USDA's research agencies will settle in the Kansas City area, Announces Perdue

The USDA announced Thursday that two scientific agencies of the Ministry of Agriculture will leave Washington DC to settle in the Kansas City area, despite strong resistance to the fact. against this project.

Employees of the Economic Research Service, a statistical agency, and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which funds advanced agricultural science, are expected to report before the end of the year. year.

"The Kansas City area has proven to be a hub of agriculture and is a thriving city in the heart of America," said Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue in a statement.

The USDA has estimated $ 300 million savings over 15 years in terms of employment and rent through the move. The press release did not specify the location in the Kansas City area. But the proposal, which beat about 140 other offers, would have been made jointly by Kansas and Missouri.

Perdue had unveiled a relocation plan for the two agencies in August 2018, without specifying a site. He called the decision to save costs and said it would bring them closer to their "stakeholders" in agricultural areas. At first, he proposed to place the ERS system under the authority of the Office of the Chief Economist. But this realignment will not happen, according to a letter sent Thursday by the secretary to employees.

Scientists across the country rely on NIFA grants to study topics as diverse as climate change, crop genetics and drones on farmland. ERS produces statistical reports that influence decisions in corporate boardrooms and by state and federal lawmakers.

Current employees, congressional Democrats and a bipartisan coalition of former USDA leaders have warned that the move, more than 900 km from DC, would have devastated both agencies.

NIFA is unionized earlier this week and ERS is unionized in May in the face of the decision and union officials have vowed to fight the move.

"The announcement made today should be highly skeptical about the fact that the out-of-state Secretary of State has the interests of federal employees or American agriculture at heart," said Kevin. Hunt, Acting Vice President of Local 3403 of the American Federation of Government Employees, who represents ERS employees.

Gale Buchanan, chief scientist of the USDA under the leadership of George W. Bush, and Catherine E. Woteki, chief scientist of the Obama administration, predicted that the relocation would cause ERS to lose "five to ten years' because of a loss of specialized employees, as they wrote a letter to the Congress of 2018 signed by dozens of agricultural leaders.

"There is no plan in place to handle this," Woteki told The Post. The offices, which together employ about 700 people when their staff is sufficient, represent about two-thirds of the size they had under the Obama administration.

The workload exploded as ERS employees resigned twice as fast as the normal rate since October, the Washington Post reported. Acting officials filled a number of vacant ERS management positions.

The USDA lacks a chief scientist, who oversees the ERS, NIFA and other USDA research offices. Trump's first candidate, radio host Sam Clovis, disregarded his links with the investigation into Russia's influence on the 2016 election. Senator Christopher Van Hollen (D-Md .) Suspended Trump's second candidate, Scott Hutchins, former head of pesticides at the Dow, because the senator opposes resettlement, said Bridgett Frey, spokesman for Van Hollen.

"Our main concern is the significant scientific work done by these two agencies at the USDA on behalf of the public, farmers and rural communities and all those who eat," said Karen Perry Stillerman, Area Analyst. of food and food. the environment at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit group that advocates for researchers.

NIFA is currently renting expensive offices on the D.C. waterfront and ERS is renting premises in the nearby Plaza Patriots. In April, Perdue announced a plan he dubbed "OneNeighborighborhood", which aims to consolidate workers into two USDA-owned buildings in the Capital Region. But the ERS and NIFA employees who were planning to relocate were excluded from OneNeighborhood, according to an April 19 memo from The Post.

Peter Winch, an organizer of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the two agencies met by a show of hands on May 22 to discuss redemptions and redundancy payments. Once the letters of rehousing are received, USDA employees will have 30 days to decide whether or not to move. According to their response, "you will receive either reassignment orders or a proposal to withdraw the service," said Winch. The USDA will propose 30 acquisitions or less per agency, he told employees.

With the help of an internal document from the ERS known as the "Stay-Go" list, analysts from the Union of Concerned Scientists have identified nearly 80 jobs expected to remain In progress. Economists and other researchers at the ERS who draw conclusions from this data may be reassigned to Kansas City, according to this analysis.

But the USDA has contested that. "Of the 76 ERS positions left in the National Capitol area, more than half are performing key search functions," said USDA spokeswoman Meghan Rodgers in an email .

Assistants in the House recently structured their 2020 budget proposal to block the funds needed for the move. Senators Democrats also introduced a bill to keep agencies in the National Capital Region, similar to the House legislation introduced earlier this year by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) .

Democrats also questioned whether the secretary had the power to move these offices without Congressional approval, prompting the USDA Inspector General's office to open an investigation.

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