A powerhouse group of U.S. representatives, including incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, filed a bill on Thursday to block the relocation and reorganization of USDA research agencies. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says he will move two agencies, the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, out of Washington and take direct control of the ERS in 2019.
“Uprooting these key agencies is unnecessary and risks weakening them when our nation’s food system and agricultural economy need them the most,” said Rep. Chellie Pingree, Maine Democrat. “My colleagues and I have repeatedly sent this message to the secretary.” All the Democrats on the House Appropriations subcommittee in charge of the USDA’s budget are sponsors of the bill, along with Hoyer; the incoming chairman of the House Rules Committee, Jim McGovern; and three Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee.
There was little chance of passing the bill this year because Congress could adjourn as early as today. A farm activist said the bill would be reintroduced next year, when Democrats are the House majority.