USDA Relocating More Employees to Kansas City & Iowa

Government Executive’s Eric Katz reported that “the Agriculture Department on Thursday announced additional relocation plans for employees as part of its larger reorganization, including a new center for food inspectors in Iowa and a second attempt at sending research staff to Kansas City.”

“The Food Safety Inspection Service will send out two-thirds of its headquarters staff currently based in Washington, the agency said, to a newly stood up National Food Safety Center in Urbandale, Iowa, a new Science Center in Athens, Ga., or other locations,” Katz reported. “The Iowa facility will become FSIS’ largest office with 200 people and USDA said the changes will move staff ‘closer to the agricultural and food production systems that FSIS regulates.'”

“The department’s Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture, meanwhile, will once again relocate employees to Kansas City. It also did so in President Trump’s first term, though President Biden subsequently moved the agencies’ headquarters back to Washington while keeping the Kansas City offices open,” Katz reported. “This time around, ERS and NIFA will move employees out of the capital region to Kansas City and bring other employees who have since been shifted to other locations back to that hub.”

“Following the 2019 moves, both agencies lost more than half of their staff, leading to a significant decline in productivity from which it took the agencies years to recover,” Katz reported. “The latest USDA reorganization plan received overwhelmingly negative feedback during the public comment period from lawmakers, employees and local governments on the larger USDA reorganization, as well in meetings the department held with tribal governments.”

“The reshaping of those components is part of a larger USDA reorganization that will see 2,600 employees shifted from the capital region into new regional hubs around the country,” Katz reported. “In addition to Kansas City, those hubs will be in Salt Lake City, Raleigh, N.C.; Fort Collins, Colo., and Indianapolis. The department previously announced it would move its U.S. Forest Service headquarters, and 260 employees, to Salt Lake City.”

New National Food Safety Center Being Established in Iowa

Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman reported that “USDA said the new National Food Safety Center will serve as the ‘primary locations’ for the FSIS administrative, technical and support operations. The center will act as a hub for FSIS resource management, training, food safety education, financial operations, information technology and administrative services.”

“Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement that this reorganization ensures FSIS ‘is positioned where it can best support American agriculture and protect public health,'” Heckman reported. “‘These changes reflect our commitment to modernizing the department while staying focused on delivering results for the American people,’ Rollins said.”

By establishing the National Food Safety Center in Iowa and expanding our scientific capabilities, @USDA is positioning FSIS to powerfully support American agriculture and protect public health.

This builds on a FULL YEAR of putting science and safety first at FSIS. Under… https://t.co/PV4SuBh9W9

— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) April 23, 2026

“FSIS will also open a Science Center in Athens, Georgia, building on its existing Eastern Field Services Laboratory and expanding its capabilities in microbiology, chemistry and epidemiology,” Heckman reported. “In total, about 200 D.C.-based FSIS employees will be reassigned as part of this agency reorganization. But roughly 100 positions will remain in the national capital region to support congressional engagement, policy development and interagency coordination.”

“FSIS said its frontline inspection workforce would not be impacted by these changes and that the relocations would only impact a small fraction of its workforce,” Heckman reported. “FSIS inspectors make up 85% of its total workforce.”

USDA Beginning to Decommission Beltsville Agricultural Research Center

Reuters’ Leah Douglas reported that “the ​agency will also ​begin decommissioning its ⁠flagship research site in Beltsville, Maryland, the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, and relocating research programs, according ​to the release. BARC staff have complained about unsafe working conditions, ​though employees ⁠also joined lawmakers and farm groups in criticizing USDA’s plan to close the center, arguing the relocation process would interrupt research.”