By Audrey Jackson
Meatingplace’s Peter Voskamp reported that, “the USDA Rural Development Mission Area recently announced that it is moving forward with its declared intention to move nearly 3,000 members of its workforce out of the Washington DC area in order to ‘modernize operations, increase accountability, and ensure federal resources are positioned where they can deliver the greatest impact.’”
“This, despite most of the agency’s workforce expressing opposition to the move,” Voskamp reported. “The recent plan update comes nearly a year after the Trump Administration first announced the reorganization plan.”
“In July 2025, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the USDA would move some 2,600 employees in Washington D.C. to five regional hubs in Raleigh, N.C.; Kansas City, Mo., Indianapolis; Fort Collins, Colo.; and Salt Lake City,” Voskamp reported. “The aim, as Rollins outlined, was to match USDA’s workforce with available financial resources, to bring USDA ‘closer to its customers,’ reduce bureaucracy and consolidate redundant support functions.”
“The USDA’s Rural Development wing maintains the largest field-based presence in the federal government, with more than 400 offices throughout rural America, per the agency,” Voskamp reported. “The new announcement reiterated the goals of the reorg: ‘aligning workforce size with available resources, relocating resources closer to customers, eliminating excess management layers, and consolidating support functions.’”
Source : illinois.edu