80% of USDA Food Assistance Workers Say They Won’t Relocate

Federal News Network’s Jory Heckman reported that “many employees working in the Agriculture Department’s food assistance programs would rather quit their jobs than relocate across the country, according to an internal poll conducted by their union.”

“USDA announced last month that most Food and Nutrition Service employees will relocate to other parts of the country, after shuttering its Washington, D.C. headquarters and several of its regional offices,” Heckman reported. “But the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 226, which represents FNS employees, says more than 80% of staff who took an internal survey claim they will not relocate to keep their jobs. Another union survey of other USDA employees tapped to relocate found similar results.”

“About a third of all current FNS employees took the survey. The Food and Nutrition Service has a workforce of about 1,200 employees,” Heckman reported. “Union officials told Federal News Network that both bargaining-unit and non-bargaining-unit employees were invited to respond to the survey. They said the results align with what they’re hearing from the FNS workforce more broadly.”

“‘The vast majority just cannot move for various reasons — family commitments, spouses that have careers,’ one union official said,” according to Heckman’s reporting. “‘Even those who would move, there’s some caveats. People said, ‘I might move short-term, but then I’m actively looking for another job.’”

“NTEU Local 226 said that 81% of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) employees, 78% of child nutrition employees and 90% of Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) employees who took the survey said they would not relocate,” Hekcman reported.

FNS Has Already Lost 30% of Workforce Under Trump Administration

Government Executive’s Eric Katz reported last month that “under President Trump, FNS has shed 30% of its workforce. About one-third of the remaining 1,200 employees currently live in the capital region, most of whom report to the FNS headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The agency will leave in Washington its director and ‘a small footprint’ of staff to ‘be responsive to Congress, interagency needs, regulatory work, and policy coordination.'”

“SNAP administration will be based in Indianapolis, while Child Nutrition Programs will be relocated to Dallas. A facility in Denver will house Emergency Management and Continuity of Operations, while some staff will also go to Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York,” Katz reported. “‘If this reorganization moves forward, these programs simply will not function—ultimately risking access to food for mothers, infants, students, children, and elderly people across the country,’ (the National Treasury Employees Union’s) FNS chapter said.”

“Following similar relocations at ERS and NIFA in 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.”

Democrats Express Concerns Over Food Safety Staffing

The Hagstrom Report’s Jerry Hagstrom reported that “Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., the ranking member on the Senate Agriculture Committee, last week led 19 of her colleagues in a letter to Agriculture Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden expressing ‘serious concern’ about the reorganization of USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.”

“‘We ask that you provide a detailed description of how you will ensure that FSIS will maintain full operational capacity during and after this transition,’ the senators wrote,” according to Hagstrom’s reporting. “‘Specifically, we ask that you provide further details on what communication USDA has had with impacted FSIS employees, how the USDA will mitigate anticipated workforce losses, preserve critical expertise, and ensure that outbreak response, interagency coordination, and rulemaking activities are not compromised.'”