Agri-Pulse’s Steve Davies reported that “the Agriculture Department has been ordered to halt its reorganization and relocation efforts by a federal judge who said the department had likely violated a congressional directive prohibiting it from spending money on the plan.”
“The fiscal 2026 agriculture spending bill barred USDA from reprogramming funds to proceed with the reorganization affecting thousands of department employees. It said USDA had to obtain permission from the Senate and House appropriations committees before doing so,” Davies reported. “Both the plaintiffs, who include employee unions, and USDA agreed that the approval provision is unconstitutional, and U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria agreed. However, he said the prohibition on reprogramming remains.”
“The bill’s explanatory statement, agency documents, and President Donald Trump’s budget submission associated with the appropriations statute at issue ‘show that Congress almost certainly did not intend for these funds to be used for office closures or employee relocations at the time it appropriated them,’ Chhabria said in his order,” according to Davies’ reporting.
Government Executive’s Jory Heckman reported that “the stay specifically bars USDA from ‘closing or eliminating offices’ at component agencies impacted by reorganization plans, or ‘relocating or reassigning employees or their positions or functions to different and/or new locations outside the local commuting area, including by issuing or enforcing MDR letters or any other notice or directive of reassignment or relocation in whole or in part.'”
The Washington Sun’s Tyler Spence reported that “the restrictions at issue expire Dec. 11, so Congress could revisit them in its next funding bill, Chhabria wrote.”
“‘If the agency wishes to move forward with its plans to close offices and relocate employees, it will soon have the opportunity to convince Congress of the merits of those plans,’ Chhabria wrote. ‘Congress, if it agrees, can choose not to extend the restrictions at issue in this case,'” Spence reported. “… The judge said he had ‘no view’ on whether the reorganization is a good idea, but he faulted the USDA for not analyzing the risks the reorganization could pose to the services the agency provides.”
Judge Does Not Stop USDA Office Closures in Washington D.C.
Politico’s Marcia Brown reported that “the court’s move is a victory for federal employees’ unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees and the AFL-CIO, which sued the government earlier this year.”
“It applies to the Forest Service; the Food and Nutrition Administration; the Agricultural Research Service, including the Beltsville Agriculture Research Center; the Foreign Agricultural Service; Rural Development; the Office of the General Counsel; the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights; as well as the mission areas Research, Education and Economics, and Farm Production and Conservation,” Brown reported. “… The order doesn’t prevent USDA from closing offices in the Washington area, such as the South Building, which officials said earlier this year they intend to sell, or from moving employees within the region.”
USDA Likely to Appeal Decision
Brownfield Ag News’ Carah Hart reported at the end of September 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.”
