USDA expects its relocated employees to move this summer, according to Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden, who oversees the reorganization that will close several Washington-area offices and move staff around the country.

“We anticipate the moves will take place after the school year ends this school year and before the new school year begins in their new locations,” Vaden said during a webinar last week. “That’s the timeline we’re working on.”

Vaden also said he signed a memorandum after Christmas authorizing USDA to enter leases for its new offices and has now begun doing so in its regional hubs.

He added that the selected rental spaces are all government-affiliated, which he said is a cost-saving move.

“All the facilities that we are expanding in are already government-owned or government-leased,” Vaden said. “They just happen to be unoccupied or underused.”

The mass relocations of USDA staff will follow the loss of more than 20,000 agency employees in 2025, with the heaviest cuts to the U.S. Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Republican senators have said they want USDA to rehire many of them due to concerns about the emaciation of research and technical staff.

House Ag Committee Democrats Angie Craig (D-Minn.) and Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) urged Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) earlier this month to schedule hearings for oversight of “how USDA core functions are being affected in the wake of DOGE, reductions-in-force, the Deferred Resignation Program, hiring freezes and a reorganization that moves thousands of staffers to different regions of the U.S.”

Source: Politco.com Weekly Agriculture