Rollins announces plan to decentralize and streamline USDA

Over half the department's D.C.-based staff will be moved to five regional hubs "closer to constituents."

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins at the USDA building in D.C. Photo source: USDA

In line with the Trump administration’s push to streamline government, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has announced a sweeping plan to decentralize the Department of Agriculture by relocating most D.C.-based employees and cutting overhead and redundant support offices.

“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,” Rollins said in a statement. “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. 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.”

Thousands to relocate as D.C. footprint shrinks

No more than 2,000 USDA employees will remain in the nation’s capital, with 2,600 relocating to five regional hubs in North Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, Colorado, and Utah, as well as two administrative support sites in New Mexico and Minnesota.

Employees will be required to live within 50 miles of their assigned office, with remote work or telework arrangements largely phased out. Some will see pay cuts to reflect lower regional costs of living.

Leaner operations, closer to constituents

The restructuring aims to reduce bureaucracy, eliminate management lawyers, and bring administrators closer to “core constituents.” Rollins says the plan will save taxpayers by slashing expensive D.C. operations, including the closure of several USDA offices such as its flagship research site. A number of stand-alone regional offices will be downsized or closed, including nine run by the Forest Service.

Senate Democrats call for hearings

Some Democrat lawmakers voices strong opposition, saying they were excluded from the decision-making process and are now calling for Senate hearings. Senator Amy Klobuchar, the ranking Democrat on the Senate agriculture committee, called the plan “half-baked.”

“A reorganization of this scale will impact USDA’s ability to provide critical services to Americans and undermine the agency’s trusted expertise that farmers and families count on,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “We must have an immediate hearing before more damage is done.”

Relocations may accelerate USDA workforce exodus

There are currently 100,000 employees across the department’s 29 agencies and offices. In the past four years, the USDA workforce has grown by 8%, with salaries rising 14.5%. The USDA claims there has been no “tangible increase in service to USDA’s core constituencies” as a result.

More 15,300 USDA employees—about 15% of its workforce—have left since Trump took office. While the reorganization does not mandate layoffs, officials suggest the relocation effort may prompt further voluntary resignations.

Rollins stressed that the agency would work to minimize negative impacts on programs that depend on temporary workforces, including the Forest Service’s wildland firefighting operations.