NIFA
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 ‘hiring at an extremely fast pace’ to rebuild ERS and NIFA
One-third of the jobs at two USDA research agencies are still vacant 18 months after their abrupt Trump-era relocation to Kansas City, said the chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees the USDA budget on Wednesday.