DC Bureaucrats Furious At Having To Move To Rest Of The Country

The Trump administration recently unveiled a major restructuring of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, cutting its Washington-area workforce by more than half and relocating key staff to regional offices nationwide. The overhaul, officials say, is designed to reduce inefficiency and bring the agency closer to the Americans it serves.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins defended the move as both practical and patriotic, saying, “American agriculture feeds, clothes, and fuels this nation and the world, and it is long past time the Department better serve the great and patriotic farmers, ranchers, and producers we are mandated to support.” She told The Daily Caller, “President Trump was elected to make real change in Washington, and we are doing just that by moving our key services outside the beltway and into great American cities across the country.”

The USDA’s D.C.-based workforce will shrink from approximately 4,600 employees to just 2,000. According to agency data, staffing levels had increased 8 percent over the last four years while salaries rose 14.5 percent—without, the agency claimed, a corresponding increase in service to farmers and ranchers, according to reports.

More than 15,000 USDA employees have already accepted voluntary retirements or enrolled in the Deferred Retirement Program. While the agency stated it would prioritize voluntary and directed reassignments, officials noted that further reductions may be implemented “if needed” to match staffing levels with budget and mission priorities.

The restructuring also includes a consolidation of overlapping offices, removal of bureaucratic layers, and the closure of several underused buildings in the capital region. Among those is the South Building, which has accumulated $1.3 billion in deferred maintenance and houses fewer than 1,900 daily occupants—despite a capacity for 6,000.

The changes mark a dramatic departure from the USDA’s traditional Washington-centric structure, reflecting a broader push to decentralize federal agencies and reorient them toward the communities they are intended to support, but that hasn’t been sitting well with the bureaucrats enjoying life in the nation’s capital. 

Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents many USDA employees, said the moves were an attempt to “eliminate USDA workers and minimize their critical work.”

“D.C. is the center of our nation’s government for a reason, as it facilitates needed coordination between senior leadership and field offices and ensures agencies are at the seat of the table when decisions are made at the White House and in Congress,” Kelley said. “This administration is moving at breakneck speed to slash the size of the federal government, often with little thought into the consequences this will have on the American people who rely on the services our members deliver.”

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