President Trump is being encouraged to take a major step to “drain the swamp” by relocating federal agencies outside the Beltway to struggling communities that could share in the economic boost Washington’s wealthy suburbs get from hosting the federal bureaucracy.
In a letter to the president, Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young called for beginning the process to transfer non-national security agencies to other parts of the country, a move he said would spread the federal wealth and reconnect the government with its citizens.
“I look forward to working with you to dislodge the arms of the federal government from Washington, D.C., and further drain the swamp while giving economic opportunities to the rest of America,” he wrote in a letter provided to Secrets.
The letter followed Young’s introduction of the Decentralize Regulatory Agencies, Include the Nation Act, also called the “DRAIN Act.” It calls on the Office of Management and Budget and General Services Administration to develop and implement a plan to relocate agencies after first studying the economic impact.
Young said that his goal is to help struggling communities and close the gap between Washington and the nation.
Noting that the Washington area hosts five of the richest counties in the country, in part because so much of the well-paid federal workforce is there, Young said, “by relocating federal agencies to smaller and more cost-effective cities, struggling communities will finally be given the opportunity to compete economically and develop as rapidly as experienced in Washington, D.C.”
Like Trump, who has spent part of his time railing against Washington, Young said that relocating agencies will give the bureaucracy a better connection to the nation.
“Relocating some federal agencies throughout the country would distribute economic opportunity, disperse bureaucratic power, and bridge the gap between regulators and the American people,” he wrote.
The administration has eyed relocating agencies and is also open to shutting some down.
In a statement accompanying his letter, Young said it’s time to get going.
“I recognize that not everyone is sold on moving federal agencies away from bureaucrats in Washington to be closer to the communities they should be serving. That is why I am calling on the president and this administration to perform a feasibility study. I’m confident that in the long-run our country will benefit by relocating these agencies out of the Washington D.C. metro area. Cities throughout the interior of the country not only cost less for agencies to operate, this will also help create new investment opportunities for communities that are struggling to compete economically with our coastal economies,” he said.
[Opinion: The wealthiest counties drink from the swamp]
