Agriculture Research Loses Momentum

Rebecca Phillips of Ecological Insights.   (Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor)

(By: Jeff Beach. North Dakota Monitor) -A North Dakota ag and conservation researcher is unsure if she will be able to complete some projects  — or start new ones — because of delays in federal payments.

“Because they can’t assure me I’m going to get paid, I have to stop work,” Rebecca Phillips told the North Dakota Monitor.

Phillips, who runs a nonprofit research business based in Hazelton, received an email from the U.S. Department of Agriculture informing her that payments had been paused because of President Donald Trump’s Feb. 26 executive order giving the Department of Government Efficiency authority.

The $81,000 reimbursement she submitted for one project in January was paid on March 13,  but with future payments uncertain, she does not plan to complete the project.

“When that momentum gets broken or stalled, then the research clearly suffers,” Phillips said. “And the investment that you already put into it, there’s a lot of waste there.”

Phillips said she has had to lay off her one full-time staff person employed by her Ecological Insights Corp. She also hires part-time or seasonal employees.