USDA official to testify before Senate committee about reorganization plan

The Senate Agriculture Committee will hear from the No. 2 official at the USDA this week about the department’s reorganization plan. The plan, announced July 24, would shift more than half of the agency’s Washington, D.C., staff to five hubs around the country.

The plan calls for closing the department’s South Building as well as the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland, the main facility of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.

The five new hub locations proposed are:

• Raleigh, North Carolina
• Kansas City, Missouri
• Indianapolis, Indiana
• Fort Collins, Colorado
• Salt Lake City, Utah

USDA said the locations were chosen considering existing concentrations of USDA employees and lower costs of living.

“The department currently has approximately 4,600 employees within the National Capital Region (NCR). This Region has one of the highest costs of living in the country, with a federal salary locality rate of 33.94%,” according to a USDA statement. “In selecting its hub locations, USDA considered where existing concentrations of USDA employees are located and factored in the cost of living. Washington, D.C. will still hold functions for every mission area of USDA at the conclusion of this reorganization, but USDA expects no more than 2,000 employees will remain in the NCR.”

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said the reorganization plan aims to realign the department with its core mission of supporting American agriculture and to reduce a “bloated, expensive, and unsustainable organization.”

“We will do so through a transparent and common-sense process that preserves USDA’s critical health and public safety services the American public relies on,” Rollins said.

The reorganization plan follows a recent voluntary retirement program that saw a reduction of more than 15,000 employees.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) called for hearings on the plan. On July 30, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden, sworn in July 7, will testify before the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, according to Politico.

Boozman told Politico he was “disappointed” that Congress was not consulted before the reorganization plan was announced.

“I’m more concerned about just the efficiency,” Boozman said in a brief interview with the publication. “What are we trying to accomplish? How’s that going to make it such that it makes the farm economy more efficient, helps farmers and it ultimately helps the consumer?”