The Department of Agriculture is moving hundreds of data workers to an office
outside the District of Columbia, an effort the Trump administration says is
to
cut
costs.
The move is part of a larger reorganization of the agency by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. It applies to the Economic Research Service, a division President Trump’s budget had called for slashing in half.
The latest change is expected not only to to reduce spending but to bring the Economic Research Service under the Office of the Chief Economist, which advises Congress and the secretary about
the impact of polic
ie
s.
The Economic Research Service is currently housed under the Research, Education and Economics area, and the Union of Concerned Scientists said that it was important for the agency to fall outside of reporting directly to the secretary of agriculture, which is what will happen once the move is complete. Ricardo Salvador, senior scientist and director of the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that the change could “potentially limit the integrity and autonomy of agency research.”
“Data collection must be objective and free from political interference,” he said. “The USDA’s proposal would also literally distance scientists from the department’s decision-making process at a time when farmers, ranchers, and eaters face significant challenges.”
The Department of Agriculture did not respond to questions about the concerns. A release detailing the move stated this arrangement “simply makes sense because the two have similar missions.” The Economic Research Service has
gone
through multiple changes in recent decades, and
was
under the Office of the Chief Economist until 1993.
The Department of Agriculture will make a decision about where the new offices will be by spring 2019 and the move will happen before the end of that year. A spokesperson did not specify how much money the government would save with the move, but said that the difference
in rent would result in “significant savings.” The agency hopes to recruit more workers for the department, which has faced high turnover and difficulty hiring because employees say D.C. is expensive and that workers face long commutes.
Nearly 700 workers, 300 from the Economic Research Service and 400 from another part of the agency, called the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will be affected. Some will have the opportunity to take an early retirement instead of moving.
“It’s been our goal to make USDA the most effective, efficient, and customer-focused department in the entire federal government,” Perdue said in a statement. “In our administration, we have looked critically at the way we do business, with the ultimate goal of ensuring the best service possible for our customers, and for the taxpayers of the United States. In some cases, this has meant realigning some of our offices and functions, or even relocating them, in order to make more logical sense or provide more streamlined and efficient services.”
