With the USDA on the cusp of moving two research agencies to Kansas City, a senior official said on Thursday that massive staff turnover — so far, 250 employees have declined to leave Washington — is par for the course for cross-country relocations. Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow offered a different take: “This is not a relocation. It’s a demolition.”
Stabenow and four other Democrats spoke against the relocation during an hour-long Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on agricultural research, saying it was unjustified and certain to damage the quality of federal research. Indiana Sen. Mike Braun was the only Republican to comment directly on the issue; his colleagues asked only about plant pests and livestock diseases. “I’m glad we’re relocating to Kansas City,” said Braun. “It makes sense to be in the middle of where the Breadbasket is.”
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue named the Kansas City region on June 13 to be the new home for the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The transition will begin on Monday, when four newly hired ERS employees report to work in Kansas City. The move, affecting 547 job slots, will be completed by Sept. 30, according to the USDA’s timeline.
To date, 146 ERS and NIFA employees have said they will move, while 250 workers have rejected the reassignment. Employees can change their minds until Sept. 30. Meanwhile, the USDA said it would use “an aggressive hiring strategy” to fill vacancies. Agency workers said a “brain drain” began weeks ago as ERS and NIFA staff retired, quit, or found other jobs.
“Any move is difficult,” said Scott Hutchins, the deputy agriculture undersecretary who oversees the USDA’s research agencies. “There’s always large attrition. The numbers that came from this were not at all unexpected.” Perdue has promised to put new money into the ERS and NIFA, said Hutchins, a former executive at DowDuPont. “We will not drop the ball with these agencies.”
A USDA cost-benefit analysis assumed that all 547 employees would move to Kansas City. A cadre of 100 ERS and NIFA workers is slated to stay in Washington.
The union representing ERS and NIFA employees said the USDA was driving away its workforce by demanding they relocate on short notice. “Given all the employees who have resigned in recent months in light of this ill-advised location, plus those who say they will not relocate, USDA is likely to retain less than 10 percent of the total workforce when all is said and done,” said the American Federation of Government Employees. The USDA is scheduled to meet with the AFGE on Friday to discuss such ideas as allowing employees to telecommute or remain in Washington until the Kansas City office is ready for use. The site has yet to be chosen.
“Unfortunately, the bipartisan commitment to agricultural research, which started 150 years ago, is at risk,” said Stabenow, the senior Democrat on the Agriculture Committee. She said moving the agencies halfway across the country “is a thinly veiled ideological attempt to drive away key USDA employees and bypass the intent of Congress.”
Perdue says the relocations will save money on salaries and rent, make it easier to recruit staff from college towns, and put the agencies closer to “stakeholders.” The Trump administration has tried repeatedly to slash ERS staffing and funding and to narrow its research portfolio as part of USDA budget bills. NIFA awards more than $1 billion a year in competitive research grants.
“The [Senate] hearing could just as well be called the funeral for some types of government-funded agricultural research,” said a National Journal columnist.
To watch a video of the hearing or to read Hutchins’ written statement, click here.