What's wrong with the removal of federal workers in Kansas City?

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This is a broader delivery in recent years since the huge online retailer of everything he had announced planned to spend billions of dollars and enjoy considerable tax breaks to install its headquarters in the Crystal City area in Arlington, Virginia.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration, citing high rents, plans to transfer economists and scientists from the Washington Department of Agriculture to the Kansas City area where the employees are at arms.

Some critics of the movement see a punch in the so-called "deep state" at work. The Economic Research Service prepares agricultural and economic forecasts on topics such as climate change. A monitoring group opposed to the move has already stated that resettlement is a "roundabout" means of downsizing.

One of the main reasons for this move is that Kansas City is closer to downtown. But one more obvious reason is that it will save $ 300 million over 15 years, according to the USDA. Cheap office space in Kansas City and long-term wages.

On the other hand, it was the increase in local costs that led to a "not in my backyard" campaign that resulted in Amazon removing its plan to install part of its head office in New York. Similar grunts did not lead to the same level of aggravation in Virginia and the Washington area. But there are certainly grunts.

Employees of the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture will not have to worry about that.

Kansas City actually threw its hat on the ring but was not selected by Amazon for QG2.
The population of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area is slightly over 2 million and the median household income is $ 63,404.
The Washington metropolitan area is much larger – over 6.2 million people with a median household income of $ 99,969

Attempts to fight the Kansas City plan include workers' movements to unionize in both agencies since May, as well as the efforts of Democratic politicians in the Washington area and the tumult of the scientific community. But they seem unlikely to prevent the move, which was announced Thursday by Perdue silent protesters employees and applause of Republican legislators from Kansas and Missouri.

The employees of both agencies say that they have nothing against Kansas City, they just do not want to leave the center of power that they are supposed to serve.

"ERS employees know that Washington, DC, is the right place to fulfill their mission as a designated statistical agency producing non-partisan research and analysis," said Kevin Hunt, vice-president of Acting President of the Economic Research Service union, in a statement. declaration.

There is also concern that if all the people writing these reports go at the same time, there will be a brain drain from the organizations. Even if they quickly hire an equal number of excellent economists and researchers, there is a loss of institutional knowledge.

Federal workers live everywhere in the United States. A database of the US Office of Personnel Management that tracks federal employees has listed just over 2 million people, not counting the military nor contractors, as of March 2018. The three largest sites for workers are obviously DC (141,000), Virginia (134,000) and Maryland (128,000).

Mobility can be a difficult part of life in today's economy

When GM shut down its plant in Lordstown, Ohio, earlier this year, many workers were told that they could keep a job within the company but that "there is no way around it. they would be forced to move to another factory located in a different city, perhaps for less money.

The divide that underpins current policies is based on the notion that some states are being left behind by an economy that rewards cities and technology. While it is difficult for workers in rural states to find a job near home, it is difficult for workers in some states to earn enough money to live where they grew up.

From this point of view, placing well paying public jobs and requiring advanced education in a red can be a good thing.

But having to move is difficult for people and their families. Tearing spouses of their work and the children of their school and their friends can be heartbreaking. Not to mention the long task of finding new doctors, places of worship and friends.

In November, the FBI announced its intention to transfer 1,350 jobs in Huntsville, Alabama, as part of an expansion in that country. create more than 4000 jobs.
The Interior Department wants to move the headquarters of the Bureau of Land Management to a western state, although most of the agency's employees are already working outside of DC Beltway.

As the center of a government representing 50 states, Washington and its environs are often considered the temporary landing site for transplants. Uprooting them, however, can be a difficult affair.

CNN's Sam Fossum contributed to this report.

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