Senate Ag Challenges USDA Changes

This week, the Senate Agriculture Committee heard testimony about the Department of Agriculture’s plan to reassign staff currently based in Washington D.C. to five cities around the country.

Senators questioned the USDA over the likelihood of current staff accepting transfers and whether the selection process has already been completed.

Senator Raphael Warnock, D - Georgia: “So a relocation for family is a big deal. What do you think will happen?”

Stephen Alexander Vaden, USDA: “Senator, I think actually, a large number of them will choose to come. I think many of them will choose to come because given cuts made by other federal agencies here in Washington, D.C., the job market isn't what it once was here. And I think that the exciting opportunity these new hubs provide for them to actually be able to own a home affordably and grow and expand their family with a lower cost of living. That's one of the primary reasons we chose each of these five hubs will attract them to come.”

Senator John Hoeven, R - North Dakota: “As we look at the five sites, from my part of the world, there’s nothing within 600 miles of us, from Fargo, North Dakota for example, and we are in the heart of ag country.” 

Stephen Alexander Vaden, USDA: “We couldn’t put offices everywhere, and we learned some lessons from the NRS/NIFA relocation in  term one. One of the most important lessons that we learned was instead of looking all over the map, literally, for where we should go, if we are looking to relocate, the first thing we should do is see where we already are.”

Senator John Hoeven, R - North Dakota: “But there’s a difference between you selecting five hubs on your own and saying, okay, we are at the start of the plan and we are going to talk about it but this is the plan, that’s different, than if we work together and come up with a plan that people have had input, they’ve been fairly heard and fairly treated, it may be different than five hubs and may be different than these locations and it may be different in form and function, but it is something that ultimately this Congress has something to say about, both from an authorizing standpoint and certainly from an appropriations standpoint.” 

For Market to Market, I’m Peter Tubbs.