By Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Agriculture will relocate much of its Washington, D.C., workforce to five regional hubs and vacate several buildings in the area, including its flagship research center, the agency announced on Thursday.
The plan is the latest effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to reorganize and reduce the size and footprint of the federal government. More than 15,000 USDA employees, about 15% of its total workforce, have this year taken one of the agency’s two financial incentive offers to leave.
No more than 2,000 USDA employees will remain in the Washington area once the reorganization is complete, the agency said in a press release.
The rest, about 2,600 people, will be relocated to hubs in Raleigh, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Indianapolis, Indiana; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Salt Lake City, Utah, the agency said.
The agency is not conducting widespread staff reductions, though the relocation plan is part of the USDA’s process of reducing its workforce, the release said.
The USDA also said it will vacate several properties in the Washington area, including its flagship research site, the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, and one of its headquarters buildings on the National Mall.
The phased plan to relocate workers was made to bring USDA staff closer to its “core constituents,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a video to staff.
‘BAD FOR EMPLOYEES’
When the USDA relocated two of its agencies – the Economic Research Service and National Institute for Food and Agriculture – from Washington in 2019, under the first Trump administration, it saw significant staff attrition.
Laura Dodson, an economist with the ERS and vice president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403, who worked for the agency during its relocation, said moving staff is not efficient and results in less oversight and higher costs.
“While this is bad for employees, it will be worse for the American public,” she said.
The agency may also struggle to replace workers who choose not to relocate in small, regional labor markets, said Gbenga Ajilore, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and former USDA senior advisor for rural development.
The USDA also plans to reduce or close some regional offices, including consolidating the National Agricultural Statistics Service, which releases agricultural market data, from twelve offices to five, according to an agency memo.
The Forest Service will also close its nine regional offices over the next year in a plan that “will take into consideration the ongoing fire season,” the memo said.
At the Agricultural Research Service, staff have already struggled to keep up with their workload after the wave of voluntary resignations, said Ethan Roberts, an ARS employee and president of AFGE Local 3247.
“Many will not take the (relocation) offer and we will lose even more administrative employees that are critical to the everyday functioning of the USDA and ARS,” he said.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas in WashingtonEditing by Chizu Nomiyama, Frances Kerry, Marguerita Choy and Nia Williams)
