Ten months after he announced the initiative, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue will meet with USDA employees privately Thursday and then announce to the public the new homes for two research agencies now sited in Washington. Perdue says the relocations, hundreds of miles from the capital, will save money and bring USDA employees closer to “stakeholders,” but critics say the move is part of an ongoing Trump administration attack on science.
Kansas City, already home to a large USDA commodity office, was regarded as the front-runner among finalists that included Indianapolis and Raleigh, North Carolina, with St. Louis and Madison, Wisconsin, as backups. Perdue dropped no hints on Wednesday while alerting reporters that he had made his decision.
“I think, out of respect for our employees, I want to go to them first [and] tell them,” said Perdue.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) urged Congress to keep the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture in town by refusing to pay for moving expenses. The House is scheduled to vote next week on a USDA-FDA funding bill that specifically denies money for relocation. An array of scientific groups and former USDA research chiefs opposed Perdue’s proposal as counterproductive.
“The White House proposed budget cuts to virtually eliminate research inconvenient to the administration’s interests and created an unnecessary relocation crisis that is driving off scientists who conduct that very research,” said UCS senior scientist Ricardo Salvador.
Trump defenders, including Republican Reps. Michael Conaway of Texas and Neal Dunn of Florida, say opposition to relocating the agencies is elitist and betrays a knee-jerk reaction to administration proposals. Three Democratic senators questioned last week if Perdue has the authority to carry out such a major relocation and said they have not seen proof that USDA research would improve as a result of the move.
The ERS, a self-described “honest broker of economic information,” analyzes agricultural, food, natural resources, and rural development issues, including USDA programs. NIFA awards more than $1 billion a year in competitive research grants. At full strength, the ERS and NIFA have a combined workforce of 700.
Perdue has said he wants to complete the agency relocation by the end of the year. If so, the USDA might move faster than lawmakers could with legislation to keep the agencies in Washington. Employees say they face salary cuts if they relocate because pay is based on the location of their office.
Employees of both agencies voted this spring — NIFA this week — to unionize as a reaction to Perdue’s proposal. Staff workers also have expressed concerns about a “brain drain,” as experienced colleagues take jobs elsewhere. The administration has repeatedly proposed slashing ERS staff and budget and restricting its portfolio to crop and livestock analysis.