Federal agricultural agency, USDA, to transfer over half of its D.C. regional workforce as part of restructuring strategy
USDA Announces Major Reorganization Plan
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has unveiled a significant reorganization plan that will see more than half of its Washington, D.C., workforce relocated to regional hubs across the country. This move is aimed at bringing employees closer to the communities they serve and reducing spending on a workforce that grew under the Biden administration.
The selected hub locations for USDA are Raleigh, North Carolina (22.24%), Kansas City, Missouri (18.97%), Indianapolis, Indiana (18.15%), Fort Collins, Colorado (30.52%), and Salt Lake City, Utah (17.06%). The Agriculture Research Service, the Forest Service, the Food and Nutrition Service, and the National Agricultural Statistics Service will cut the number of their regional offices as part of the reorganization.
However, human resources employees clustered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Minneapolis, Minnesota will not be relocated. The department will keep laboratories and critical service centers running in St. Louis, Missouri, Lincoln, Nebraska, and Missoula, Montana. USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins stated that the agency is not conducting a large-scale workforce reduction, but may implement focused and limited reductions in force if needed.
The USDA workforce grew by 8% over the past four years, and employees' salaries increased by 14.5%. This reorganization comes as the department is letting over 15,000 employees leave the agency later this year after accepting deferred resignation and early retirement offers. The department will relocate thousands of D.C.-based employees to the five hubs across the country, with lower locality pay rates.
The Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, according to Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, is the crown jewel of the agency’s award-winning research into improving agricultural practices. Despite this, the center will be shut down over several years.
Everett Kelley expressed concern that the reorganization is an attempt to eliminate USDA workers and minimize their critical work. He stated that the first Trump administration's relocation plans led to many employees leaving the agency, and it remains to be seen how many will choose to do so this time around.
The department's relocation plans are much broader in scope than what happened under the first Trump administration. The USDA is aligning its efforts with mandates like the Office of Management and Budget’s Memorandum M-22-09 and Executive Order 14028, which require transition to a zero trust framework focused on "never trust, always verify" principles. This includes cultural changes requiring shared ownership of identity security between security, network, and system administrators.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) supports agencies by providing updated Zero Trust Maturity Models (ZTMM) and guidance that emphasize explicit verification of identity and authorization, removing implicit trust and minimizing damage from breaches through microsegmentation and continuous verification aligned with federal standards such as NIST SP 800-207. Additionally, states like Rhode Island are building Zero Trust Centers of Excellence focusing on identity, access, and culture change as foundational pillars.
The department plans to vacate some of its underutilized D.C. area federal buildings and return them to the General Services Administration. It is worth noting that this exempts firefighting and public safety positions from a governmentwide hiring freeze that's been extended to Oct. 15, and USDA has exceeded its hiring goals for federal firefighters.
In summary, US government efforts focus on mandated enterprise-wide zero trust strategies that prioritize identity security through organizational and cultural change, continuous identity verification, least privilege access, and real-time monitoring, supported by dedicated offices, frameworks, and interagency collaboration to operationalize zero trust as an enduring practice rather than a one-time implementation.
The USDA's reorganization plan also includes changes in the finance aspect of the agency, as the department will reallocate funds to support the relocation of employees to regional hubs. (business, finance)
This business decision by the USDA to relocate employees could potentially impact the finance of regional communities, as the influx of federal workforce might lead to an increase in local spending and economic activity. (federal workforce, business, finance)
