(The Center Square) – With the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announcing a major reorganization plan, lawmakers met to grill Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden about why Congress wasn’t notified in advance and how the agency will prevent disruptions to its operations.
The USDA memorandum, released Friday, calls for relocating approximately 2,600 of its 4,600 Washington D.C.-based employees to five different regional hubs across the country. Those offices are located in Raleigh, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Indianapolis, Indiana; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Salt Lake City, Utah.
According to the agency, the shift is meant to move USDA “closer to the people it serves” and also address budgetary problems, namely, affording the 8% increase in workforce over the past four years.
“The heart of USDA is in the field, and the maximum number of people possible should report to work there,” Vaden told lawmakers in a Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee hearing Wednesday. “The Secretary has been frank with our employees about what our budgetary numbers require, and what the administration’s expectations are, so that those employees can make the best decisions for themselves and for their families.”
USDA will provide relocation assistance, and its principal consideration when considering hubs was cost of living, Vaden said. He added that it is hard to know how the move will impact USDA workforce numbers, but estimated that “a significant percent” would choose to relocate and keep their jobs.
Democratic lawmakers have blasted the proposal as “reckless,” with many reiterating their concerns during the meeting.
Ranking Member Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said that while she supports efforts to improve the USDA, the administration’s plan is “a half-baked agenda that will almost certainly result in worse services for farmers, families, and rural communities.”
“Coordinated action and influence for rural American agriculture does not mean just being close to where the producers are,” Klobuchar said, noting that 90% of USDA employees are already located outside of D.C. Instead, she argued, the current workforce structure allows USDA to advocate directly for rural America at the Capitol and the White House.
“Whittling down USDA’s resources to do this crucial work puts rural America at a disadvantage when they don’t have people in the room where it happens,” she said.
Republican lawmakers expressed tentative support for the plan, but expressed concern over the agency’s lack of communication with Congress and the possible effects on farmers and taxpayers.
Committee Chairman Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said he appreciated the agency’s goal of improving effectiveness, reducing bureaucracy and better stewarding taxpayer dollars. But, he added, “service, responsiveness, and results” should remain the agency’s top priority.
“As we examine the proposal, we need to fully understand its implications for the people USDA serves; especially how reorganization will affect USDA’s boots-on-the-ground presence in rural America and the delivery of essential services,” Boozman said.
As The Center Square reported, the USDA plan would also cancel some leases and vacate four offices located in the D.C. area, reduce middle management layers at regional offices, and consolidate multiple functions under different offices.
Vaden reiterated to skittish lawmakers that the changes follow the widely bipartisan USE IT Act which passed the U.S. House during the Biden administration.
The legislation, which passed the lower chamber with near unanimous consent, would have consolidated or vacated any federally owned or leased buildings that are less than 60% occupied. Not a single USDA building in D.C. currently meets this requirement, Vaden said.
Out of USDA’s 4754 facilities that function as places of employment, the reorganization plan closes only four, Vaden pointed out. Those four are all Agricultural Research Service (ARS) offices, of which there are currently 94.
USDA estimates that the closing of the four offices alone will save $2.2 billion taxpayer dollars, while the entirety of the plan could save over $4 billion, once relocation costs are taken into account.
Since the second Trump administration took office, 15,364 USDA employees have voluntarily chosen deferred resignation. In 2024, the agency’s workforce numbered nearly 100,000 individuals.
