USDA to Reorganize, Relocate Most D.C. Area Staff

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the reorganization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on July 24, which includes a phased plan to relocate much of the agency headquarters and staff out of the Washington, D.C., area to five hubs: Raleigh, N.C.; Kansas City, Mo.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Fort Collins, Colo.; and Salt Lake City, Utah.

A July 24 release from USDA on the reorganization cited President Donald Trump’s review of the agency that revealed “a bloated, expensive and unsustainable organization.”

USDA employs about 4,600 staffers in the Washington, D.C., area. The reorganization is another step in the USDA’s process of reducing its workforce. Rollins said in a video message to USDA employees that the reorganization was “not a large-scale workforce reduction,” as 15,364 employees already opted into the government’s Deferred Retirement Program (DRP), leaving the agency in May.

“We will also be reducing some regional office management layers and consolidating duplicate functions,” Rollins said in the video message.

The reorganization consists of four pillars, said USDA:

• Ensure the size of USDA’s workforce aligns with available financial resources and agricultural priorities
• Bring USDA closer to its customers
• Eliminate management layers and bureaucracy
• Consolidate redundant support functions

“I understand this news today perhaps creates some personal disruption for some of you and your families, but I want to make sure this transition over the coming months is as smooth and minimally disruptive as possible,” Rollins told USDA employees in the video.

RELOCATION AND CONSOLIDATION PLAN.

Over the last four years, USDA’s workforce has grown by 8%, and employee salaries increased by 14.5%, according to the agency.

During this time period, the agency hired “thousands of employees with no sustainable way to pay them,” USDA said in today’s release. “This all occurred without any tangible increase in service to USDA’s core constituencies across the agricultural sector.”

USDA’s footprint in the National Capital Region (NCR) surrounding Washington, D.C., is “underutilized and redundant,” the agency said, “plagued by rampant overspending and decades of mismanagement and costly deferred maintenance.”

Earlier this year, Rollins issued a memorandum exempting public safety positions from the federal hiring freeze. These position classifications carry out functions critical to the inspection and safety of the nation’s agriculture and food supply system and will not be eliminated, said Rollins. However, employees may be subject to relocation.

Relocating to the five hubs will “bring USDA closer to the people it serves while also providing a more affordable cost of living for USDA employees,” said the agency in the release.

The NCR has one of the highest costs of living in the country, said USDA, with a federal salary locality rate of 33.94%. In selecting hub locations, USDA said it considered where existing concentrations of USDA employees are located and factored in cost of living.

In addition to the five hubs, USDA will maintain two core administrative support locations in Albuquerque, N.M., and Minneapolis, Minn., as well as its agency service centers in St. Louis, Mo.; Lincoln, Neb.; and Missoula, Mont.

Washington, D.C., will still hold functions for every mission area of USDA following the reorganization, said USDA, but the agency expects no more than 2,000 employees will remain in the region.

USDA will vacate the South Building, Braddock Place, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and George Washington Carver Center. It will retain the Whitten Building as its headquarters, as well as the Yates Building and National Agricultural Library.

“These buildings have a backlog of costly deferred maintenance and currently are occupied below the minimum set by law,” said USDA in its release. “For example, the South Building has approximately $1.3 billion in deferred maintenance and has an average daily occupancy of less than 1,900 individuals for a building that can house over 6,000 employees.”

The following offices will be closed or consolidated:

• The Agriculture Research Service (ARS) will eliminate its area offices. Residual functions will be performed by its Office of National Programs.
• The National Agricultural Statistics Service will consolidate its 12 existing regions into five USDA hubs over a multi-year period.
• The Food and Nutrition Service will reduce its number of regions from seven to five and align locations with the USDA hubs and service centers over a two-year period.

NEXT STEPS.

Today’s announcement is the first phase of a multi-month process, said USDA. Over the next month, senior leadership will notify offices with more information on relocation to one of the regional hubs.

“American agriculture feeds, clothes and fuels this nation and the world, and it is long past time the department better serve the great and patriotic farmers, ranchers and producers we are mandated to support,” said Rollins. “President Trump was elected to make real change in Washington, and we are doing just that by moving our key services outside the beltway and into great American cities across the country. We will do so through a transparent and common-sense process that preserves USDA’s critical health and public safety services the American public relies on. We will do right by the great American people who we serve and with respect to the thousands of hardworking USDA employees who so nobly serve their country.”

Read Rollins’ full memorandum here.