USDA Relocating Employees Out of DC to Regional Hubs
July 25, 2025
The Trump administration announced plans to move most employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture out of Washington, D.C., and relocate them to five regional hubs, USDA said on Thursday in announcing the first phase of an agency reorganization plan.
Most headquarters staff will relocate to five regional hubs in Raleigh, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Indianapolis, Indiana; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Salt Lake City, Utah.
USDA said the move is just the first phase of a "multi-month" process and that agency senior leaders are expected to notify USDA offices on additional moves to the hubs.
"As part of this reorganization, USDA is not conducting a large-scale workforce reduction," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a memorandum on Thursday.
USDA said 15,364 employees have already voluntarily elected to defer resignation and workforce reduction already has occurred through voluntary retirements, Rollins said. The agency plans to continue to use voluntary programs to reduce staff.
USDA said it will vacate several buildings in Washington including the South Building, Braddock Place and the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and return agency employees and functions to the General Services Administration.
In addition, USDA said it would revisit the uses and functions of the USDA Whitten Building, Yates Building and the National Agricultural Library.
The George Washington Carver Center is expected to be used until "space optimization activities" are completed.
"These buildings have a backlog of costly deferred maintenance and currently are occupied below the minimum set by law," USDA said.
"For example, the South Building has approximately $1.3 billion in deferred maintenance and has an average daily occupancy of less than 1,900 individuals for a building that can house over 6,000 employees."
The agency said that all "critical functions" of the USDA would continue uninterrupted.
USDA said moving employees out of Washington would also help them to better afford the costs of living.
By the end of agency reorganization, USDA said it expects to keep a maximum of 2,000 employees in Washington.
"Over the last four years, USDA's workforce grew by 8% and employees' salaries increased by 14.5% -- including hiring thousands of employees with no sustainable way to pay them," USDA said on Thursday.
"This all occurred without any tangible increase in service to USDA's core constituencies across the agricultural sector. USDA's footprint in the National Capital Region is underutilized and redundant, plagued by rampant overspending and decades of mismanagement and costly deferred maintenance. President Trump has made it clear government needs to be scrutinized and after this thorough review of USDA the results show a bloated, expensive, and unsustainable organization."
USDA said it currently has about 4,600 employees within the National Capital Region.
"This region has one of the highest costs of living in the country, with a federal salary locality rate of 33.94%," the agency said.
"In selecting its hub locations, USDA considered where existing concentrations of USDA employees are located and factored in the cost of living. Washington, D.C., will still hold functions for every mission area of USDA at the conclusion of this reorganization."
USDA said the reorganization consists of four "pillars" including aligning USDA workforce size with "available financial resources and agricultural" priorities, bringing USDA closer to its customers, eliminating "management layers and bureaucracy" and consolidating "redundant" support functions.
Earlier this year, Rollins issued a secretarial memorandum exempting national security and public safety positions from the federal hiring freeze.
"These 52 position classifications carry out functions that are critical to the safety and security of the American people, our national forests and the inspection and safety of the nation's agriculture and food supply system," USDA said on Thursday.
"These positions will not be eliminated. However, employees may be subject to relocation."
According to the Thursday memorandum from Rollins, USDA is expected to maintain two additional "core" administrative support locations in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. In addition, the memo said "critical" service centers and laboratories in St. Louis, Missouri; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Missoula, Montana, would be maintained.
The plan also includes eliminating stand-alone regional offices including the Agriculture Research Service. Its "residual" functions are expected to be performed by ARS's Office of National Programs, according to Rollins' memo.
"The National Agricultural Statistics Service will consolidate its 12 existing regions into five USDA hubs over a multi-year period," the memo said.
Other changes include:
-- Reducing the Food and Nutrition Service regions from seven to five and to "align locations" with the USDA hubs and service centers during a two-year period.
-- Phasing out nine regional offices for the U.S. Forest Service during the next year.
-- The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service centers are expected to remain at their current locations in the USDA hub regions.
"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," Rollins said in a statement.
"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. 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."
Source: DTN
