Mexico. The outgoing Biden administration left the Metapa facility plan for the incoming administration to review, according to two of the former officials.

Then, instead of launching the renovation project shortly after taking office, Trump administration officials reviewed Vilsack’s approved spending for four months, according to the three former USDA officials.

The Metapa facility is now expected to come online next week, Rollins told reporters Monday, and will produce 100 million sterile male flies by the fall. But the three former USDA officials said it would have opened earlier this spring had the Trump administration not spent months reviewing the spending.

“Theoretically, right now, we could have had an additional 60 [million] to 100 million [sterile] flies being produced weekly that would help,” the first former official said. The U.S. is currently able to produce only 100 million sterile flies weekly and needs to deploy hundreds of millions more to mount an effective response.

Spending reviews also stalled a sterile fly production facility slated for Moore Air Base in Texas.

Rollins announced plans for the facility in August 2025, but two of the former officials and the person with knowledge of the matter said that spending reviews at the White House Office of Management and Budget held up the money for months. A budget office spokesperson said in a statement that “There was no delay from the OMB end on this issue.”

USDA didn’t break ground until April of this year. The facility is expected to produce 100 million sterile flies weekly beginning in November 2027 and will eventually produce another 300 million sterile flies weekly, a dramatic increase in the national supply.

“By the time Rollins was talking about it in August, we thought we had all our ducks in a row and had it buttoned up and we would be letting a contract imminently,” said the second former official. “All of us were very much caught off guard [that] it took longer than a few weeks.”

The person added that USDA staff had to repeatedly justify the need for the spending to OMB, as well as explain that there were no other readily available effective options to stop screwworm.

A third former USDA official said that the delays “all cost valuable time last year” that could have helped slow the spread in Mexico and Central America.

“The overall strategy I can’t really quarrel with, but the delays that were thrust upon USDA … have been a problem and let [screwworm] move a lot farther north a lot faster than it should have,” the second former USDA official said.

The Trump administration’s sweeping efforts to shrink government included the agencies central to handling screwworm, as well as other animal diseases like avian influenza and African Swine Fever. In 2025, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service staffing fell 25 percent.

Senior leadership also departed. More than half of the area veterinarians in charge — top federal animal health officers who lead responses to outbreaks like screwworm — retired or took the Trump administration's offer to resign last year, as POLITICO first reported.

According to the three former USDA officials, the staffing cuts have made it more difficult to implement USDA’s screwworm containment efforts.

“You've lost that understanding and knowledge and leadership [who] have gone through this before,” the first former official said.

USDA has also historically struggled to hire in these positions, given the high-stress nature of the jobs and that salaries are generally lower in the government roles than what someone with similar skills can get in the private sector. Last year’s upheaval in the federal workforce has made that even more difficult.

USDA has since attempted to staff up at APHIS, including hiring more mounted surveillance staff to patrol the border for stray cattle and other animals. The department is also looking to fill posting new veterinarian roles just this month.