(The Center Square) – Relocating employees closer to farmers and ranchers than Congress, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has named North Carolina’s capital city one of five hubs in a major reorganizational effort.
Raleigh is joined on the list by Kansas City, Indianapolis, Salt Lake City and Fort Collins, Colo. Secretary Brooke Rollins’ instruction said the move ensures the size of USDA’s workforce aligns with available financial resources and agricultural priorities; brings USDA closer to customers; eliminates management layers and bureaucracy; and consolidates redundant support functions.
Albuquerque and Minneapolis will be administrative support locations with a “substantial concentration of human resources,” Rollins’ memo said.
“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,” Rollins said. “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.”
About 2,600 workers are moving out of Washington to the sites. That’s more than half of the 4,600-member workforce in the national capital region.
The USDA is keeping its headquarters in the Whitten Building in the nation’s capital. It is vacating South Building; Braddock Place; and will eventually vacate Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and the George Washington Carver Center. The USDA said South, for example, can house more than 6,000 but is at 1,900 with approximately $1.3 billion in deferred maintenance needs.
The USDA had voluntary retirements earlier this year. The workforce was reduced from about 100,000 to 85,000.
