A coalition of agriculture leaders is urging the Trump Administration to reconsider a plan to reorganize and relocate Department of Agriculture agencies.
USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue announced in August that the department’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Economic Research would be moved out of Washington, DC, to save money and be closer to the agricultural community. The plan would also place ERS under the Office of the Chief Economist. USDA also said the move would help tackle ERS’s poor job retention rate, which was significantly higher than the USDA as a whole.
However, the coalition wrote to Congress this week warning of likely damage to U.S. agriculture and urging the administration to abandon the plan. The coalition was organized by the American Statistical Association and includes 56 former USDA and federal statistical agency officials. The group questioned how moving the agencies to a location outside DC could bring them closer to the agricultural community they serve, beyond the general area they jobs would be located.
Source: National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.