A federal judge in California extended last week a temporary pause in USDA employee relocations until Oct. 13 as he considers a preliminary injunction that would stop USDA indefinitely from enforcing employee relocations.
Government Executive’s Jory Heckman reported that U.S. District Court Judge Vince “spent much of (last) Tuesday’s hearing questioning the extent of authority Congress and its appropriations committees have over USDA’s reorganization decisions.”
“‘I think what carries the greatest weight is the actual language of the appropriations legislation, which says you can’t do this,’ he said. ‘The default is that you’re not allowed to do it,'” Heckman reported. “… In a written order on Tuesday, Chhabria stated that it was ‘significant that Congress added an approval requirement’ to the FY 2026 spending bill, ‘after it had been on the books as a notice-and-wait provision for many years.’“
“‘Congress did not want USDA to be spending money on these kinds of reorganization activities, unless it got permission from the committees,’ he said during Tuesday’s hearing,” according to Heckman’s reporting. “‘And so, if you take away the committee-approval provision, then what you’re left with is Congress doesn’t want the USDA to be engaging in spending this money on these kinds of reorganization activities, unless it goes and gets legislation passed to create an exception to the prohibition.'”
Brownfield Ag News’ Carah Hart reported that Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden said “if the judge moves forward with an injunction, the USDA could take this to an appellate court.”
“‘If we need to use them, we will. And I’m fully confident we’ll win in any final legal action, because we’ve got a lot of support among the farmers of this country and among their elected representatives in the halls of Congress, who are very much anxious for us to build that new lab in Ames, Iowa,’ he said,” according to Hart’s reporting. “Vaden, who has been overseeing the reorganization, says decisions about the department’s management ultimately rest with the agriculture secretary and the president.”
Vaden also told Brownfield that Food and Nutrition Administration employees have officially moved into the Yates Building in Washington D.C. and that new food safety labs are set to come online in both Iowa and Georgia.
Federal News Network’s Amber Corrin reported in September that “USDA’s multi-part plan includes relocating approximately 2,600 employees currently based in the Washington, D.C. area, accounting for more than half of USDA personnel in the region. Those employees would move to agency hubs across the country; some 90% of the USDA workforce already works outside the National Capital Region.”
“Plaintiff groups in the latest lawsuit include the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the National Federation of Federal Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union — all unions representing employees in various USDA components affected by the reorganization,” Corrin reported.
