USDA Receives Mostly Negative Feedback on Reorganization Plan

Government Executive’s Eric Katz reported that “the Agriculture Department received overwhelmingly negative feedback on its plan to relocate thousands of staff and consolidate dozens of offices, as employees, lawmakers and stakeholders said it could lead to a significant brain drain and disruptions to key farmer-support programs.”

“While just 10% of the USDA workforce is currently in the Washington area, the department is looking to relocate around 2,600 of those employees to new locations,” Katz reported. “The department is standing up five regional hubs around the country that will house relocated employees, located in Raleigh, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Indianapolis; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Salt Lake City, Utah. It is slashing other regional offices across the country and consolidating many support functions.”

“The department solicited emailed comments from the public between Aug. 1 and Sept. 30. USDA received nearly 47,000 responses, most of which were from form letters or part of an organized campaign,” Katz reported. “Of the 14,000 remaining messages, 82% expressed a negative sentiment, according to USDA’s analysis of the responses. Just 5% expressed a positive tone.”

“Among the most common concerns, USDA said, were for the impacts of reductions in personnel and resources. Potential layoffs, which USDA has said would be necessary if an insufficient number of employees agree to relocate, or employees opting to resign instead of moving would lead to reduced operational capacity, the commenters said,” Katz reported. “‘Stakeholders worry that cost-cutting measures will prioritize efficiency over service quality, undermining public trust,’ the department said in its analysis.”

The USDA analysis also broke down responses by groups, which showed that 96% of the 680 comments submitted by current USDA employees “presented areas for thoughtful consideration” (were negative). For USDA retirees, 83% of the 195 comments were negative and for the general public, 85% of the 1,191 comments were negative.

Civil Eats’ Lisa Held reported that “more than 2,000 individual comments were submitted specifically to ‘express strong opposition’ to the closing of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC), ‘citing risks to ongoing research, environmental impacts, and regional economic reliance.’ BARC, located just outside D.C. in Maryland, has been a leading agricultural research hub for more than 100 years. USDA plans to shut it down as part of the reorganization, and Maryland’s congressional delegation has been pushing back on that plan.”

Reorganization Expected to be Completed in 2026

Katz reported that “the mostly negative feedback from stakeholders is not expected to deter the Trump administration as it reshapes the department, with several employees telling Government Executive the plan was proceeding full steam ahead.”

Agri-Pulse’s Lydia Johnson reported earlier this December that “the Agriculture Department will complete a reorganization of more than half the current D.C.-based staff to five regional hubs across the U.S. by the end of 2026, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden says on Agri-Pulse Newsmakers.”

“In a comprehensive year-in-review interview, Vaden said ‘when you and I talk at the end of next year … We will have redistributed the majority of our USDA employees to our new hub locations, plus other places where we already have leased office space,'” Johnson reported. “The reorganization, a process led by Vaden, will move more than 2,000 USDA employees to regional hubs in five cities: Raleigh, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Indianapolis, Indiana; Fort Collins, Colorado, and Salt Lake City, Utah.”

“‘When asked if employees will be moved to the regional hubs by the end of 2026, Vaden confirmed ‘they will be,'” Johnson reported. “‘As a matter of fact, we’re already moving to implement that, and you’ll see that in the days and weeks ahead with public announcements,’ Vaden told Newsmakers anchor Lydia Johnson.”