The U.S. Department of Agriculture will be relocating the bulk of its workforce from Washington, D.C., to five regional hubs across the central United States. The department announced on Thursday that it will completely vacate several buildings in the area, including the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center.
In addition to the main research center, the USDA will also vacate the South Building and Braddock Place and return their stewardship to the General Services Administration (GSA).
“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," said Secretary Brooke Rollins in a press statement. "President Trump was elected to make real change in Washington, and we are doing just that by moving our key services outside the beltway and into great American cities across the country."
The department announced that once the reorganization is complete, there will be less than 2,000 USDA employees operating out of Washington, D.C.
The rest of the employees will be relocated to one of five locations: Raleigh, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Indianapolis, Indiana; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Salt Lake City, Utah.
Secretary Rollins said that no positions will be eliminated, but that employees may be expected to relocate. The USDA currently has over 4,500 employees living within the National Capitol Region (NCR), which has one of the highest costs of living in the country. Federal salary locality rates are adjustments to federal base pay that reflect increased cost of living in certain areas like Washington, D.C.
In selecting its new hub locations, USDA said it considered regions where its employees are already concentrated and where federal salary locality rates could be lower. For example, the rate in Washington, D.C, is 33.94% as opposed to the lowest in Salt Lake City which would be a 17.06% rate to adjust for cost of living.
The department also reported that, as of Thursday, exactly 15,364 individuals from the USDA have participated in deferred resignation, which allows federal employees to resign now but remain on paid leave while accruing benefits until a set date.
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