Former federal officials protest moving ERS from Washington
A bipartisan coalition of former federal officials wrote a letter opposing the planned move of USDA's Economic Research Service from Washington, D.C. The move was announced by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in August. Perdue has said the move will save taxpayers money and allow USDA to better recruit from land-grant universities far from Washington.
Reorganization is an internal matter, Perdue tells inquiring senators
The USDA will need only a couple of months to pick the new homes for two research agencies that are being moved out of the Washington area, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in a letter. He also told the leader of the Senate Agriculture Committee that "this is an internal operational decision" so there was no requirement to seek public comment before deciding to relocate the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
NFU opposes USDA plan to relocate research agencies
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue may jeopardize the objectivity of two USDA agencies by taking control of the Economic Research Service and moving it and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) out of Washington, said the National Farmers Union on Tuesday. The second-largest U.S. farm group announced its opposition to the reorganization in a letter to Perdue, saying the USDA has failed to justify the reorganization announced a month ago.
Senate Ag leaders question USDA’s authority to relocate agencies
In one of the few challenges by Congress to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue's management of USDA, the Senate farm bill would restore the office of undersecretary for rural development, abolished last year by Perdue. Now, Perdue faces 12 pointed questions from Senate Agriculture Committee leaders, including what legal authority allows him to move a research agency with 330 workers into his executive office.
The bidding war begins for ERS and NIFA
Kansas City should be the new home of two agencies that USDA plans to move out of Washington, say three Missouri lawmakers, joining the expected bidding war for the 620 high-paying jobs that constitute the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. While the boost to a local economy is alluring, some researchers wonder if the relocation is part of a plan to slash the size and funding of the research agencies.
Stakeholders weigh in on Perdue’s relocation plan
Last week, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced plans to move two key USDA agencies out of the Washington area. This week, the debate over the proposal, both pro and con, kicked off.
Wanted: Office space in a city with a ‘critical mass of intellectual capacity’
The Agriculture Department is willing to go far into the countryside to find office space for two agencies that it wants to move out of Washington. The new headquarters can be near an airport with as few travelers as Salina, Kansas, or Sidney, Montana, but it must have robust internet service, a "critical mass of intellectual capacity" to tap for its workforce, and an overall high quality of life, according to a USDA announcement appearing today.
USDA predicts decline in global food insecurity in annual report
The Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service in June released its annual International Food Security Assessment (IFSA), an outlook for global food security for the coming decade. The report estimated that global food security would improve over the coming 10 years, with a decline in the number of food-insecure people from 782 million in 2018 to 446 million in 2028.
USDA has chronic data issues, experts say
The Department of Agriculture under President Trump has repeatedly rolled out policies and program changes without accurate data, a report from Politico found. From trade war bailouts to cutting food stamp benefits to relocating essential USDA agencies, several members of Congress, experts, …