The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a sweeping reorganization and significant staff reductions on Thursday, citing a bloated workforce and rampant overspending during the Biden administration.
As part of the overhaul, the USDA plans to cut its Washington, D.C.-area workforce by more than 50% and relocate bureaucrats elsewhere in the U.S., the agency announced. Over the past four years, the agency’s staff grew by 8% and salaries rose by 14.5% “without any tangible increase in service to USDA’s core constituencies across the agricultural sector,” according to the USDA.
“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. 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,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
A central aim of the reorganization is to bring the agency closer to those it serves. The USDA’s D.C. headquarters will shrink from roughly 4,600 to 2,000 individuals, with many positions set to be relocated to regional offices across the country.
Over 15,000 individuals have already elected to leave the agency through voluntary retirements and the Deferred Retirement Program, the USDA said. The agency will prioritize voluntary and directed reassignments, but will implement further workforce reductions “if needed” to ensure staffing aligns with the agency’s financial resources and priorities.
The plan also includes streamlining management layers, reducing bureaucracy, consolidating redundant functions and vacating several USDA-occupied buildings in the D.C. area. The South Building, which will be vacated, has $1.3 billion in deferred maintenance and averages fewer than 1,900 daily occupants, even though it has the capacity for 6,000, according to the agency.
Despite these cuts, the USDA stated that all critical agency functions, such as wildfire preparedness, will continue uninterrupted.
“We will do so through a transparent and common-sense process that preserves USDA’s critical health and public safety services the American public relies on,” said Rollins. “We will do right by the great American people who we serve and with respect to the thousands of hardworking USDA employees who so nobly serve their country.”
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