U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins has announced a major reorganization of the Department of Agriculture and Salt Lake City stands to benefit from the overhaul.
As the department reduces its Washington, D.C., presence by more than half and closes dozens of regional offices around the country, the Utah capital has been named as one of five “hubs” that will combine to house the majority of USDA operations.
The changes come as part of Pres. Donald Trump’s scrutiny of government operations and streamlining of costs. Government business news website govexec.com reports that the USDA’s workforce grew by 8 percent over the past four years and employees’ salaries increased by 14.5 percent. The growth included the hiring of thousands of new employees.
Rollins said the revamping was intended to refocus USDA’s “core operations to better align with its founding mission of supporting American farming, ranching and forestry.”
“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,” said Rollins in the reorganization announcement. “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.”
“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,” she continued. “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.”
In addition to Salt Lake City, the other cities named to host USDA hubs are Raleigh, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Fort Collins, Colorado.
As part of the plan, USDA will relocate more than half of its Washington, D.C., workforce to regional hubs. The department will also allow over 15,000 employees leave the agency later this year, after they accepted deferred resignation and early retirement offers. Despite the cuts, USDA has maintained that its critical functions “will continue uninterrupted,” according to the department’s announcement.
USDA will vacate and return to the General Services Administration several of the facilities it occupies in the nation’s capital. Included are the USDA South Building, Braddock Place and the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. Usage in the USDA Whitten Building, Yates Building, the National Agricultural Library and the George Washington Carver Center will also be reviewed. These buildings have a backlog of costly deferred maintenance and currently are occupied below the minimum set by law. For example, the South Building has approximately $1.3 billion in maintenance projects on hold and has an average daily occupancy of less than 1,900 individuals for a building that can house over 6,000 employees, according to a report from govexec.com.
Although the timeline to accomplish the reorganization is still being formulated, the department has a phased plan for relocating employees to the regional hubs, chosen for a variety of reasons, including cost of living indices. Washington, D.C. has a cost of living among the highest in the nation. Officers from USDA senior leadership have begun notifying regional offices about their relocation to one of the regional hubs.
Which regional offices will be relocated to Salt Lake City — including the number of employees involved — has not been announced.
The USDA’s announcement was met with enthusiasm among Utah’s political leadership. Most officials cited increased access to federal official for the state’s farmers and ranchers as a major plus brought about by the move.
“The USDA’s decision to refocus on its core mission, supporting farmers, families and rural communities, is long overdue,” U.S. Sen. John Curtis posted on X. “Utahns are the best at advocating for and advancing American agriculture.”
But everyone isn’t happy with the changes. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, called the decision a “half-baked proposal,” warning it could affect the USDA’s “ability to provide critical services for Americans.”