By Leah Douglas

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins at a Senate hearing on Tuesday defended downsizing the USDA and potential cuts to international food aid programs, but said the agency does not plan to close any of its 4,500 offices that serve farmers.

The USDA has lost more than 15,000 staff to financial incentive programs offered by the administration of President Donald Trump as part of his effort with billionaire ally Elon Musk to shrink the size of the federal workforce.

Trump’s budget proposal released on May 2 would cut $4.5 billion from the USDA, including steep cuts to conservation, rural development and research programs.

About 1,100 of those leaving USDA worked at the Farm Services Agency, which administers farm loans and provides technical support to farmers at its locations around the country, according to a USDA briefing for Congressional staff. Two-thirds of those were employees working at the county level.

Testifying before the agriculture subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Rollins said, "it is not in our plan" to close any FSA offices. She said USDA is working to develop online technical assistance that may mean less reliance on in-person services in the future.

Trump’s budget would cut $358 million from the FSA, and suggested that some of its locations are "underutilized, resulting in waste."

Rollins said the agency is recruiting to rehire staff to critical roles that were vacated, including for FSA county offices, wildland firefighters in the U.S. Forest Service, and staff at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which handles animal disease outbreaks like bird flu.

Several hundred requests to enroll in the financial incentive for voluntary departures program were declined because the staff roles were too important, she said.

"Have we done it perfectly? No," she said of the staff moves.

The budget also would eliminate the McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program, Food for Progress and Food for Peace food aid programs, which send U.S. commodities abroad.

Rollins defended the potential cuts as part of the administration’s effort to make the agency more efficient. But Rollins said she has had "very initial conversations" with Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the USDA assuming control of the Food for Peace program, which has historically been administered by USAID.

Rollins also said an announcement would be forthcoming from the USDA in the coming weeks about plans to relocate the agency outside of Washington, D.C.