USDA intends to relocate workers from the Washington DC region to five regional hubs.

In written responses to the announced initiative, only five percent of those were in favor with 82 percent expressing direct opposition and concern.

We have seen this movie before.  Within months into the first term of President Trump, key statisticians and economists were relocated from Washington DC to Kansas City, resulting in a significant number of retirements and resignations from both the ERS and NASS.  This effectively weakened both agencies and deprived the USDA of personnel with experience and institutional knowledge.  The 2017 uprooting was predicated on reducing cost and moving personnel closer to their constituencies.  This was utter nonsense since high-level economists need to interact with their colleagues in other Federal agencies and departments, Congress, industry associations and academia concentrated in the DC area. They are involved in research on policy and planning and do not function as extension agents. Subsequent evaluation of the exercise confirmed that relocation actually cost money rather than effecting savings.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced in July that 2,006 employees would be relocated to five regional hubs in Raleigh, NC; Kansas City, MO; Indianapolis, IN; Fort Collins, CO and Salt Lake City, UT.  The current justification is again to “match USDA workforce with available financial resources” and also to “bring USDA closer to its customers”.

The funding restraints are essentially artificial and the assertion by Stephen Vaden, USDA Deputy Secretary that “it makes the most sense to get the large number of our employees to places where they can have the quality of life that they deserve on a government salary” is ingenuous.  The same sophistic justification of moving workers closer to the communities they serve is as unrealistic in 2026 as it was in 2017. The proposed relocation will again initiate resignations and retirements over and above the damage caused by DOGE. In the long run this throwback initiative will be to the detriment of current employees, farmers, consumers and ultimately taxpayers.