The sprawling USDA plans to relocate at least 2,600 employees away from the Washington, D.C. area to five hubs, including one in Indiana. Photo from Scott Olson, Getty Images.

By Leslie Bonilla Muñiz
Indiana Capital Chronicle

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s capital city will serve as one of five new U.S. Department of Agriculture regional hubs, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Thursday, July 24.

“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,” Rollins said in a news release.

The sprawling agency plans to relocate at least 2,600 employees away from the Washington, D.C. area.

“Pres. 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 added.

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins testifies before a U.S. Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, May 6. Photo from Senate webcast.

Republican Sen. Jim Banks, Indiana’s junior U.S. senator, dubbed the announcement “huge news” for Indiana.

He led a group of Hoosier agriculture stakeholders that met with Rollins to pitch Indiana as a hub location, according to a release from his office.

“I am grateful to President Trump and Secretary Rollins for recognizing the strength and vision our state and agricultural leaders demonstrated during our meeting last month,” Banks said. “This is a win-win for Indiana and taxpayers across the country. It means real economic growth here at home and an agency that’s more efficient and focused on what matters most.”

Indiana’s senior GOP U.S. Sen. Todd Young also celebrated the news in a social media post: “Very exciting news for Hoosiers – Indianapolis has been selected as one of five new @USDA regional hub locations. Great to see these services move outside of DC and into places like Indiana that feed our nation.”

A Thursday memorandum — effective immediately — said the reorganization will align USDA’s workforce with its budget, bring the agency closer to its customers, eliminate layers of bureaucracy and consolidate redundant functions.

Reorg’s Priorities

The memo called the reorganization a way to “make certain USDA can afford its workforce.”

It noted that, over the last four years, the number of employees grew by about 8%, and their salaries increased more than 14% — with the pay often backed by temporary funding.

As of Thursday, over 15,300 people have taken the agency up on its offer to quit their jobs through the deferred resignation program. The memo said USDA plans to keep “fully leverag(ing)” such voluntary programs — even though the agency had to recruit for some recently vacated key positions, National Public Radio reported.

USDA also hopes to spread its workforce out.

About 4,600 employees work within the D.C. metropolitan area, which has a high cost of living. The agency plans to relocate more than half of those employees to five hubs, keeping “no more than” 2,000 near D.C.

That would put USDA “closer to the people it serves while achieving savings to the American taxpayer,” according to the memo.

Indianapolis — Indiana’s capital city — is one of the hubs.

The others are located in Colorado, Missouri, North Carolina and Utah. All the hubs have lower cost of living than the D.C. area.

Representatives from the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, Purdue University, AgriNovus Indiana, Corteva Agriscience, Elanco, and Beck’s Hybrids at a delegation meeting with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, led by U.S. Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana, on June 10. Photo from Jim Banks’ office.

Multiple sub-agencies — like the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the Food and Nutrition Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service — have lots of regions and will consolidate into the five hubs.

“To be clear, all critical functions of the Department will continue uninterrupted,” the news release said. For example, the Forest Service will consolidate, but “will take into consideration the ongoing fire season,” according to the memo.

USDA will maintain two human resources sites in Minnesota and New Mexico, plus critical services centers and laboratories in Missouri, Montana and Nebraska. Several D.C. area buildings would be vacated.

Rollins said USDA will restructure itself  “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,” she said.